Celebrating Bird
The Triumph of Charlie Parker
Medici Arts
www.medici.tv

Lady Day
The Many Faces Of Billie Holiday
Medici Arts
www.medici.tv

Thelonious Monk
American Composer
Medici Arts
www.medici.tv

Various Artists
The Story Of Jazz
Medici Arts
www.medici.tv
By George W. Harris

Masters Of American Music is a production of Toby Byron and Richard
Saylor. What they’ve done is take a bunch of shows that were
documentaries during the 80s and 90s, and finally put them out on dvd
for the modern world to see. I have a couple of these on VHS, and am
grateful to finally be able to watch these fascinating shows once
again. Running from between an 60-90 minutes, they were major steps
forward at the time in incapsulating stories of some of the most
important artists in jazz.

1987’s Celebrating Bird was a major milestone back then, as it had the
only known footage (at that time) of Charlie Parker playing his alto.
It is the centerpiece of this fascinating and educational journey into
Parker’s musical heart. Spotlighted in this show are insightful
interviews with Dizzy Gillespie (who chokes up when talking about
Bird’s life), Roy Haynes, a very educational Jay McShann, and a
recently released from prison Parker disciple Frank Morgan who shows
the downside of hero worship. An absolutely essential dvd for jazz fans.

Billie Holiday’s life has been glamorized, bowdlerized and had
everything else done to it in book, film and musical form. This
documentary from 1990 gets to the essence of her musical, social and
psychological existence, including a trip to the hospital where she
stayed. Interviews with Buck Clayton and Harry “Sweets” Edison, who
performed on her classic recordings, are just what you’d hope for, as
are the vintage performances of Holiday, particularly on her moving
reading of “Fine And Mellow” with Lester Young. If you want something
that separates the myth from the music, this is it.

This 60 minute exploratory surgery into the mind of Thelonious Monk is
as refreshing as a brand new after shave. Mixing vintage performances
of the one-of-a-kind pianist in various stages of his career with
commentary by friends, fellow musicians and producers like Billy
Taylor, Ben Riley, Randy Weston, Thelonious Monk III and Orrin
Keepnews, this documentary celebrates the perseverance and tenacity of
one of modern music’s most unique voices. In this day of homogenized
sounds, the angular compositions and elliptical performances by
Thelonious Sphere Monk stand out like a city on a hill. Most intriguing
is the character that was instilled into the pianist by his religious
mother, who indelibly taught her son the importance of discipline and
hard work, which kept Monk focused on his music during his lean years.
Fascinating in terms of music and psychology; a true delight.

In 90 minutes, this 1993 historical program covers the history of jazz
from pre-Benny Bolden to Wynton Marsalis better than the muli-part Ken
Burns series of a decade later. Succinct, precise, with a heart of
gold, this fascinating documentary interviews the likes of Dizzy
Gillespie, Tony Bennett, Lester Bowie, Jay McShann and Bud Freeman (to
name just a handful) to give general and specific opinions on the
various jazz eras, styles, legends and stars. Stellar performances by
vintage 30s Louis Armstrong, ethereally bopping Bud Powell, quizzical
Thelonious Monk, explosive Charles Mingus, groundbreaking Bird and Diz,
ultra hip Miles Davis and Sisyphus-like driving John Coltrane are put
in historical, social and musical context that makes you want to have
lived during each era, while professorial information by Randy Weston
and Billy Taylor put everything into proper perspective. A perfect
intro to give to a friend just testing the jazz waters.