The Cry of Jazz (1959)
Directed by Edward Bland · 34 min · Documentary, Music
5.0 TOPICAL score · #6,172 of 6,776 films
Vote for it on the board →Filmed in Chicago & finished in 1959, The Cry of Jazz is filmmaker, composer and arranger Edward O. Bland's polemical essay on the politics of music and race - a forecast of what he called "the death of jazz." A landmark moment in black film, foreseeing the civil unrest of subsequent decades, it also features the only known footage of visionary pianist Sun Ra from his beloved Chicago period. Featured are ample images of tenor saxophonist John Gilmore and the rest of Ra's Arkestra in Windy City nightclubs, all shot in glorious black & white.
The Cry of Jazz (1959, directed by Edward Bland) has a TOPICAL score of 5.0 - ranked 6,172 of the 6,776 films TOPICAL scores. It scores highest on cast and historical impact, and lowest on awards. Audiences: TMDB 6.2/10 (15 ratings). Wikipedia covers it in 5 languages, and the Library of Congress chose it for the National Film Registry.
Why this score
Each bar: better than this % of the 6,776 films we score. How the score works.
- AudienceTMDB 6.2/10 (15 ratings)
- Awards0 wins, 0 nominations
- ImpactWikipedia articles in 5 languages · National Film Registry
- Still read479 Wikipedia readers in the last 60 days
Starring: George Waller, Dorothea Horton, Melinda Dillon (actor #1,086), Andrew Duncan