As you watch the joy etched across the face of Lionel Hampton as he melodically takes his solo on vibes, you are witnessing a bit of history. It&rsquo;s not the kind of film footage you see every day. </p><p>The American Jazz Museum understands that. This week it will open an exhibit that contains rare film footage from the John H. Baker Jazz Film Collection, which is so vast that only half of 1 percent is now on display. </p><p>&ldquo;The significance of this collection is huge,&rdquo; said Gregory Carroll, the CEO of the American Jazz Museum. &ldquo;The fact that Kansas City is the repository for one of the largest personal collections for jazz in the world in and of itself is huge. But the fact that it contains a lot of rare footage of film that hasn&rsquo;t been seen at all or in 60 or 70 years is huge.&rdquo; </p><p> The exhibit includes three experience stations &mdash; basically TV screens with a kiosk. The collection includes more than 5,000 titles and roughly 700 hours of footage dating from 1927 through the 1970s. After 10 years of collection, restoration and digitization of the 16 and 35 mm films, a portion of the collection is ready for the public to see.</p><p>On Friday, the exhibit will open to the public from 6 to 8 p.m. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The keynote speakers will include Pearl Bowser, the historical consultant on the project, and U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat. </p><p>Rodney Thompson, a local filmmaker, was a caretaker for the film collection. </p><p>&ldquo;The challenge from the beginning has been to take them from their current fragile state to a form where they could be used,&rdquo; Thompson said. </p><p>Gerald Eisterhold, president and creative director for Eisterhold Associates Inc., designed the exhibit. </p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve just tried to make this stuff a little more accessible to the public,&rdquo; Eisterhold said. </p><p>Dina Bennett, the collections consultant for the project, wrote the text for the exhibit panels that provide information about the films. </p><p>&ldquo;We are creating a box set of three DVDs,&rdquo; Bennett said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re hoping there will be people who want to have this.&rdquo; </p><p>Carroll is partial to the rare Hampton footage. </p><p>&ldquo;Lionel Hampton was an incredible vibes player,&rdquo; Carroll said. &ldquo;He was also an incredible entertainer. This particular one shows Hampton doing his thing on vibes. It shows him singing and jumping around on drums. I think he even plays a little piano. It shows you the spirit and vibrancy which he had as an entertainer. I play the instrument I play because of that.&rdquo; </p><p>The collection also includes footage of the Nicholas Brothers, tap dancers who defined the art form with acrobatics. </p><p>The footage of Bessie Smith singing in 1929 is the only known film footage of the singer. The collection also includes Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie performing &ldquo;Hot House&rdquo; in 1951 at the DownBeat Awards. </p><p>Maybe you visited the jazz museum when it opened. Well, now you have a solid reason to return.