Satchmo. There are few people in this country, and around the world, who will not recognize the name. Louis Armstrong embodied 20th century American culture. No other performer of his era had such a profound effect as a singer as well as an instrumentalist. With over a dozen of his classic film performances, numerous television and concert performances, as well as never-before-seen home movies and nightclub footage from 1935, this is the most comprehensive...

Most presentations feature Lady Day as the sad victim of hard times and drugs. Mining a treasure trove of new information, the producers set the record straight - and beautifully. In a voice that is Billie-like in its rasping wiseness and its ring, stage and screen star Ruby Dee reads from Holiday's autobiography, Lady sings the blues.

A fully rounded portrait of the musician and composer, Thelonious Monk, including clips of international performances and interviews with artists and producers.

Interviews with jazz musicians commenting upon the impact which John Coltrane, an innovative jazz saxophonist, had upon American jazz music. Film traces Coltrane's musical growth from his roots in the black church and in rhythm & blues, through his forty years of life. Film culminates in a musical meeting between the saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and dervish musicians in Morocco.