Most Houstonians likely know that they can see paintings, sculptures, ceramics, tapestries, jewelry, and more on the walls and galleries of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Perhaps lesser known is that on the basement level, the Brown Auditorium offers year-round film programming of first run features, foreign films, documentaries, and revivals. And one of the most popular offerings is the annual Jazz on Film series.
Artist and curator Peter Lucas has programmed JOF since its 2013 debut (save for the COVID years of 2020/21). And this year’s slate—running over three weekends—once again combines films that span across jazz subgenres, decades, well-known artists and more obscure ones, and even languages.
This year coincidentally marks the centennial of the births of two of jazz’s most giant figures: Trumpeter Miles Davis and saxophonist John Coltrane. Davis is celebrated with the 1958 groundbreaking French film Elevator to the Gallows (Ascenseur pour l’échafaud), for which he composed the music.
The directorial debut of Louis Malle helped signal a kickoff of the French New Wave filmmaking movement, buoyed by Davis’ unforgettable score. It will be preceded by a 1959 filmed recording of Davis performing with a quintet including John Coltrane and the Gil Evans Orchestra.
“That film is really at the heart of the series. The intersection of cinema and jazz. And the late ‘50s is the beginning of that shift with different kinds of films being made using jazz. And it was evolving, especially for Miles, who was just getting into modal jazz,” Lucas offers.
“There’s a freedom of expressionism here. And having a jazz score that was largely improvised. Miles just happened to be in France and they tracked him down. He composed it within a week in his hotel, got some pickup musicians, and he did it in about three days. And Miles comes out with Kind of Blue about a year and a half later.”
John Coltrane makes a presence in one of a series of short documentaries. Alice Coltrane: A Love Supreme (1970) finds his wife, a very accomplished artist in her own right, reflecting on her late husband and spirituality, and includes a performance with her band.
In Max and Abbey (1970), drummer Max Roach and vocalist Abbey Lincoln discuss music and their relationship and perform. Tony Williams in Africa (1973) documents the drummer improvising with traditional drummers on the continent. They are preceded by 1963 performance footage of the John Coltrane Quartet.
The presence of Alice Coltrane, Abbey Lincoln, and Mary Lou Williams—the influential, Zelig-like pianist/computer/arranger and subject of 2015’s Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band—could make a case for spotlighting underknown/appreciated female jazz artists.
“This series has definitely been concerned with uncovering stories of artists who aren’t necessarily known about or at the top of the list. There’s a desire on my part to learn more about these hidden histories of jazz,” Lucas says.
“These stories involved struggles and hurdles in their lives that have a lot of relevance today, unfortunately. And there’s not a lot of films about women in jazz.”
Two other documentaries profile two very different jazzmen: One a flamboyant (and flamboyantly dressed) extrovert, and a one shy and quiet studio denizen, the ultimate man-behind-the-man.
Sun Ra: Do the Impossible (2025) tells the wild and winding story of the man born Herman Blount but who reinvented himself as a cosmic jazz missionary. His free-form science fiction jazz appeared on more than 200 albums and the shows with his Arkestra rivaled George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic for sheer spectacle. Oh, and Sun Ra claimed to be an alien from Saturn just dropping by on Earth.
“I’m such a fan of Sun Ra and find his music and performances very interesting. This film explores all of the different facets of him whereas some others are more a slice of time for him,” Lucas says. “It has a wider view of his whole evolution. Not just his music, he was also a businessman. So many firsts with this guy and some many people completely devoted to the music. You can’t even call it a genre. It’s just Sun Ra.”
Finally, Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life (2007) brings to light the often (and massive) hidden or uncredited contributions of the producer/arranger/composter to the music and legacy of Duke Ellington. The fact that Strayhorn was also an openly gay man in an era not kind to either Blacks or homosexuals only adds to the story.
“He was in Duke’s shadow and relegated to a footnote, even when he was writing some of the greatest songs in jazz,” Lucas says. “And for the film scores, they were pretty equal collaborators. But Duke was running a business organization, and he was the brand. But Billy liked kind of just being in the back and writing music. There’s a lot of nuanced frictions in there.”
When asked how he mentally fills in a “blank slate” of programming for the next Jazz on Film series, Lucas chuckles.
That’s because he’s never not thinking about programming. And there is often a Byzantine path to secure the ability to show some of these films, given that they involve musical rights, distribution, ownership, and even dealing with the estates of late performers and directors.
In fact, he notes that it was especially challenging to secure Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life that involved many phone calls and even pleading on his part.
“It’s evolved over the years, but I’m always thinking about it. There are films that for whatever reason didn’t work out for one year but did the next. Others are rarities that are hard to find a source for,” he says. “Others I hear about that are being made. So, I’ve always got a bucket of ideas.”
Summing up, he adds that there’s sometimes a “barrier” to jazz artists and perceptions of them.
“People think of some of these bigger jazz artists as gods. But I prefer to think of them as human beings,” he notes. “And I’ve always been fascinated by all these different kinds of stories.”
The Jazz on Film series runs June 5-21 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in the Brown Auditorium, Caroline Weiss Law Building, 1001 Bissonnet. For more information, call 713-639-7515 or visit MFAH. Org. $10 per screening.
