Pop and Rock music are well-known to most people. Jazz music, on the other hand, is not as well-known among listeners. While some see Jazz as the twentieth century's greatest musical revolution, others regard it as a curiosity, an intellectual spectacle suitable only for a select few. If you fall into the first category, then this Jazz Movies list is for you.
Why you should watch Jazz movies?
Newness, creativity, individuality, and significant expression in music are all encouraged, celebrated, and rewarded in jazz.
Best Jazz Movies
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Lauren Bacall, Kirk Douglas, Hoagy Carmichael (Actors)
Young Man With a Horn (1950)
Rick Martin (Kirk Douglas) is a young man with no direction in life –until he discovers he has a flare for the trumpet. When jazz icon Art Hazzard (Juano Hernandez) agrees to become his teacher, Martin becomes obsessed with jazz at the expense of everything else.
Soon Rick is playing at the hottest clubs, but his love of jazz and his stubborn nature soon clash with some of the more conservative patrons while attracting certain others, such as high-brow socialite Amy North (Lauren Bacall).
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Lee Morgan, Helen Morgan, Wayne Shorter (Actors)
I Called Him Morgan (2016)
Helen Morgan had nursed her common-law husband, jazz great Lee Morgan, through heroin addiction. On a February night in 1972, she walked into Slug's Saloon in the East Village with a gun in her purse, and after they fought and he physically threw her out of the bar, she returned and shot him.
Then, Helen relinquished the gun and waited for the police to come for her. Many years later, she was interviewed about her life with the brilliant and unpredictable musician. | Stream on Netflix
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Angela Bassett (Actors)
Soul (2020)
Joe is a middle-school band teacher whose life hasn't quite gone the way he expected. His true passion is jazz — and he's good. But when he travels to another realm to help someone find their passion, he soon discovers what it means to have a soul.
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Limara Meneses, Emar Xor Oña, Mario Guerra (Actors)
Chico & Rita (2010)
Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and romantic desire unites them, but their journey – in the tradition of the Latin ballad, the bolero – brings heartache and torment.
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Forest Whitaker, Diane Venora, Michael Zelniker (Actors)
Bird
Director Clint Eastwood, a noted jazz aficionado, directs this heartfelt study of pioneering bop saxophonist Charlie Parker (Forest Whitaker).
Moving forward and backward through Parker's brief life before his death of a heroin overdose at age 34, the film foregrounds the saxophonist's difficult relationship with his wife, Chan Parker (Diane Venora), but also features lengthy scenes of Parker improvising on stage, lit with the neon and cigarette smoke of vintage jazz clubs.
La La Land
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Amiee Conn (Actors)
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Amiee Conn (Actors)
La La Land
Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) are drawn together by their common desire to do what they love. But as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.
Born To Be Blue
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Ethan Hawke, Carmen Ejogo, Callum Keith Rennie (Actors)
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Ethan Hawke, Carmen Ejogo, Callum Keith Rennie (Actors)
Born to Be Blue
In the late 1960s, jazz trumpeter Chet Baker (Ethan Hawke) begins a romance with an actress (Carmen Ejogo) while trying to stage a musical comeback.
Whiplash
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Miles Teller, Melissa Benoist, Paul Reiser (Actors)
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Miles Teller, Melissa Benoist, Paul Reiser (Actors)
Whiplash
Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) is an ambitious young jazz drummer, in pursuit of rising to the top of his elite music conservatory. Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), an instructor known for his terrifying teaching methods, discovers Andrew and transfers the aspiring drummer into the top jazz ensemble, forever changing the young man's life.
But Andrew's passion to achieve perfection quickly spirals into obsession, as his ruthless teacher pushes him to the brink of his ability and his sanity.
Miles Ahead
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Don Cheadle, Ewan McGregor, Emayatzy Corinealdi (Actors)
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Don Cheadle, Ewan McGregor, Emayatzy Corinealdi (Actors)
Miles Ahead
The true story of jazz music legend Miles Davis. After disappearing for a period of five years in the 1970s, Miles and a music reporter set out to recover a stolen sessions tape.
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