The Cry of Jazz (Edward O. Bland, 1959)

❝ Edward O. Bland’s low-budget dramatic filmmaking is stark, but his cultural insights—as seen in this philosophical featurette, from 1959, based on his own writings—are profound. It’s set at a party, in Chicago, at which white jazz enthusiasts ask Black friends about the music. The protagonist, Alex (George Waller), relates the form of jazz—and the existential edge of Black musicians’ performances—to history and politics, and, remarkably, predicts both the dwindling of jazz as a genre and its inspiration of real-world change. Filmed performances by Sun Ra and other musicians are intercut with trenchant documentary footage—of double Dutch and street basketball and church services, substandard housing and neglected public spaces—that displays what Alex calls the “joy and suffering” of Black American life. The movie, which is as passionate as it is analytical, suggests a new dimension in music criticism. ❞ *

About The Film