R&B, Gospel & Jazz

"Robert Mugge is a filmmaker with a music critic's sensibility. His good taste in subjects is matched by the subtle way in which he lets his movies reveal all the music that fits. The result is filmmaking that informs and entertains, and in the age of overblown music videos and the blatantly artful hard sell of music, Mugge's movies are a relief to watch. For salsa ...Read More

Tenor saxophone master Sonny Rollins has long been hailed as one of the most important artists in jazz history, and still, today, he is viewed as the greatest living jazz improviser. In 1986, filmmaker Robert Mugge produced SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS, a feature-length portrait of Rollins, named after one of his most celebrated albums. The project began in May of that year w...Read More

In the early and mid 1970s, the release of songs like "Let's Stay Together," "Love and Happiness," "Tired of Being Alone," and "Take Me to The River" made Al Green one of the most successful soul and pop singers in the world. However, as the decade progressed, Green suffered an existential crisis, prompted by a questioning of his own increasingly decadent lifestyle,...Read More

In 1976, "music filmmaker" Robert Mugge created his first music-related film. Titled GEORGE CRUMB: VOICE OF THE WHALE, it was this dazzling, 54-minute portrait of Pulitzer Prize-winning and Grammy-winning composer George Crumb. The film was funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and makes innovative use of color and a dialectical structure to rev...Read More

BLACK WAX is a musical-political entertainment film produced and directed by Robert Mugge in 1982. It was the first American film to be fully funded by Britain's then-brand-new Channel 4 Television and also likely the first film to use Steadicam from first frame to last. BLACK WAX centers on the late African American poet-singer-songwriter Gil Scott-Heron - the man ...Read More

This one hour live set features Jaco and his Word of Mouth band at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 1982. Jaco is In peak form with a top notch band of hand picked musicians in his only full concert performance. A flamboyant performer, brilliant musician, and one of the founders of jazz fusion, Jaco Pastorius was the most innovative electric bass player of all time...Read More

In February 1972, celebrated jazz musician Lee Morgan was shot dead by his common-law wife Helen during a gig at a club in New York City. The murder sent shockwaves through the jazz community, and the memory of the event still haunts those who knew the Morgans. This feature documentary by filmmaker Kasper Collin explores the two unique personalities and the music th...Read More

Motian In Motion is a documentary film about legendary jazz drummer Paul Motian. Filmmaker Michael Patrick Kelly first met Paul Motian while shooting a short documentary about his neighborhood on Manhattan's Upper West Side called Duke Ellington Boulevard. Intrigued by Mr. Motian's illustrious but at that point somewhat unheralded musical career, Michael immediately...Read More

The official fully-authorized feature documentary on the life and music of Chuck Berry, the absolute instigator of Rock and Roll, directed by Jon Brewer. Chuck Berry was a prolific craftsman of word and chords; an undisputed and stunning combination of talent and charisma. Award-winning Film maker Jon Brewer (BB King The Life of Riley, Nat King Cole: Afraid of t...Read More

Triumph Of The Underdog is the first comprehensive documentary about jazz bassist, bandleader and composer Charles Mingus. A lucid involving portrait showing the many faces and tortured heart of a music genius, the film also features an abundance of clips of Mingus in performance.

A bebop session staged by its creator Dizzy Gillespie, backed by his early mate Milton ''Bags'' Jackson on vibes and the famous rough duo tenorists Eddie ''Lockjaw'' Davis and Johnny Griffin with support from an incredible rhythm section with Tommy Flanagan, Niels-Henning, Ørsted Pedersen, and Mickey Roker... Seven masters of this music! Norman Granz is one of th...Read More

A group that effortlessly straddles the gap between avant-garde improvisation and accessible groove-based jazz, Medeski, Martin & Wood have simultaneously earned standing as relentlessly innovative musicians and as an enormously popular act. Emerging out of the New York downtown scene in the early '90s, MMW soon set out on endless cross-country tours before returnin...Read More

By September of 1978 Weather Report's headlining status afforded them the opportunity to play a very long set amounting to two hours in length. In this concert, fans were treated to material from right across the bands career and solo spots by everybody. An explosive tenor and drum duet by Shorter and Erskine also forms part of this and must have surely put an end t...Read More

Bill Evans was one of the most distinctive and influential jazz pianists of all time with a rich legacy that remains undiminished since his untimely death in 1980. This program brings you the 1966 Bill Evans Trio Concert, featuring Evans in prime form. Bill Evans was a major side-man with Miles Davis and played and equal role with Miles in composing Kind of Blue the...Read More

James Brown never performed a song the same way twice. This powerhouse collection of the musical icon's greatest hits takes us from his explosive 1966 performance of “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” on The Ed Sullivan Show to “I Got You” on Saturday Night Live in 1980.

A retrospective of rare performances highlighting the many phases of Prima's remarkable 50+ year career. Culled from the basements and shelves of TV and motion picture archives, this DVD presents the very best of those performances - not only the BEST, but the rarest! Featured artists include Keely Smith, Gia Maione, Sam Butera, Jimmy Vincent, The Witnesses, and Sarah Spiegel.