MARK CANTOR

From Celluloid Improvisations...

Perhaps best known for his crowd-pleasing annual programs at the Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles, Mark Cantor has worked as a preservationist and researcher for 30 years and has assembled one of the most comprehensive collections of popular music on film in the United States.

Celluloid Improvisations is a major archive of jazz (and jazz- influenced and/or related) music preserved on 16 mm sound film, video-tape and laser disc. Numbering more than 4,000 separate titles, the archive's "holdings", while focusing on jazz, also includes examples of such related forms of American music as Blues, Swing, Western Swing, "Pop", rhythm and blues, vernacular dance, etc. "Cantor's collection is an extraordinary treasure trove," enthuses the Los Angeles Times. "In a just world, it would be available to jazz fans on a frequent and regular basis... A dedicated archivist, he is also an entertaining host, providing detailed information as well as insightful, often humorous anecdotes about the many clips he presents."

Films from the archive have been shared publicly over the past thirty years for a wide variety of sponsors, including Playboy Enterprises, The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, The International Association of Jazz Record Collectors, Monterey Jazz Festival, California African-American Museum as well as a variety of film archives, cinemateques and jazz festivals. International screenings include the Rio de Janeiro Festival of Jazz on Film, Festival de Popoli (Florence, Italy), and Academie du Dance (Paris, France).

Along with the public exhibitions of jazz films, Mr. Cantor has served as a consultant in the production of a large number of documentaries and feature film presentations and books related to music on film. His footage has been widely used by television/ documentary/CD ROM producers, and has been shared in such presentations as Motown Returns to the Apollo, The Soundies: Music For the Eyes, Celebrating Bird, Satchmo, The Many Faces of Billie Holiday, Thelonius Monk: Monk's Music, Glenn Miller - America's Musical Hero, Benny Goodman: Adventures In The Land Of Swing, Ken Burns' Jazz and the Academy Award-nominated A Great Day In Harlem. Burns has said, "Mark Cantor has one of the very best collections of jazz films in the world. He was an invaluable asset to our Jazz series whose generous advice helped us unearth some extraordinary footage."

Mr. Cantor is a professional educator who has taught all levels of school from kindergarten through college extension. He has written album notes for jazz recordings and has assisted in their production, and he is currently writing a book on Panoram soundies, which will be the definitive work on these "music videos" (juke box film shorts) of the 1940's. As a well-known authority on the subject of jazz on film Mr. Cantor is regularly contacted by filmmakers, television producers, newspersons and writers for information relating to jazz music and its documentation on film.

Read more about Mark Cantor on his website, Celluloid Improvisations.