Bruce Ricker, Acclaimed Filmmaker Known for Jazz Documentaries

Bruce Ricker, a Primetime Emmy-nominated filmmaker known for his acclaimed documentaries about jazz music, died May 13, 2011, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was 68.

According to news reports, the cause was pneumonia.

Ricker garnered acclaim for his first film, The Last of the Blue Devils, about the Kansas City jazz scene. The project led to a collaboration with Clint Eastwood, who saw the film while doing research for Bird, his biopic about saxophone great Charlie Parker.

Eastwood respected the film so much that he helped Ricker find wider distribution for it. Eastwood later served as producer or executive producer on films Ricker made for television, including Tony Bennett: The Music Never Ends, Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way and Johnny Mercer: The Dream's on Me, for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy.

Ricker was a music consultant on The Bridges of Madison County and Mystic River, both directed by Eastwood. Ricker also produced and directed the documentaries Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows, which appeared on PBS’ American Masters, and Eastwood After Hours: Live at Carnegie Hall.

In addition, Ricker was a producer, and Eastwood executive producer, on another jazz opus, Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser, directed by Charlotte Zwerin.

Ricker also directed the documentary Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That, about the titular Hollywood director.

Born in Staten Island, New York, on October 10, 1942, Ricker earned a bachelor's degree in American Studies at City College of New York. He then graduated from Brooklyn Law School, after which he taught urban law at the University of Missouri.

Apart from his filmmaking, Ricker ran the jazz music distribution company Rhapsody Productions.

Ricker’s first two marriage ended in divorce. He is survived by his third wife, a daughter, a son, his mother, three brothers and two grandchildren.