Director Robert Altman invited twenty-one of the best contemporary jazz musicians to render interpretations of Duke Ellington, Benny and Buster Moten, Count Basie, and Marie Lou Williams in his latest film Kansas City. In spite of maintaining the integrity of the original works, each musician added new elements to these new versions. Results are shown in this documentary shot with three cameras on Kansas City's locations.
Altman's musical journey included fifteen compositions and statements from residents and musicians in Kansas City concerning the golden days of jazz in the thirties. All of this with a narrative by Harry Bellafonte, protagonist of Kansas City.
Rarities contained in this production include the legendary partnership between Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins, assisted by Charlie Parker, then aged 14.
Songs are rendered by musicians Joshua Redman, Ron Carter, Cyrus Chestnut, Christian McBride, James Carter, Don Byron, Mark Whitfield, Nicholas Payton, and Craig Handy, among others. They worked together for three weeks in a jam session to produce one of the most important jazz events of the latter times. The trail includes music such as Tickle Toe by Lester Young, Indiana by Ballard MacDonald and James F. Hanley, Solitude by Eddie de Lange, Duke Ellington and Irving Mills, Blues in the Dark, by Count Basie and James Rushing, and Moten Swing, by Benny and Buster Moten.