Anyone whos been driving home late on a weeknight, scanning the radio dial for something that matches ones mood, has found comfort in WDNA-FM (88.9). The forward-thinking jazz station, with a rightful emphasis on Latin jazz, often feels like the soul of the city intelligent, vivacious, playful obscured beneath a brash and cacophonous surface.
And if you like the playlist, youll love the Miami Jazz Film Festival, an event theyve been quietly excelling at for 13 years. Over the course of four days, WDNA will screen nine jazz-centric documentary films, beginning this Thursday with 2009s The Jazz Baronness at 7 p.m. Written and directed by Hannah Rothschild, the film sheds light on one of the great patrons of the bop and post-bop movement: Pannonica de Koenigswarter, AKA Nica, who abetted the careers of Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, and Quincy Jones. All screenings will take place at the Tower Theater in Little Havana and are free for WDNA members or six dollars for the soon-to-be members out there.
Oct. 1-4, 7 p.m., 2009