AFI FILM FEST: WEEK 2

L istings and commentary for Week 2 of the American Film Institute Film Festival of Los Angeles, which runs through March 26:

THURSDAY

“Machito: A Latin Jazz Legacy” (U.S.A., 1986, 8:30 p.m., Barnsdall Theater, free). Machito--a great pioneer of Latin jazz, whose career began in the heyday of be-bop and continued until his recent death--is shown here in a documentary whose spirit, fire and tight organization recall Machito’s bands. The music--by, among others, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente and Dexter Gordon (who trades licks on stage with Machito) is a joy, but so is the personality of its subject. Director Carlos Ortiz shows him--still playing, living in the Bronx in the ‘80s--as a supremely approachable man, devoted to his melting-pot music, spanning years and cultures with ease and generosity.