A magnificent documentary on a fabled time and place in American musical history, an "open city" with a wild and woolly nightlife of booze, gambling and prostitution, supported by the mayor who took his city and said "to hell with prohibition, let's party." This musical documentary chronicles the Kansas City blues and jazz scene, and includes interviews and archival footage of many of the greats, notably, the big-band sound of Count Basie and his Orchestra, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and his Quintet, and Ernie Williams -- who called himself "the Last of the Blue Devils."
