Cheap Jazz on a Summer's Day (Video) (Thelonious Monk, Dinah Washington, Gerry Mulligan, Big Maybelle, Chuck Berry, Chico Hamilton, Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson) (Aram Avakian, Bert Stern) Price
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| ACTORS: | Thelonious Monk, Dinah Washington, Gerry Mulligan, Big Maybelle, Chuck Berry, Chico Hamilton, Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson |
| CATEGORY: | Video |
| DIRECTOR: | Aram Avakian, Bert Stern |
| THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE: | 01 January, 1959 |
| MANUFACTURER: | New Yorker Films |
| MPAA RATING: | NR (Not Rated) |
| FEATURES: | Color, NTSC |
| TYPE: | Music Video - Jazz |
| MEDIA: | VHS Tape |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
| UPC: | 717119165031 |
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Customer Reviews of Jazz on a Summer's Day
As hip as they come Bert Stern has both an eye and an ear for jazz, par excellence, capturing the spirit of the Newport Jazz festival in its heyday. This is a wonderful showcase of performances, ranging from the detached Thelonius Monk to the super cool Anita O'Day. But, without doubt, the performance that stands out is that of Mahalia Jackson who brings the crowd to their feet with "40 Days" and then brings them to their knees with her closing psalm, so passionately felt.
The movie takes you through a figurative day, capturing the sea air of Newport, the quiet practice sessions, the ebb and flow of the crowd as it grows to its evening peak, with a rocking performance by Chuck Berry. The Satchmo takes a wonderful turn at the mike with Jack Teargarden joining him in a fun duet. Chico Hamilton is there in all his seriousness with Eric Dolphy highlighting the band's performance. George Shearer looks like he could be playing at the Hollywood Bowl.
I was hoping for more extras on the DVD. The movie leaves you craving for more music. The 50's were the peak of the hip jazz scene and this movie is as hip as they come.
A piece of yesterday, live and in color
Bert Stern was a still photographer who got the opportunity to take a film crew to the 1959 Newport Jazz festival. With limited time and film, Stern and his crew set out not just to record a musical event, but to record a social experience.
For the most part, he succeeds, although there is more than enough footage of a boat race on Chesapeake bay that day to last me for the rest of my life.
The film cuts from performances to reactions of the crowd, as any concert film would. It's interesting to see the wide difference in clothing styles that appealed to people in 1959. Everything from men in suits to greasers in denim can be seen dancing and grooving along with the music.
People living nearby the festival can be seen partying on their roofs and dancing, booze in hand, to the music. People of every age are shown bopping along with whoever is on stage at the time.
Highlights: Anita O'Day's spot-on performance, in spite of the fact that she's well into her much-ballyhooed drug and booze habit (in a recent radio interview she said she couldn't remember doing this gig after even watching the film); Louis Armstrong, Jerry Mulligan, and the rather out-of-place, clearly there-for-the-kids but dressed to the nines and behaving himself, Chuck Berry. Older jazz guys have no idea what to make of Chuck, and one guy, in an attempt to "jazz up" Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen," starts playing some rather odd clarinet runs. Think "Sweet Little Bar Mitzvah."
There's a nice bunch of extras on here, too, including an interview with Stern that expalins a lot about what was going on.
If you like jazz, or documentaries, or just good music, this is a keeper.
An absolutely wonderful documentary of Jazz
While I've not seen other Jazz movies or documentaries, I've seen Jazz on a Summer's Day on both VHS and on DVD and enjoy it so much that I've watched it several times and just had to purchase it on DVD.
I have always loved the classic Jazz of the 1950's and 1960's and this film documents one of the best Jazz festivals around, and I think this was the first Jazz festival in what we now know as the Newport Jazz festival.
What I love about this film is how Bert Stern uses his movie camera to shoot the film, much like a still camera and framed the shots just the same. I find it works on motion film as on still photography, especially in this kind of documentary where your documenting a concert. I love the B-roll shots of kids playing, grown ups sunbathing, the dixieland jazz band, the couples driving their vintage autos, and of course the Yaught(sp?) club races and overall, I find that Bert Stern does an incredible job of showing the general atmosphere of the concert and the weather of late summer in Rhode Island.
I find this an incredible film that is worthy of multiple viewings. Not just for it's incredible of shooting techniques, but for the music that is represented here. Lots of great names such as Anita O'Day, Thelonious Munk, George Shearing, Dina Washington etc. I love Bert's use of the reflections of the boats on the water for the opening sequence, mated to Jimmy Giuffrie's live rendition of the Train and the River. All in all, I rate this film a definate 5.