We couldn’t let this year’s Earshot Jazz program come and go without an appearance from the late, great documentarian Les Blank, who passed away earlier this year.

While we’ve already honored Les with a program in our NEX DOCS series this past June, Blank’s contribution to the music documentary subgenre is unparalleled. His films celebrate not merely the art, but also the communal culture that sustained it (all of it interwoven with romantic flair and wry good humor). Tonight we screen a short profiling the great jazzman Dizzy Gillespie, as well as Blank’s portrait of New Orleans’ soulful street music at Mardi Gras.  More than anything, Blank’s films urge us to live life to the fullest, while we still can. Sounds like Jazz to us.