Jazz on a Summer's Day.

Review #2033: Jazz on a Summer's Day.

Cast: 

Featuring the musical talents of: Jimmy Giuffre 3 [Jimmy Giuffre, Bob Brookmeyer, Jim Hall], Thelonious Monk Trio [Thelonious Monk, Henry Grimes, Roy Haynes], Sonny Stitt and Sal Salvador, Anita O'Day, George Shearing, Dinah Washington, Gerry Mulligan Quartet [Gerry Mulligan, Art Farmer, Bill Crow, Dave Bailey], Big Maybelle, Chuck Berry, Chico Hamilton Quintet [Chio Hamilton, Eric Dolphy, John Pisano, Nate Gershman, Hal Gaylor], Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars [Trummy Young, Danny Barcelona, and Jack Teagarden], and Mahalia Jackson.

Directed by Bert Stern and Aram Avakian.

Review: 

There is something useful about trying every type of film out there, and the concert film is one of those curious genres to look into. Jazz on a Summer's Day is a film released in 1959 that detailed music played from July 3-6, 1958, for the Newport Jazz Festival, which was played in Newport, Rhode Island. It was the fifth edition of a festival that had started in 1954, as founded by George Wein and Elaine Lorillard. There have been a handful of noted performances held at the festival, such as the performance of the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1956 that was called one of the most famous in jazz history, capped with a 27-chorus solo by tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves. The next year saw extensive documentation by Verve Records with albums of recorded performances from numerous performers that went from Ella Fitzgerald to Count Basie. The basis of this film involves performers from the 1958 festival. The film was directed by a commercial photographer in Bert Stern and editor/director Aram Avakian (who was described once as having "avant-garde tendencies"). Stern was one of the three cameramen while Avakian edited the film and his brother George served as musical director that utilized his connections as an executive at Columbia Records. Stern wouldn't direct another feature, but Avakian would direct again while editing a handful of films, with such examples being the editor of The Miracle Worker (1962) and director of End of the Road (1970), an X-rated comedy-drama.

As a film involving the playing of jazz cut to images, it is a pretty good time for those who will accept something that is compromised by the decisions made by Stern and the Avakians in what to show and what not to show. This is perhaps most apparent by the opening two groups, in which a gradual reveal of the first group is done with credits (which is interesting) is then followed by a cut from Thelonious Monk to footage of America's Cup yacht trials that has a bit of voiceover in the way.  In general, the thing to remember about selecting what to film and not to film makes any type of film documenting a festival a fortuitous challenge. One can't please everyone, especially since the film does not cover artists such as Duke Ellington or Miles Davis. You think about these things and other curiosities, such as Anita O'Day, who admitted later she was high on heroin at the time of her performance. It isn't the definitive concert film, but it is a film of charmful curiosity that will suffice for 85 minutes. You'll hear the music and probably see just how your reaction tracks with the shots that come every so often of audience members viewing it in real time, one who couldn't have seen where these music artists will go from there, particularly with rock-and-roll artist Chuck Berry. The highlight, or at least the one that undoubtedly is most promising is Louis Armstrong and his performance of "Rockin' Chair", because no one can resist a famed presence, especially one who is obviously more than just a showman when it comes to performance. O'Day, regardless of the cuts to the audience, is obviously in her element with "Sweet Georgia Brown" and being infectious in energy. Jackson performed twice at the actual festival, once with the Duke Ellington Orchestra and the other at midnight as Saturday turned into Sunday on July 6 that had her sing gospel songs, which is certainly interesting to help close a film.  In the end, the road to putting festivals on film (fragments or not) is a strange one, but one can't go wrong picking this film to go along the road to seeing the coverage of music and audience alongside future documented works such as Woodstock (1970) and beyond. It's not a hard film to find and therefore should be a useful one to seek out for oneself to get a start on what all the fuss is about with jazz.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.