"A hauntingly memorable tribute to the musical genius of four jazz veterans, Bill Dixon, Paul Bley, Archie Shepp and Cecil Taylor, each of whom represents the vanguard of improvisation and modern trends in their field. The subject also involves the music of the 'October Revolution in Jazz' which took place at the beginning of the 1960s in New York City. Twenty years after the emergence of bebop, a new generation of musicians pushed jazz beyond its traditional limits toward total freedom, representing a militant aesthetic and political commitment to these changes. We see Paul Bley, reminiscing about his involvement with this new music, going back to his early associations with musicians like Ornette Colemen, Don Cherry and Charlie Haden. He speaks about the differences between harmonic and rhythmic forms of freedom and his use of video recordings.... Bill Dixon, founder of the Jazz Composers Guild...speaks out against the continued institutional racism in American schools, especially regarding black improvised music. Archie Shepp talks about the origins of Afro-American music, and his admiration of Coltrane; and Cecil Taylor, in an outstanding sequence, demonstrates the brilliant transports of creative passion that a jazz pianist can weave. Imagine the Sound is a memorable film experience, dramatizing the anger and exaltation felt by musicians who have dared to venture into an unknown lyric-landscape, where elusive, unheard harmonies are concealed." San Francisco Film Festival, 1981