Sun Ra

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The Cry of Jazz

Television Director: Bland, Edward

Sun Ra

Sun Ra Arkestra, The

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Year of Production: 1959

Playing Time: 00:34:14

Catalogue Number: DJ-865

UPC: 022891986591

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Filmed in Chicago and 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 and white.