If you don’t already believe that New Orleans is the most important city in the history of American music, this new documentary may convince you with just the density of the information it packs into 105 minutes. Yet it also has the wisdom to pause rather often to let some great jazz performances unfold — by Aaron Neville, Mahalia Jackson, Professor Longhair, Fats Domino and others — both archival and new ones beautifully staged for the film.
Clearly a passion project for director Michael Murphy, Up from the Streets asserts the primacy of New Orleans as the melting pot chiefly responsible for the development of jazz from a combination of Cuban, African, spiritual and other influences. It’s also a roll call of the well-known and lesser-known geniuses along the way — so many that even jazz aficionados are likely to learn a lot.
Hosted by trumpeter Terence Blanchard, the documentary keeps its focus chiefly on the African American experience and on black artists, but as if to win the attention of boomer viewers, Murphy also has interviews with Robert Plant, Bonnie Raitt, Keith Richards and Sting, to name-check a few. On the other hand, don’t expect much acknowledgment of New Orleans legends Al Hirt and Pete Fountain, dismissed here in about 30 seconds with evident distaste for their popularity with unsophisticated tourists.
The lack of any attempt to explain the geography of New Orleans — or where any historic building or park is relative to anything else — is a recurring frustration, and the haltingly chronological structure is something of a jumble. Still, the film never ceases to be revelatory and fascinating. Its flaws are the result of an ardent filmmaker who perhaps knows and loves just a little too much. Fortunately, that enthusiasm is communicated in the film’s upbeat and always engrossing tone, and viewers will be smiling and tapping their feet more often than not.
Available to rent starting May 15 via grailmoviehouse.com
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