Book: Jazz On Film
By Scott Yanow (Large paperback, 314 pages - Backbeat Books)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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Scott Yanow has written plenty of books about jazz, including several entries in the Third Ear listening companion series. (If you don't have his Afro-Cuban Jazz volume in that series, do yourself a favor and pick it up.) This time around, Yanow's created a guide to jazz on film that should be of great interest to casual viewer and serious collector alike. The book is divided into four sections: (1) videos and DVDs, (2) Hollywood movies, (3) shorts, television specials and more documentaries, and (4) miscellaneous items of interest, and Yanow's thrown in interviews with a trio of jazz film collectors and the addresses of some companies where you can get ahold of these films. Quite a bit of useful information packed into 314 pages. Each entry has a rating (1 to 10), the year, running time and either the video label or the movie studio, depending on what it is, plus a brief synopsis. Brief enough that several can be read in just a few minutes, making this an excellent coffee table book. Now and then there are descriptions that make you wonder why the rating is either so high or so low, but other than that mild complaint I find this book thoroughly enjoyable and useful, though I am concerned I may soon go broke ordering DVDs I was once blissfully ignorant of the existence of.

© 2005 - DJ Johnson