Jazz Shorts & The Connection

Beykoz Kundura

JAZZ SHORTS from Cohen Film Collection

USA 1929-1939 104’ DCP  B&W

Travel back to the ‘20s and ‘30s with a program of jazz shorts from the Cohen Film Collection. These films carry the legacy of some of jazz’s greatest legends, including Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Cab Calloway, Hoagy Charmichael, Duke Ellington and Artie Shaw and His Orchestra, among others. Take five to enjoy a short film in full swing

• A BUNDLE OF BLUES

           USA 1933 10’

Director | Fred Waller
Cast       | Bessie Dudley, Duke Ellington, Florence Hill, Ivie Anderson
Producer | Fred Waller
Distribution | Park Circus

• ARTIE SHAW’S CLASS IN SWING

           USA 1939 10’

Director | Leslie M. Roush
Cast | Artie Shaw, Helen Forrest
Distribution | Park Circus
 

• BLACK AND TAN FANTASY

          USA 1929 19’

Director | Dudley Murphy
Screenplay | Dudley Murphy
Cast | Duke Ellington, Fredi Washington
Producer | Dudley Murphy
Distribution | Park Circus
 

• CAB CALLOWAY’S HI-DE-HO

           USA 1934 10’

Director | Fred Waller
Screenplay | Fred Rath, Milton Hockey
Cast | Cab Calloway, Fredi Washington
Producer | Adolph Zukor
Distribution | Park Circus
 

• HOAGY CARMICHAEL

            USA 1939 10’

Director | Leslie M. Roush
Cast | Hoagy Carmichael, Jack Teagarden
Distribution | Park Circus

• JAZZ A LA CUBA

           USA 1933 5’

Director | Don Aspiazu
Cast | Don Aspiazu
Distribution | Park Circus
 

• RHAPSODY IN BLACK & BLUE

          USA 1932 10’

Director | Aubrey Scotto
Screenplay | Phil Cohan
Cast | Louis Armstrong, Fanny Belle DeKnight
Distribution | Park Circus

• ST. LOUIS BLUES

           USA 1929 20’

Director | Dudley Murphy
Screenplay | Dudley Murphy
Cast | Bessie Smith, Isabel Washington, James P. Johnson, Jimmy Mordecai
Producer | W.C. Handy
Distribution | Park Circus
 

• SYMPHONY IN BLACK

            USA 1935 10’

Director | Fred Waller
Screenplay | Fred Rath, Milton Hockey
Cast | Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington
Distribution | Park Circus

THE CONNECTION

USA 1961 110’ DCP Colour and B&W
English with Turkish sub.

Director | Shirley Clarke
Screenplay | Jack Gelber
Cast | William Redfield, Warren Finnerty, Garry Goodrow
Director of Photography | Arthur Jr. Ornitz
Editing | Shirley Clarke
Music | Freddie Redd
Producer | Lewis M. Allen, Shirley Clarke
Distribution | Milestone

Set in a squalid Greenwich Village apartment, a group of drug addicts are waiting for their connection to bring their fixes. Many of them are jazz musicians, who perform during the play. And thus begins a play within a play within a jazz concert — a drug-addled crossing of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Waiting for Godot.” The director and author are said to be there in the apartment to guide the junkies in a series of improvisational themes to reveal their lives and inner thoughts. The play was a blessing for jazz saxophonist Jackie McLean, as his drug arrest in 1957 had cost him his cabaret license, barring him from performing in clubs. The play gave him two years to work on stage and he went on to perform in Clarke’s film version as well.