Improvisation

Inside the Blue Note nightclub one night in 1959 Paris, an aged, ailing jazzman coaxes an eloquent wail from his tenor sax. Outside, a young Parisian too broke to buy a glass of wine strains to hear those notes. Soon they will form a friendship that sparks a final burst of genius.

In this short film, prominent jazz musicians of the 1940s gather for a rare filming of a jam session. This highly stylized chronicle features tenor sax legend Lester Young.

The film is made up of one single take. The camera pans to the left, focusing on a dilapidated fence in a rural field, as Ella Fitzgerald's "All My Life" plays on the soundtrack. At the end of the 3 minute film, the camera tilts up to the blue sky just as the song ends.

The descendent of a ghost imprisoned for cowardice hopes to free the spirit by displaying courage when under duress.

Harlem's legendary Cotton Club becomes a hotbed of passion and violence as the lives and loves of entertainers and gangsters collide.

A pretty fashion buyer visiting Paris on business is courted by a famous designer. Boris Sagal's 1966 romantic comedy stars Ann-Margret, Louis Jourdan, Richard Crenna, Chad Everett, Edie Adams, John McGiver, Reta Shaw and Count Basie.

Director — and piano player — Clint Eastwood explores his life-long passion for piano blues, using a treasure trove of rare historical footage in addition to interviews and performances by such living legends as Pinetop Perkins and Jay McShann, as well as Dave Brubeck and Marcia Ball.

Before MTV and the age of television, there were Soundies. First appearing in 1941, these three minute black-and-white films featured artists of the Big Band, Jazz and Swing era, like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Jordan, Louis Armstrong, Gene Krupa, The Mills Brothers, Les Paul, Cab Calloway, and Fats Waller. The Soundies helped launch the careers of Doris Day, Nat King Cole, Liberace, and Dorothy Dandridge, among others. Viewed for a dime through a special machine called a Panoram, a movie jukebox, these forerunners to the music video could be seen in nightclubs, roadhouses, restaurants and other public venues across the U.S. These classic films remain as glorious time capsules of music, social history, popular culture, and tell the story of a crossroads in our country, when the uncertainties of war, race relations, and emerging technologies combined to write one of the most influential chapters in our nation¹s history.

A made-for-TV musical revue, compiled from soundies and film and TV performances by jazz greats from the 1930s to the 1950s.

The documentary tracks the diva's difficult progress as she emerges from the tough, testosterone-fuelled world of the big bands of the 30s and 40s, to fill nightclubs and saloons across the US in the 50s and early 60s as a force in her own right. Looking at the lives and careers of six individual singers (Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone and Annie Ross), the film not only talks to those who knew and worked with these queens of jazz, but also to contemporary singers who sit on the shoulders of these trailblazing talents without having to endure the pain and hardship it took for them to make their highly individual voices heard above the prejudice of mid-century America.

Live at Montreux 1986 is a concert video release by the British band Talk Talk of a concert at 1986 Montreux Jazz Festival. The show was part of a tour that started in April 1986 to promote the band's recent album The Colour of Spring, and was to be their only appearance at Montreux, from their last tour. The video captures Talk Talk at the peak of their career.

Status Quo's album "Pictures" (released in November 2008) celebrated 40 years of Status Quo filling the UK charts with hit after hit. The album was an instant success, charting at No.8 and selling over a quarter of a million copies in the UK alone. In July 2009 the Pictures live tour landed at Montreux in Switzerland as part of the world famous festival.

Alanis Morissette is one of the most successful female artists and songwriters of all time and has sold in excess of 60 million albums worldwide. Her voice is instantly recognisable and she is a consummate live performer. On 2 July 2012 Alanis Morissette returned to Montreux as part of her Guardian Angel Tour in support of her new album Havoc And Bright Lights . It was her third appearance at the festival. The set showcased a number of tracks from the new album (at that point still to be released) alongside classic tracks from across her career. This is Alanis Morissette live at her very best. TRACKLIST 1) I Remain 2) Woman Down 3) All I Really Want 4) You Learn 5) Guardian 6) Flinch 7) Forgiven 8) Hands Clean 9) I Remain 10) Citizen Of The Planet 11) Ironic 12) Havoc 13) Head Over Feet 14) Versions Of Violence 15) I Remain 16) You Oughta Know 17) Numb 18) Hand In My Pocket 19) Uninvited 20) Thank U

Set to a classic Duke Ellington recording "Daybreak Express", this is a five-minute short of the soon-to-be-demolished Third Avenue elevated subway station in New York City.

The history of New York City's Apollo Theater in Harlem is given the full treatment.

Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels is an animated series created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions from September 10, 1977 to June 21, 1980 on ABC. The first and second seasons were originally broadcast as segments on the package shows Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics and Scooby's All-Stars from 1977 to 1979 and the third season featured Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels in their own half-hour timeslot in 1980.

Leo is an ordinary teenager who has moved into a high-tech "smart'' house with his mother, inventor stepfather and Eddy, the computer that runs the house. Leo's life becomes less ordinary when, one day, he discovers a secret underground lab that houses three experiments: superhuman teenagers. The trio -- Adam, the strong one, Bree, the fast one and Chase, the smart one -- convinces Leo and his parents to let them leave their lab and join Leo at school, where they try to fit in while having to manage their unpredictable bionic strengths. As Leo figures out a way to keep his new pals' bionic abilities a secret, they help him build self-confidence.

The Patty Duke Show is an American sitcom which ran on ABC from September 18, 1963 to April 27, 1966, with reruns airing through August 31, 1966. The show was created as a vehicle for rising star Patty Duke. A total of 104 episodes were produced, most written by Sidney Sheldon.

Each episode involves performers walking through a door into an unknown situation, greeted by the line "Thank God you're here!". They then had to improvise their way through the scene. At the end of each episode a winner was announced.

The Robonic Stooges was a 30-minute Saturday morning animated series featuring the characters of The Three Stooges in new roles as clumsy crime-fighting bionic superheroes. It was developed by Norman Maurer and produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions from September 10, 1977, to March 18, 1978, on CBS and contained two segments, The Robonic Stooges and Woofer & Wimper, Dog Detectives. The Robonic Stooges originally aired as a segment on The Skatebirds from September 10, 1977, to December 24, 1977, on CBS. When CBS canceled The Skatebirds in early 1978, the trio was given their own half-hour timeslot which ran for 16 episodes.

The Gene Autry Show is an American western/cowboy television series which aired for 91 episodes on CBS from July 23, 1950 until August 7, 1956, originally sponsored by Wrigley's Doublemint chewing gum.

13 Queens Boulevard is an American sitcom that aired from March 20 until July 24, 1979.

Jack's Place is an American drama series that aired from May 26, 1992 to July 13, 1993 on ABC. The series was about a retired jazz musician named Jack Evans who runs a restaurant where romances tend to start. The waitress, Chelsea, was played by Finola Hughes and the bartender Greg was played by John Dye.

Trust Us with Your Life is an American improvisational comedy television series, based on the BBC Two program Fast and Loose. It premiered on ABC on July 10, 2012. It is hosted by Fred Willard and stars comedians Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie, and Jonathan Mangum, with rotating performers that include Greg Proops, Craig Cackowski, Brad Sherwood, Nicole Parker, and Josie Lawrence. Each week they act out scenes in the lives of guest celebrities. Serena Williams, Ricky Gervais, Jerry Springer, Florence Henderson, Mark Cuban, Jack and Kelly Osbourne, David Hasselhoff and Jane Seymour have so far appeared. At least eight episodes have been filmed thus far in London, England. The show is currently on hiatus due to ratings competition with larger events, such as the 2012 Olympic Games. Previously, reports claimed that the show was not cancelled. However, 12 months on, no further episodes had been aired.

A 17-part television documentary series on the history of modern pop music covering some of the many different genres that have fallen under the label of "popular music" between the mid-19th century and 1976, including folk, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley, vaudeville and music hall, musical theatre, country, swing, jazz, blues, R&B, rock 'n' roll and others.

Packages from Planet X is a US/Canadian animated television series produced by American Greetings and DHX Media that first premiered on Disney XD on July 13, 2013. A charismatic 15-year-old, Dan Zembrosky, from the bizarre town of Iron Bay suddenly receives strange, cryptic packages from an evil alien planet. The packages arrive in various forms and Dan and his two best friends use them to their own advantage, whether it be to make the soccer team, pass a test to avoid summer school or get out of trouble, all while keeping the mysterious contraptions out of the hands of Copernicus, an evil alien who is plotting to take over the world.

Laura Osnes gives you a backstage pass to see what it's like to work at the Broadway Theater and what it's like to be Ella in "Cinderella" on Broadway.

A biography series based on the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, the brilliant, beautiful and talented Southern Belle who becomes the original flapper and icon of the wild, flamboyant Jazz Age in the 20s. Z starts before Zelda Fitzgerald meets the unpublished writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and moves through their passionate, turbulent love affair and their marriage-made in heaven, lived out in hell as the celebrity couple of their time.

Live BBC coverage of the Biggest Weekend music festival

Soap opera set in a big-city hospital where dedication and professionalism vie with jealousy, romance and rivalry among staff members, and the newly appointed Chief of Staff attempts to run the place despite her personal problems.