“Cinema Follies”
Treasures from the Jo Milgram Collection

In collaboration with the Cinémathèque de la Danse à Paris and the Federation of the Alliances Francaises USA, Inc.

Introduction

Since June 2008, the Cinémathèque de la Danse à Paris has been assembling treasures from the Joe Milgram Collection in order to put together an exceptional montage on jazz’s most beautiful films.

Jo Milgram (1916–2005) discovered live jazz as a teenager in the 1930’s in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. With a fervent passion for this kind of music, he soon became friends with musicians who passed through Paris. He also befriended the promoter Charles Delauney, who was also friend with Boris Vian, and who was the founder of the Hot Club of France. Milgram got a thrill out of Django Reinhardt, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, and the Moulin Rouge’s Cotton Club. He was also friends with Hugues Panassié, Pierre Noury, (who was responsible for discovering Django Reinhardt) Daniel Filipacchi and Frank Ténot.  Jo Milgram was passionate about “big bands, soloists, the golden age of jazz, the luminous soul of African-Americans and other performers of African origin. He was a happy soul . . .”

In 1970, he began collecting jazz films from a time when jazz orchestras were regularly accompanied by dancers and when, “there was still good footage available in Hollywood but if you didn’t grab it, it would have disappeared.” Over a period of thirty years, he amassed one of the finest collections,with more than sixty hours of footage, more than any other collection in the world.

The Cinémathèque de la Danse à Paris was started twenty-seven years ago and became independent in 2005.  Since it began, it has acquired more than 500 films and 5,000 videos, has staged more than 3,000 events in France and abroad and has presented some fifty feature-length films that have been shown in style at Paris’s Palais Garnier of the National Opera and at the Théâtre du Châtelet.  

But first and foremost, this one-of-a-kind institution is passionately dedicated to images of dance of every kind,  from classic to modern and from scholarly to popular, not to mention the precious ethnographic testimonials of Jean Rouch.

The Program

The different presentations outlined above can be supplemented by a lecture in either French or English by Christian Gauffre, assistant editor of Jazz magazine.

Jazz Greats 1
Length of set: 93 minutes
In this first set of the collection, meet some of Jazz’s all-time greats. Among the works you’ll see performed will be classic footage of Louis Armstrong, Dorothy Dandridge, Coleman Hawkins, Big Joe Turner, Nat King Cole and Thelonious Monk.

Jazz Greats 2
Length of set: 91 minutes
Classics from Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne and the Berry Brothers, Count Basie, John Lee Hooker, Dizzy Gillespi and Lalo Schiffrin.

Jazz Greats 3
Length of set: 89 minutes
Classics from Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, the Nicholas Brothers, the Marx Brothers and Coleman Hawkins.

The Jazz Club
Length of set: 70 minutes
Josephine Baker, Duke Ellington, Buck and Bubbles and the Nicholas Brothers, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Barney Kessel, Red Callender, Jo Jones “Illinois” Jacquet , Sidney Catlett, Archie Savage and Mary Bryant.

Gypsy Bands and Journey
Length of the short: 22 minutes
Gypsy jazz with Django Reinhardt

These films are available on DVD in NTSC format.

Link to la Cinémathèque de la Danse in Paris’s website:
http://lacinemathequedeladanse.com

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