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Jazz on a Summer's Day Videos

Jazz on a Summer's Day: Trailer 1

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Jazz on a Summer's Day Photos

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Movie Info

This documentary concert film captures the sounds and performances of some of the major jazz artists at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. Unlike earlier jazz movies that had been filmed in smoky black and white, this is shot in vibrant color. While musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Anita O'Day and Mahalia Jackson perform, images of beaches, sailboats on water, dancing couples and the faces of joyful audience members are intercut into the proceedings.

Genre:

documentary, music
Original Language:

English
Director:

Bert Stern
Producer:

Bert Stern
Writer:

Arnold Perl
Release Date (Streaming):

Aug 12, 2020
Runtime:

1h 25m
Production Co:

Galaxy Productions (I), Raven Films

Cast & Crew

Gerry Mulligan

Louis Armstrong

Dinah Washington

Thelonious Monk

Anita O'Day

Chuck Berry

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News & Interviews for Jazz on a Summer's Day

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Critic Reviews for Jazz on a Summer's Day

All Critics (29) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (29)

It's an exquisite look at a period that is long gone.

August 18, 2020 | Full Review…

Tim Cogshell
FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
Jackson provides a suitably formidable closer with "The Lord's Prayer," but the movie peaks early with O'Day's stoned version of "Sweet Georgia Brown" and rapid-fire scatting on "Tea for Two."

August 14, 2020 | Full Review…

J. Hoberman
The New York Review of Books
Jazz on a Summer's Day is as quietly vital a political document as it is a gloriously entertaining sprint through a long weekend that changed the music industry forever.

August 13, 2020 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Richard Whittaker
Austin Chronicle
Few films about jazz treat their subject with less cant than this one. This is photography that has the perfect feel of jazz, and beyond that leaves it alone.

February 10, 2020 | Full Review…

Phillip Riley
Sight & Sound
Several of the performances are among the treasures of filmed music; all of them, whatever their musical merit, are filmed with a rare artistry, a rare attention to making images of music that are themselves musical.

October 27, 2016 | Full Review…

Richard Brody
New Yorker
The sense of well-being is immense.

August 2, 2013 | Full Review…

Dave Kehr
New York Daily News
There's nothing to distract from the music and the joyous mood.

August 23, 2020 | Full Review…

Adam Lubitow
Rochester City Newspaper
The film's more than nostalgic - it feels like you wandered into Eden...

August 21, 2020 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…

Tom Meek
Cambridge Day
The film soars when it's about the performers.

August 20, 2020 | Full Review…

Loren King
Newport This Week (RI)
Jazz on a Summer's Day so effectively captures the energy of the moment -- making us sense the atmosphere and enjoy it vicariously -- and what's more, it doesn't overstay its welcome.

August 15, 2020 | Full Review…

Tynan Yanaga
Film Inquiry
Superb, essential.

August 14, 2020 | Rating: 4/4 | Full Review…

Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid
It's impossible to find a bad or uninteresting person on screen here; maybe people just looked cooler then.

August 14, 2020 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…

Robert Horton
The Scarecrow

View All Critic Reviews (29)

Audience Reviews for Jazz on a Summer's Day

Feb 17, 2011

There is some amazing stuff here. Dinah Washington, Louis Armstrong, Anita O'Day and Mahalia Jackson stand out.

jay n Super Reviewer