Six films to stream that are essential viewing for live music enthusiasts

August has arrived and with it the reality that summer’s days are now numbered. Still, we remain without concert-level live music. As we bide time for its return as the COVID era rages on, here are six prime musical documents to enjoy from home through the wonders of Netflix, Amazon Prime and YouTube. Some are familiar, others aren’t. None are new, but all will bring some sonic cheer to your summer, even if the outdoor spirit they summon is restricted to your living room.

‘Chasing Trane’ (Netflix)

With all the well-earned accolades being awarded to the recent Miles Davis documentary “Birth of the Cool” (also available for viewing on Netflix), longstanding jazz followers as well as eager novices are also urged to dig into “Chasing Trane,” John Scheinfield’s fine 2017 documentary of saxophonist John Coltrane. The film takes a complex innovator – more specifically, an improviser and composer – who sees jazz as more of a spiritual quest than a means to a groove. “Coltrane worked on that his entire life,” said Wynton Marsalis, one of the many luminaries interviewed for the film. “‘How can I bring people together? How can I bring these cultures and this music together?’ What allowed him to bring it together was a spiritual consciousness.” But “Chasing Trane” also humanizes the artist behind such spirituality, whether it’s through Denzel Washington’s readings of Coltrane’s narrative remembrances or interviews with long-time allies like pianist McCoy Tyner and fellow sax man Jimmy Heath (both of whom died this year) along with a far reaching roster of higher profile celebrities (from Carlos Santana to Bill Clinton). A bounty of engrossing performance footage doesn’t hurt, either.

‘The Kids Are Alright’ (Amazon Prime)

A wonderful patchwork compendium of television performances, concert clips, and promotional films, this 1979 documentary of The Who is a remarkable look back at the first 15 years of the vanguard British band – a period that, far and away, defined its mix of compositional daring and onstage anarchy. Basically, the music speaks for itself, from a Mod-ish 1967 rampage of “My Generation” on The Smother Brothers Comedy Hour that ends in explosions and smashed guitars to an uproarious 1978 outing of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” at London’s Shepperton Studios that served as the final performance by drummer Keith Moon (he died three months later). While surviving Who members Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey still carry on the Who’s road legacy, “The Kids Are Alight” remains a high voltage scrapbook that preserves the extent of the band’s restless, wreckless drive that unfolded during its creative heyday.

‘Woodstock’ (Netflix)

We are only a week away from the 51st anniversary of the landmark Woodstock festival this Oscar winning 1970 documentary chronicles. “Woodstock” remains an invaluable time capsule by capturing an arsenal of period artists at the artful beginnings (Santana, Crosby Stills & Nash), creative apex (Sly and the Family Stone, Jefferson Airplane) and sagely afterburn (Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez) of their careers. But the background footage illuminating how dangerously close the entire event spun to total disaster is what will really grab you — specifically, the ongoing threats of collapsing stages, electrocutions and any number of maladies triggered by attracting an audience of 400,000. Then again, if for no other reason, “Woodstock” still fascinates today because it serves as the ultimate antithetical exhibition of social distancing.

‘Stop Making Sense’ (Amazon Prime)

By now, Jonathan Demme’s 1984 account of what turned out to be the final tour by Talking Heads has become essential viewing by rock enthusiasts of multiple generations. But seeing it pop up as a freebie on the Amazon Prime menu calls out for a second, third or maybe 45th viewing. The film is a briskly paced account of a full Talking Heads concert. There are no crowd shots until the very end. But you don’t need any when you have David Byrne bouncing around a bare stage like a pinball during the show-opening “Psycho Killer” or grooving in his famed big suit for “Girlfriend is Better.” Best of all, the music fueling show is extraordinary — a swirling pop storm that culminates in a nine-member version of the Heads that includes the late funk impresario Bernie Worrell. A timeless party of a concert film worthy of encore viewing.

The Grateful Dead YouTube Channel (YouTube)

Scores of artists have devoted extra attention to their YouTube channels during the pandemic to present all kinds of concert, video and documentary goodies. Few offer as plentiful an array as the Grateful Dead’s channel. Then again, few acts so feverishly documented their performance history in greater detail than the Dead. The channel usually features a full-length performance of some kind (under the series title “Shakedown Streams”), although the entries rotate frequently. Last weekend featured a documentary of the band’s 1978 tour of Egypt, complete with footage shot outside the Giza Pyramid. These streams usually debut Friday evenings and are available through the following Monday. But there are also loads of fun items than can be viewed anytime, including single song performances (which in the Dead’s case, can go for a half-hour) from four decades worth of archival footage. All in all, a pretty nifty way to keep the Dead alive.

‘The Rolling Stones Olé, Olé, Olé!: A Trip Across Latin America’ (Netflix)

Still smarting from the postponement of Louisville’s June concert by the Rolling Stones? Then head south of the border for a very insightful account of the band’s 2016 tour of eight Latin American countries, culminating with an historic outdoor show in Cuba. This is not a concert film, but a straight-up documentary of the Stones visiting countries that, in most cases, lived under dictatorships until relatively recently that banned rock music altogether. So what might be mere entertainment to North American fans becomes all out emancipation for these audiences. The through line is the Havana concert, which had to overcome a series of political barriers and logistic hiccups led by a near-simultaneous visit by President Obama that shifted the concert to Good Friday. That then earned the ire of the Pope, which didn’t bother Keith Richards one bit (“He’s not my manager”). But when the Stones launch into the opening “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Havana surrenders to a level of euphoria that, until this point, was unimaginable. “Only” rock ‘n’ roll? For Cuba, it was something vastly greater.