The Cry of Jazz

As the majority of the attendees of the jazz club leave, the crowd that remains is composed of two White men, Bruce and John, two White women, Natalie and Faye, and three Black men, Alex, Louis, and Bob. Alex overhears Bruce telling Natalie that rock and roll is jazz, which prompts a discussion about what jazz is. When Bruce asserts "jazz is merely the Negro's cry of joy and suffering," the White characters protest, upset with Bruce's implication that only Black people could have created jazz. Alex elaborates on Bruce's point, explaining "the Negro was the only one with the necessary musical and human history to create jazz."

Alex makes a direct comparison between the structure of jazz and the Black experience in the United States. Jazz plays over shots of Black neighborhoods of Chicago, an attempt to demonstrate the affinity between jazz and Black life. Alex continues to explain jazz as the "triumph of the Negro spirit" over the difficulties Black people face in a racist America. He links the restrictive form and changes of jazz to this limitation and suffering, and improvisation to an expression of joy and freedom within a restrictive society. Alex also argues that the sound of jazz reflects the "characteristic atmosphere, color, and sensuality" of Black life, just as the sound of jazz played by Whites reflects White life.

Bruce and Natalie again express confusion with the claim that Blacks see America differently than Whites. Alex responds that Black people see America in a unique way because they have never been fully included in American society yet have found ways to survive. Alex and Louis then assert that slavery and continued racism constitute an erasure of the past, present, and future of Black people in America and that, through music, Black people have created a record of their history.

Alex traces the history of jazz, including New Orleans jazz, swing, be-bop, and cool jazz. Footage of Sun Ra's band playing examples of each style accompanies the description of each type of jazz.

A discussion arises concerning what it would take to achieve racial equality in America. From Alex and Louis's perspective, America must come to celebrate the story of joy and suffering told through jazz because it is a story that transcends national and ethnic boundaries. When Natalie then asks about the future of jazz, Alex claims that jazz is dead, startling all the characters.

In Alex's opinion, jazz is dead because the form and the changes of jazz cannot evolve, and any alteration to the form and changes of jazz would not result in jazz. Alex claims that therefore, because jazz cannot grow, it is dead. While Alex asserts that this "jazz body" is dead, he maintains that the "spirit of jazz" is alive. He goes on to express that the "jazz body", which contains the restraining elements of jazz, must die because the social restraints on Black people in America must end.

The White characters continue to contest the death of jazz. Alex suggests that the "spirit of jazz" will give rise to a new form of music. When Bruce then asks how Whites fit into this story, Louis and Alex proclaim that what happens to Black people in America concerns Whites because it implicates their morality and humanity. The film ends with Alex's assertion that the world's perceptions of the United States will depend on American society's treatment of black people.

As the production of The Cry of Jazz began, Bland, serving as the film's Musical Director, was responsible for scoring the film. Bland knew Sun Ra personally, as they were both living in Chicago at the time. Additionally, Bland was aware that Sun Ra owned the rights to his music released through El Saturn Records, his own record label. Ra and his business partner and co-owner of El Saturn, Alton Abraham, allowed Ra's music be used for The Cry of Jazz without charge in exchange for Bland's incorporation of live footage of Ra's band performing the music, as well as highlighting Ra's involvement in billing and publicity. While Bland found Sun Ra's music exciting and felt that it fit the aesthetic direction of the film, he was uninterested in Ra's eccentric personal philosophy and cosmology. Thus, this element of Sun Ra's career did not factor into his involvement with The Cry of Jazz. Bland and Sun Ra maintained a personal and professional relationship until 1967. According to Bland, by the mid-1960s, Sun Ra "was stressing his 'Sun God of Jazz' propaganda more than ever", and in addition began showing up late to recording sessions, prompting Bland to stop working with him.[8]

Bland wrote the screenplay for a sequel to The Cry of Jazz titled The American Hero, but received 109 rejections from production companies, causing him to abandon the project. Bland gave this description of The American Hero in a 1960 article for the journal Film Culture:

"In our next film, which will be a 35mm feature length film amplifying and carrying further various facets of this film, we expect an even greater impact, primarily because the audience will not be able to use jazz as an escape."[9]

In contrast to the claim made in The Cry of Jazz that "jazz is dead", 1959 is widely considered a landmark year of innovation in jazz due to the release of four significant albums: Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, Time Out by The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Mingus Ah Um by Charles Mingus, and The Shape of Jazz to Come by Ornette Coleman.[13] Each of these albums made a unique contribution to jazz. With Kind of Blue, Miles Davis established a previously developing style of jazz, called modal jazz, which uses fewer chords and melodic improvisation based on scales. Today Kind of Blue is recognized as the best-selling jazz album of all time.[14] In Time Out, Dave Brubeck and his quartet pushed the boundaries of jazz by experimenting with different time signatures, such as 9/8 in “Blue Rondo a la Turk” and 5/4 in "Take Five." Up to this point, the vast majority of jazz was based on 4/4 time. Time Out also became extremely popular for a jazz album, and catapulted Brubeck to international fame.[15] Charles Mingus's Mingus Ah Um is most notable for its variety. Mingus was adept at pulling inspiration from and composing in a multiplicity of jazz styles. Elements of swing, hard bop, soul jazz, and cool jazz, are all evident in Mingus Ah Um.[16] With The Shape of Jazz to Come, Ornette Coleman took jazz in a radical new direction by debuting avant-garde jazz. This new style did away with many of the characteristic features of jazz, including easily discernable rhythms, regular form, and planned harmonic structure. For instance, the track “Lonely Woman” is not based on an underlying chord progression. While The Shape of Jazz to Come was very controversial, it did expand the boundaries of jazz.[17]