Are films about "free jazz," featured in a collection on the Criterion Channel, a genre -- and if so, what are their common traits? Panelists Kevin Whitehead (author of Play The Way You Feel: The Essential Guide to Jazz Stories on Film, jazz critic on Fresh Air with Terry Gross), Gretchen Carlson (author of Improvising the Score: Rethinking Modern Film Music Through Jazz), and Don Palmer (arts journalist, former grant officer for New York State Council on the Arts) explore Space Is the Place, Les Stances á Sophie, Ornette: Made in America, The Cry of Jazz and others with host Howard Mandel, JJA president, in the first of a two-part podcast.

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For more from the Jazz Journalists Association, go to JJANews.org.