Jazz On A Summer ' S Day DVD US 2000 Bert Stern Louis Armstrong RARE OOP Like
Item History & Price
RARE and out-of-print original 2000 U.S. release in the best quality DVD edition! Other releases look like an inferior quality VHS tape master.
Bought new, played a few times, and has been well stored ever since.Photos are of the actual item.Offering USPS Media Mail or Priority Mail shipping. U.S. only.
Performers:Jimmy Giuffre 3: Jimmy Giuffre, Bob Brookmeyer, Jim HallThelonious Monk Trio: Thelonious Monk, Henry Grimes, Roy HaynesSonny Stitt and Sal SalvadorAnita O'DayGeorge... ShearingDinah WashingtonGerry Mulligan Quartet with Art FarmerBig MaybelleChuck BerryChico Hamilton Quintet with Eric DolphyLouis Armstrong and his All-Stars: Trummy Young, Danny Barcelona, and Jack TeagardenMahalia Jackson
Bonus feature:30 minute piece A Summer's Day With Bert Stern, an interactive journey behind the scenes of Jazz On A Summer's Day.
JAZZ ON A SUMMER'S DAY review:
The concert documentary is a movie sub-genre all its own. One of the first is Jazz on a Summer's Day (1959). The film covers the Newport Jazz Festival of 1958, held at the Newport Casino and Newport High School in Rhode Island. Music impresario George Wein originally created the event in 1954, and it has continued annually ever since. Wein wanted to document the festival from the beginning but was concerned about the licensing issues surrounding the songs and the musicians. He shared his ambition with New York fashion photographer Bert Stern and Jazz photographer Aram Avakian. Both had been wanting to make their first feature film.
The two offered to record just one of the four days of the festival, hoping that all the artists would just accept being recorded after the fact. Fortunately for Wein, Stern, Avakian and entertainment history, all the artists accepted. The talent lineup for this particular day of the festival has to be one of the greatest assembled in its era: Anita O'Day, Dinah Washington, Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles just to mention a few!
Any footage of these artists on stage would be enough to make this a memorable viewing experience, but the film is also unique for its presentation of the songs. The live performances are intercut with beautiful imagery of Newport's historic Bellevue District and of the thousands of people attending the historic concert. There is even footage of some of Newport's other special events. This additional footage makes the documentary not just a record of the Newport Jazz Festival, but of all popular culture of the period.
However, the stars of the documentary always remain the musical performers, as they should be. As avant-garde photographers, both Stern and Avakian understood the power of the camera, or in this case, the cameras. The use of multiple cameras shooting simultaneously from different angles was groundbreaking for its time and is now the standard for any live performance recording.
While Avakian would go on to direct and edit a number of films, Jazz on a Summer's Day would unfortunately be Stern's only work as a film director before he returned to his first love of portrait photography. The artistic and commercial success of Jazz on a Summer's Day would set the groundwork for other celebrated concert documentaries like Woodstock (1970) and The Last Waltz (1978). All a film and music lover's delight.
Bought new, played a few times, and has been well stored ever since.Photos are of the actual item.Offering USPS Media Mail or Priority Mail shipping. U.S. only.
Performers:Jimmy Giuffre 3: Jimmy Giuffre, Bob Brookmeyer, Jim HallThelonious Monk Trio: Thelonious Monk, Henry Grimes, Roy HaynesSonny Stitt and Sal SalvadorAnita O'DayGeorge... ShearingDinah WashingtonGerry Mulligan Quartet with Art FarmerBig MaybelleChuck BerryChico Hamilton Quintet with Eric DolphyLouis Armstrong and his All-Stars: Trummy Young, Danny Barcelona, and Jack TeagardenMahalia Jackson
Bonus feature:30 minute piece A Summer's Day With Bert Stern, an interactive journey behind the scenes of Jazz On A Summer's Day.
JAZZ ON A SUMMER'S DAY review:
The concert documentary is a movie sub-genre all its own. One of the first is Jazz on a Summer's Day (1959). The film covers the Newport Jazz Festival of 1958, held at the Newport Casino and Newport High School in Rhode Island. Music impresario George Wein originally created the event in 1954, and it has continued annually ever since. Wein wanted to document the festival from the beginning but was concerned about the licensing issues surrounding the songs and the musicians. He shared his ambition with New York fashion photographer Bert Stern and Jazz photographer Aram Avakian. Both had been wanting to make their first feature film.
The two offered to record just one of the four days of the festival, hoping that all the artists would just accept being recorded after the fact. Fortunately for Wein, Stern, Avakian and entertainment history, all the artists accepted. The talent lineup for this particular day of the festival has to be one of the greatest assembled in its era: Anita O'Day, Dinah Washington, Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles just to mention a few!
Any footage of these artists on stage would be enough to make this a memorable viewing experience, but the film is also unique for its presentation of the songs. The live performances are intercut with beautiful imagery of Newport's historic Bellevue District and of the thousands of people attending the historic concert. There is even footage of some of Newport's other special events. This additional footage makes the documentary not just a record of the Newport Jazz Festival, but of all popular culture of the period.
However, the stars of the documentary always remain the musical performers, as they should be. As avant-garde photographers, both Stern and Avakian understood the power of the camera, or in this case, the cameras. The use of multiple cameras shooting simultaneously from different angles was groundbreaking for its time and is now the standard for any live performance recording.
While Avakian would go on to direct and edit a number of films, Jazz on a Summer's Day would unfortunately be Stern's only work as a film director before he returned to his first love of portrait photography. The artistic and commercial success of Jazz on a Summer's Day would set the groundwork for other celebrated concert documentaries like Woodstock (1970) and The Last Waltz (1978). All a film and music lover's delight.
