Camera Three Series Volume 1

The Gerry Mulligan Jazz Quartet and the Classical String Quartet demonstrate variations on several recognizable tunes. Excerpts of Mozart, Stravinsky, and Beethoven are performed, as are renditions of "My Funny Valentine" and Mulligan's own composition "Five Brothers".

Mahalia Jackson discusses her career and performs live. Songs include "It Doesn't Cost Very Much", "When The Saints Go Marching In", "You'll Never Walk Alone", "It's No Secret", and "Somebody is Bigger Than You or I".

Charlie Parker's life and music discussed between jazz clarinetist Tony Scott and jazz historian Marshall Stearns of Hunter College. Actors portray jazz musicians reminiscing about Parker's life, career and influence. Includes rare interior footage of legendary jazz nightclub Birdland, as well as a demonstration of Parker's playing styles and a live rendition of Parker's "Lover Man".

A live concert of theater songs written by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht and performed by Weill's widow Lotte Lenya. Lenya is backed by a chamber orchestra under the baton of Maurice Levine. Selections from Brecht-Weill plays "Mahoganny" and "The Threepenny Opera" include "Moon of Alabama", "Surabaya Johnny", "Bilbao Lied", "Pirate Jenny", and "Lied des Ertrunkenen Maedchen".

American singer, songwriter and pianist Nina Simone is featured with her jazz and blues trio: Robert Hamilton on drums, Alvin Shackman on guitar and Christopher White on bass.

The Bill Evans Trio performs music by Miles Davis, Richard Rodgers, Dave Brubeck, and Bill Evans. Includes: "Artist" by Miles Davis, "Blue and Green" by Miles Davis and Bill Evans, "In Your Own Sweet Way" by Dave Brubeck, "Time Remembered" by Bill Evans, "Waltz for Debbie" by Bill Evans.

Conversation between avant-garde composer John Cage and Jack Kroll, senior arts editor at Newsweek. Their talk wanders over a large number of subjects in the arts and their purpose, man's ability to perceive, the nature of the avant-garde, and Cage's own aesthetics.

Filmmakers John and Faith Hubley are interviewed by CBS essayist Andrew Rooney; three of their films are shown. Discussion themes: the state of cartoonists and animators, commercials for TV, humor as tool to make a serious point, theatres no longer show cartoons.

Film director Hitchcock discusses his life and career in long talks with Pia Lindstrom (newscaster and daughter of Hitchcock star Ingrid Berman) and with film historian William Everson. Excerpts from several films illustrate these interviews.

The filming, on location in New York City, of the hit off-Broadway stage musical "Godspell", showing how the film cast was chosen from the various stage groups performing the play, how they were rehearsed, how the creative authors of the original work collaborate with the director of the film version.

British film and stage stars Dudley Moore and Peter Cook spend half an hour bantering and improvising, ostensibly in an interview by arts critic Leonard Harris in connection with their appearance in New York City to present their hilarious revue "Good Evening". Subjects include hypothetical holidays, American pro football, investments, accents, and an impromptu opera with Moore at the piano.

Profile of film director Richard Lester, who speaks of his career, from early work in commercials to his collaborations with Peter Sellers and The Goon Show cast, through features: the Beatles' film "A Hard Day's Night", "The Knack and How to Get It", "How I Won the War", "The Bed Sitting Room", "The Three Musketeers", "The Four Musketeers." Clips from all these works.

Filmed in 1975, this documentary explores reggae's Jamaican roots and influence. The story is told through scenes on the streets of Kingston, in recording studios, at the beach. It features several performers - famous and less well-known. Scenes of Rastafarian culture, playing drums, keeping a local religion alive, smoking ganja.

Stephen Sondheim, composer-lyricist; John Weidman, writer; and Frank Rich, theater critic, in a close study of how one Broadway musical song came to be: "Someone in a Tree" from "Pacific Overtures". Members of the Broadway cast join Sondheim in a rousing performance of the number. Filmed in Sondheim's apartment in New York City.

Blues singer Alberta Hunter in concert before a live audience. With Gerald Cook, piano; Al Hall, bass. Music critic Whitney Balliett of the New Yorker Magazine gives background on her career and her place in music.