Play the Way You Feel

Publisher: Oxford University Press
The Essential Guide to Jazz Stories on Film
Hardback, 304 Pages | 60 film stills

Jazz stories have been entwined with cinema since the inception of jazz film genre in the 1920s.
And the jazz film has seen a resurgence in recent years—from biopics like Miles Ahead and HBO's Bessie, to dramas Whiplash and La La Land.
In "Play the Way You Feel", Kevin Whitehead offers a comprehensive guide to these films and other media from the perspective of the music itself. Spanning 93 years of film history, the book looks closely at movies, cartoons, and a few TV shows that tell jazz stories, from early talkies to modern times.
He investigates well-known songs, traces the development of the stock jazz film ending, and offers fresh, often revisionist takes on works by such directors as Howard Hawks, John Cassavetes, Shirley Clarke, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, Spike Lee, Robert Altman, Woody Allen and Damien Chazelle. 

Table of Contents:
Prologue: The "I Got Rhythm" of Jazz Movies 1927 & 1946
Chapter One: Duke's Day & First Features 1929-1940
Chapter Two: Origin Stories 1941-1947
Chapter Three: Bands of Brothers 1941-1948
Chapter Four: Young Men with Horns-the Jazz Biopic's Golden Age 1950-1959
Chapter Five: The Jazz Musician (and Fan) as Character 1951-1961
Chapter Six: Independents in Black & White 1961-1967
Chapter Seven: Spectacles 1972-1984
Chapter Eight: Suffering Artists 1984-1989
Chapter Nine: Young Lions & Historical Fictions 1990-2000
Chapter Ten: The Jazz Musician (and Fan) as Character 1959-2016
Chapter Eleven: Movies within Movies & New Orleans Comes Back 2008-2019