The Cry of Jazz (1959)

Director: Edward Bland

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.

Cast

George Waller

Alex Johnson

Dorothea Horton

Natalie

Melinda Dillon

Faye

Andrew Duncan

John

Leroy Inman

Louis

James Miller

Bob

Gavin McFadyan

Bruce

Carl Dupree

Goldina Rojas

Alan Leavitt