Anja Baron was born in Germany in 1965. After studies in film, philosophy, and literature at the Free University of Berlin, she received a scholarship to study in the U.S. It was a combination of her Ph.D. studies at NYU, her work as a cultural correspondent reporting on the arts in New York for European publications, and her work as a photographer that eventually brought her to work in film and television. Baron became a director/producer for both European and U.S. television and has produced and/or directed a wide range of programs for various outlets, including A&E, TLC, The Travel Channel, APTV and ZDF, TF1, and Arte. It was her lifelong love for jazz that led her to make this film, her first independently-made feature documentary. Baron currently lives in New York with her husband Ken and their daughter, Oona Day. She is honored to be part of the Tribeca Film Festival.

Jazz has been a part of my life from an early age. Growing up in Europe, I used to listen to Fats Waller, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and others, and it was particularly the music from the late 1920's and 1930's that I felt most drawn to. Years later, after having moved to New York and living there for almost 15 years, I walked into a jazz club one evening only to discover a band made up of some of the very same jazz pioneers whose music I used to listen to in Europe. But this time they were all playing together in one band, one of the longest running in the history of jazz no less: The Harlem Blues and Jazz Band, co-founded by Dr. Albert Vollmer more than 30 years ago. I immediately fell in love with the musicians and their music. Here they were at an average age of 85, still playing their hearts out and keeping the music alive. After hearing them play and getting to know the musicians, who I quickly discovered to be living embodiments of an art form and of an era that would die with them, it was clear to me that this was to be my next endeavor. What followed was an almost five-year-long filmic journey that crisscrossed continents and historical eras. During this time, the musicians graciously opened their daily lives to me with unusual candor and humility. It became evident that from a filmmaking point of view (and to do the musicians and their story justice) I had to move past the "performance film" or "talking head" approach. Here was a unique opportunity to connect with some of the roots of jazz, and these roots were not going to be around all that much longer. I envisioned this film to be their story, told in their own voices. And all of this seemed somehow symbolically encapsulated in the life of this band. Thus, it became important to me to spend as much time with the musicians as possible in settings both musical and non-musical. These settings included performing at clubs, doing a recording session, touring the globe performing, as well as witnessing them struggle with age, race issues and lack of recognition, visiting fellow jazz musicians in the hospital, loosing steady gigs and lifelong friends/colleagues, organizing musical fundraisers to pay hospital bills for those who could no longer afford their own care and attending funerals. And along the way I had the great pleasure of meeting some of the band's lifelong friends and colleagues, among them some of the most accomplished jazz musicians of the 20th century, including Lionel Hampton, Milt Hinton, Jonah Jones, Jay McShann and Clark Terry. One of the things that stood out, next to their obvious passion for their music, was an almost infectiously warm sense of community, care and respect for each other. What struck me in particular was that most of them seemed to completely lack the inflated egos of some of today's musicians, and were often as humble, kind and extraordinarily spirited as they were talented. Ultimately, I felt that spending time with these jazz pioneers was a unique, last opportunity to capture first-person accounts of the birth of America's greatest original art form. As a European, I felt singularly privileged to have been able to meet and in some cases even befriend these musicians. This access and closeness was in great part thanks to the founder of the band itself, Albert Vollmer, who can be credited with spending most of his life passionately bringing jazz and its older musicians to the general public. To him, and to the musicians who allowed me into their lives, I will forever be grateful. My time in America will forever be tied with the experience I had meeting and filming these extraordinary musicians who are such a part of American musical history. Moving beyond the stylistic connotations one might associate with a jazz documentary, I tried to create a film infused with as much heart and spirit as I feel these pioneers bring to their music. Thus, I am greatly honored that The Last of the First has been chosen to be part of the Tribec