Jazz lover's orgy. The starting point is a group photograph of fifty-some jazzmen taken by Art Kane for Esquire at ten in the morning, or a little after, in front of a Harlem brownstone in 1958 (when filmmaker-to-be Robert Benton was the magazine's art director). From that hub emanate several spokes: additional photos shot on that occasion, 8mm home movies of the event, present-day video interviews with participants (Art Blakey, Bud Freeman, Dizzy Gillespie, et al.), and archival footage of the musicians in performance. It's disorganized, unwieldy, very uneven in visual quality, but the scope keeps expanding impressively as you learn who all's in the picture: Coleman Hawkins ... Lester Young ... Monk ... Mingus ... Basie ... Pee Wee Russell ... Red Allen ... on and on. Only when it's over can you begin to tote up who's missing: Armstrong ... Ellington .... Directed by Jean Bach. (1994) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.