Staying Fit
Forest Whitaker (left) as Charlie 'Bird' Parker in "Bird" and Richard Gere as Dixie Dwyer in "The Cotton Club."
Courtesy Everett Collection; Orion/Courtesy Everett Collection
Hollywood has been fascinated with jazz ever since the genre emerged, inspired by the creativity and struggles of its artists. Adding to the canon this winter is The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Feb. 26, Hulu), a biopic of Lady Day directed by Lee Daniels (Precious, Lee Daniels’ The Butler), written by Suzan-Lori Parks and starring Andra Day. Whether you're a lifelong jazz buff or a new one, settle in for any of these 8 great jazz movies (and check out the iconic cut from each on Spotify).
Young Man With a Horn (1950)
This film offered one of the first Hollywood depictions of the troubled musical genius, played by Kirk Douglas, with Lauren Bacall as his love interest and Doris Day as the big-band vocalist who introduces them. Douglas’ trumpeting is dubbed with playing by Harry James, one of the most popular big-band leaders of the era, leading The New York Times to call the soundtrack “the very soul of the picture.”
Iconic cut: "The Very Thought of You,” Day's first song in the film
Where to watch: Young Man With a Horn, on HBO Max and Amazon Prime
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Jazz on a Summer's Day (1960)
If you're missing live performance right now, this concert film will transport you to the 1958 performances of the famed Newport Jazz Festival. The all-star lineup includes Dinah Washington, Louis Armstrong and Thelonious Monk, and is artfully directed by photographer Bert Stern. A newly restored version was just released, so now's the time to dig it.
Iconic cut: “The Lord's Prayer,” sung by Mahalia Jackson at the end of her midnight set
Where to watch: Jazz on a Summer's Day, on YouTube
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The Cotton Club (1984)
In 2019, director Francis Ford Coppola released an “encore” cut of this crime drama set in the 1930s Harlem jazz scene, and starring Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, and Diane Lane. The latest version incorporates more of the Black performers’ stories that financiers pressured the director to cut, including tap-dancing scenes starring brother duo Gregory and Maurice Hines.
Iconic cut: "Minnie the Moocher,” a Cab Calloway song featured on the Grammy-winning score
Where to watch: The Cotton Club, on Amazon Prime
Bird (1988)
Forest Whitaker stars as Charlie “Yardbird” Parker in this Clint Eastwood–directed biopic. While the film's timeline jumps around, it's grounded in the saxophonist's relationships with his wife Chan Parker and fellow musicians Dizzy Gillespie and Red Rodney. For the soundtrack, Eastwood took original recordings and isolated Parker's solos, then cleaned them up and re-recorded the accompaniment.
Iconic cut: “All of Me,” one of two previously unheard Parker tracks
Where to watch: Bird, on YouTube and Amazon Prime
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