On The Bookshelf
Jazz In The Movies: A Guide to Jazz Musicians 1917~1977 by David Meeker is the result of ten years research into the arena of jazz and the film industry. Norman Granz, who penned the introduction, writes of David as one of the small, dedicated, diligent, extremely hard-working, enthusiastic group of people that the world luckily possesses.
The idea for the book came to Meeker some twenty years before its writing after waiting for a prolonged and disappointing time of news reels, travelogues and the like to watch a film titled The Three Little Bops and to finally hear the sweet sounds of Shorty Rogers. Then he thought why has there been no jazz filmography produced. So, he set about the daunting task of compiling 2,500 movies and this is the outcome.
The book lists each film title alphabetically, together with its nationality, year of production, director, running time, a short critique and details of all jazz artists, band personnel and musical items where known.
