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Jazz on a Summer's Day/A Summer's Day With Bert Stern 
Actors : Jimmy Giuffre, Thelonious Monk, Henry Grimes, Sonny Stitt, Sal Salvador
Director : Bert Stern, Aram Avakian
Studio : New Yorker Video
by New Yorker Video
Release Date : 2000-03-14
Publisher : New Yorker Video
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9781567302141
UPC : 717119165048
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 38 reviews)
List Price : $29.95
Our Price : $26.97
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Marketadvisory.com essential video |
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Part concert documentary, part pop-cultural time capsule, Bert Stern's Jazz on a Summer's Day chronicles the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival with an approach as deceptively relaxed, even impulsive, as the music itself. Still photographer Stern sidesteps more formal documentary conventions such as narrative voiceovers to wander purposefully from festival stage to boarding-house jam sessions, taking in the parallel color and motion of the America's Cup preparations when he isn't capturing rich color footage of the performances and the celebratory mood of the concertgoers. In the process, he documents American jazz at a notably golden moment in its development--diverse, adventurous, and still broadly popular, this was jazz not yet under the shadow of rock and youth culture, played by an integrated artistic community a few short years away from social and political turmoil that would boil divisively to the surface during the '60s. To say Stern was rolling film in a jazz Camelot is overstatement, but only slightly so. Stern's circular approach and wonderful eye achieve a breezy languor at the expense of more comprehensive coverage of the festival's bumper crop of strong jazz, blues, and gospel musicians. Perhaps inevitably, the camera lingers on Louis Armstrong, Anita O'Day, Mahalia Jackson, Dinah Washington, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, and George Shearing. Avid fans of later styles may be frustrated by the fleeting glimpses of other musicians such as Eric Dolphy and Art Farmer, or the honor roll of classic jazz stylists whose Newport sets weren't included in the film, but such omissions seem forgivable, if not necessary, to Stern's serendipitous design. --Sam Sutherland |
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A Time Capsule |
Jazz on a Summer's Day captures a day in time that for me is magic. Each musician at the top of his or her game, set for all who lived through that era to enjoy again.
Those too young to have known this time will enjoy seeing some of the Jazz legends of the era.
The Newport Jazz Festival was a legendary meeting of the new and the old.
The open car scenes at the beginning and at the end capture the spirit of the times! |
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Some PERFECT jazz plus blues gospel and more |
First of all, let me tell you how thrilled I am by this DVD - it has amazing musical moment with, for instance, Thelonious Monk, Anita O'Day, Mahalia Jackson and Louis Armstrong shining very brightly (although, yes, the Monk number is marred by some mood shots and other interventions...), Satchmo and Teagarden crooning and scatting magnificently... Actually, I don't think I've seen a more beautiful footage of Armstrong's performance; he was still on the top in the 50s and Bert Stern portraits him beautifully, with some fortunatelly stylized stage lighting.
And it goes beyond music; check out the glamour of O'Day's attire, the moment very spirited Dinah Washington grabs the battons and joins Terry Gibbs on the vibes, the look on great Jo Jones' face while he supports Chuck Berry or, for that matter, the bizarre clarinet spot on that number - someone's review said it's Peanuts Hacko (who is too caucasian, as you can see on Armstrong's numbers on some other DVD's), others mention Rudy Rutheford - I don't know how he looked like (I do know he played in Count Basie orchestra back in 40s or something like that, so I guess he might be African American)...
I would agree with those who say that cool jazz numbers don't fare here as well as the traditional jazz, blues, gospel, mainstream and some modern ( Thelonious Monk!) numbers, even with the annoying break in the middle of the Sonny Stitt-Sal Salvador performance.
The breaks in the performance grow rarer as the film reaches the end, so there is place for true climax and musical as well as cinemathic catharsis in the end. But, from strictly cinematic point of view, I must add that there are some really fine shots; even the disinterested lady eating ice-cream looks interesting - it probably is a picture of the festival culture before the 50s, as is the attempt to connect it with the entertainment and leisure industry in general....
All in all, this is a unique jazz experience (and an interesting although not perfect film), recommended (or, should I say indispensable) to all serious jazz fans and interested beginners. |
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Beautifully done |
I don't normally buy DVDs, especially documentaries, since usually I feel after I've seen it once or twice its time to move on. Particularly music - I'd just as soon listen to the CD - the movie is usually a distraction. But this one is exceptional and worth buying and seeing again and again. It really is like being there and the mood of the music is complemented by the scenes of the audience and street scenes.
The colors are very good, and without any plot or voiceover to get in the way (though Stern says in an additional commentary on the disc they tried to put a story in but gave up) it is just the music and the audience. The audience captures the feeling of being there - the feeling of the time and place. There are some beautiful scenes of the water and jam sessions in houses and on the beach.
A very nice Summer day. |
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an excellent preservation of time |
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This is a beautiful looking film. Stern was essentially a photographer who got ahold of film equipment and was able to document this event (the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival). The sheer quality of the images (keep in mind it was 1958) really reflect Stern's true calling as a photographer. That being said, no, he is not a filmmaker by trade; if you are looking for a masterful film, look elsewhere; if you are looking for footage of the jazz musicians, by themsleves, isolated from the experience of playing to an audience, look elsewhere. However, if you want a great looking document portraying the experience of great jazz musicians playing to a crowd in 1958, and what it really looked and felt like, this is the film you must own. In my opinion, the opening scenes of Jimmy Guiffre playing (a vastly underrated jazz legend) are enough to get someone hooked. Lastly, this is one of the times when the DVD-format really shows its advantages in terms of sound. It's fantastic, and really captures the experience of this 1958 event like nothing else. |
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A fabulous bit of jazz history |
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We got this after seeing the Anita O'Day clips on YouTube. We think she certainly was one of the stars of this event, but the entire documentary is delightful and inspiring, both for the music recorded and the recorded moments of the jazz audience in 1958. Worth owning! |
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