Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17596 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-09-10
• Rating: Exempt
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Colour, DVD-Video, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 85 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The 1959 Newport Jazz Festival was a true musical watershed, as Jazz on a Summer's Day reveals. This 75-minute film captures an event poised on the cusp of a new era, as the cool jazz of Jimmy Guiffre and the effortless scat of Anita O'Day intermingle with the hard bop of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet and the smouldering fusion overtones of the Chico Hamilton Quintet. There's a crisp contribution from Chuck Berry, a typically feel-good set from Louis Armstrong--including a hilarious duo with Jack Teagarden--and, as evening shades into night, a heartfelt performance from Mahalia Jackson, closing with a melting rendition of "The Lord's Prayer". Bert Stern has assembled all these and more into a satisfying sequence, complete with footage of an enthusiastic and informal audience. Shots of the yachting line-up from the America's Cup round out a blissful and what now seems blissfully naïve occasion.

On the DVD: Colour picture quality has worn well, whereas sound has deteriorated notably at times: Thelonius Monk's quarter-tones could easily be a semitone flat! Even so, it's worth putting up with this to enjoy a tour through music-making whose relaxed spontaneity would be impossible to emulate today. --Richard Whitehouse

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:

Detailed Illustrated Biographies of the film's artists
Charly CD-Rom catalogue
An illuminating documentary providing an insight into the making of the film and the Newport Jazz Festival
PLUS a bonus audio CD of the film soundtrack

NTSC, all regions
English Dolby Surround 5.1

Synopsis
This video honoring the Newport Jazz Festival combines footage from the musical event with highlights of the 1958 America's Cup Race. Acclaimed as one of the best jazz films ever made, JAZZ ON A SUMMER'S DAY captures some legendary performances by jazz greats such as Thelonius Monk and Louis Armstrong in a whimsically beautiful manner, transporting the viewer back to that clear day in 1958. Director Bert Stern's camera not only captures the humanity and brilliance of these jazz legends, it also creates an aura of warm nostalgia for that very special era in American history.

Customer Reviews

a gem of a film
The greatest jazz film of all time. 1958 was a turning point in modern music and this film encapsulates the transition between the traditional and the modern. The Newport Jazz festival has been going now for 50 years but at no other festival was such a diversified line up of artists assembled. From Louis Armstrong to Chuck Berry, Anita O'Day to Theolonius Monk, this is a concert to savour. Shot by a fashion photographer and linked with stunning passages featuring the 1958 America's cup, this is more than a concert film. It is a study of 1950's America having a great time on a summer's day. Buy it.

A day not to be missed.
I was 16 and in Missouri when this movie was made and when I saw the film, it just told me that there was a great wide world out there and I wanted to get to it fast. I spent years and years trying to find a record of Jazz on a Summers Day, but nothing appeared. Copyright problems I was told. Well, there is no problem now! I can put the DVD on my computer and just listen to the magic of the day or sit and watch. The movie and music capture an America long gone, and I miss that. But at least the DVD gives me that day when the sun shone and the music was HOT.

If you like 50's Jazz, this defines it in toe tapping style
When I first saw this, more than 10 years ago, I remember being transfixed.
Although the cinematography could be said to now show it's age, it beautifully conveys a feeling of the time. The warmth, brilliance, genius, sense of fun and in retrospect naiveté of a bygone era.
My personal favorite has to be Mahalia Jackson, as there is so little footage of her around.
To sum up though, I would defy anybody to watch this and not come away with some positive feeling that they would wish to keep with them.