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[The Last of the First] is the story of some of the last living jazz pioneers from the 1920s and 30s, a unique group of musicians who still perform as the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band.
This filmic journey, which unfolds over four years, accompanies these musicians from recording studios and concerts around the globe to, sadly, their hospital beds and funerals. Having worked with some of the most recognisable figures in music history, including Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Billie Holliday and Frank Sinatra, they are also legends in their own right who recognise that once they're gone huge sections of jazz history will disappear forever. So they've gotta keep swinging. Observing their highs and lows and their determination to never hang it up, [The Last of the First] tells the story behind the story of jazz.
"While several other films about early American jazz have put music in a museum, Anja Baron's [The Last of the First] places it back with audiences and in clubs where it belongs." - Variety --- D/P Anja Baron WS keNYja Media Productions Inc. TD video/col, B&W/2004/88mins
Anja Baron was born in Germany in 1965. [The Last of the First] (MIFF 05) is her first feature documentary.
