Jazz.  This uniquely American music, conceived in the travails of West African immigrants living in a world completely at odds with their roots, and evolved gradually through the influences of ragtime, folk, dixieland, and big-band has left no facet of modern, western culture untouched.

Jazz is a study in fluidity, change, expression, spontaneity, and unabashed creativity having endured countless, radical shifts in form, style, and philosophy.

Minted on the bayous of New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century and cultivated in the speakeasies and smoky clubs of Kansas City and Chicago up through the 1940s, the journey of jazz through American culture and geography arrived at what many consider its zenith in New York’s 1950s bepop scene.  Bepop was largely the product of eccentric, luminary genius, Thelonius Monk’s intensely progressive and influential innovations in time, rhythm, beat, phrasing, and overall ideology.  It’s entirely possible however, that the world might never have had the fortune of experiencing this movement if not for an over-privileged, super-refined British baroness named Nica.

It’s probable that you’ve never heard of the Baroness Kathleen Annie Pannonica de Koenigswarter, also known as Nica Rothschild, but it’s likely that you’re ears have been privy to the many fruits of her efforts.

Born into the globally influential Rothschild financial empire, Nica lived a life of unspeakable luxury rivaled only by royalty.  But it seems she was destined for a life of excitement and uncertainty in the Big Apple when in 1951 she missed her plane back to Britain because she couldn’t tear herself away from the curious music of Thelonius Monk.

Nica’s great-niece, Hannah Rothschild, the film’s writer and director tells the story of her great-aunt’s strange and compelling relationship with one of America’s most famous and respected musicians in the style of a mystery.  She has set out to discover the “truth” about Nica’s extraordinary life and its impact on the many giants of jazz that knew her well.

It is endlessly fascinating listening to grizzled old musical trailblazers and their posterity reminisce about how Nica earned her status as the “Jazz Baroness.”  Monk was known as the “Father of Bebop.”  Nica may well be know as its mother, as she worked tirelessly and by all accounts, altruistically, to make sure that legends like Monk and Charlie Parker always had groceries, a place to practice, and stayed out of jail.

Though the film is a fairly conventional documentary that contributes little to its form featuring the requisite talking heads and slow zooms on photographs, it manages to captivate and enthrall with an intriguing story and fantastic music.

(3 and half out of 5)