Orem Library

A loving homage to Duke Ellington, shot in 1968, as the bandleader and his musicians play their way through a Mexican tour. In addition to the concert performance, there are interviews with musicians Russel Procope and Cootie Williams, and historic scenes from early films in which Ellington and his band perform.

In 1963, at the age of 17, Dwayne Hallston discovers James Brown and wants to perform just like him. His band, the Amazing Rumblers, studies and rehearses Brown's Live at the Apollo album in the storage room of his father's shop in their small North Carolina town. Meanwhile, Dwayne's forbidden black friend Larry--aspiring to play piano like Thelonius Monk--apprentices to a jazz musician called the Bleeder. His mother hopes music will allow him to...

In 1990, Mugge and music scholar Robert Palmer went deep into the heart of Mississippi to seek out the best blues acts in the country. Starting their journey in Memphis, they traveled from the juke joints of the northern Mississippi hill country to the blues clubs of Greenville and Clarksdale, to the parlors and front porches of Bentonia and Lexington documenting the performances of talented artists cut-off from the mainstream of the recording industry....

A brief recounting of the career of this jazz musician and composer, who, along with his orchestra, created music that was beyond category.

"Ray McMillian loves playing the violin more than anything, and nothing will stop him from pursuing his dream of becoming a professional musician. Not his mother, who thinks he should get a real job, not the fact that he can't afford a high-caliber violin, not the racism inherent in the classical music world. And when he makes the startling discovery that his great-grandfather's fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, his star begins to rise....

Robert Johnson, while probably the most influential of all blues guitarists, is also one of the most obscure. Recognized as an influence on musicians like Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones, Johnson was poisoned by a jealous husband in 1938--at the age of twenty-seven. This untimely death, his supposed bargain with the devil that enabled him to play guitar, and the ferocity and tormented originality of his work have given rise to a legend that has...

Musician Daryl likes to meet and befriend members of the Ku Klux Klan- something few black men can say. In his travels, he's collected robes and other artifacts from friends affiliated with the Klan, building a collection piece by piece, story by story, and person by person in hopes of eventually opening a "Museum of the Klan", a testimony to what knowledge and respectful, personal communication can accomplish. In ACCIDENTAL COURTESY, Daryl's journey...

Music lovers everywhere have hailed Duke Ellington as one of the greatest geniuses of jazz. Yet, aside from Ellington's own rather unrevealing autobiography and a collection of reminiscences of his band members, no in-depth biography of this preeminent figure of twentieth-century music and entertainment has previously existed. James Lincoln Collier fills this gap with his definitive critical biography of both the man and his music.

An unique and rare look inside the world of soul legend Bill Withers. Through concert footage, journeys to his birthplace, interviews with musicians, his family and closest friends, Still Bill presents the story of an artist who has written some of the most beloved songs in our time and who truly understands the heart and soul of a man.