Jazz on a Summer’s Day **** (1959, Louis Armstrong, Chuck Berry, Mahalia Jackson) – Classic Movie Review 12,316

Now we has jazz! The 1959 classic concert documentary film Jazz on a Summer’s Day stars Louis Armstrong, Chuck Berry and Mahalia Jackson.

Director Bert Stern, a famous stills photographer, turns his hand to moving pictures with this outstanding 1959 documentary feature film Jazz on a Summer’s Day, an uplifting look at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, Rhode Island.

The audience is a vibrant jumble of ages and social backgrounds, and there are also images of water and the city, but it’s the performers – Louis Armstrong, Chuck Berry and Mahalia Jackson perhaps most notably among them – that really impress. The Summer’s Day gives way to Saturday night and Sunday morning, and the last performer is Mahalia Jackson, whose one-hour programme begins at midnight and concludes with her performance of The Lord’s Prayer.

Jazz on a Summer’s Day notably features Louis Armstrong, Big Maybelle, Chuck Berry, Thelonius Monk, Dinah Washington, Gerry Mulligan, Anita O’Day, Mahalia Jackson, Sonny Stitt, Jack Teagarden, Chico Hamilton and George Shearing.

It relies on announcements by the MC Willis Conover instead of dialogue or narration.

Aram Avakian edited the film.

The Columbia Records jazz producer, George Avakian, is musical director.

The film features performances by Jimmy Giuffre; Thelonious Monk; Sonny Stitt; Anita O’Day; Dinah Washington; Gerry Mulligan; Chuck Berry; Chico Hamilton, Eric Dolphy, Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, Buck Clayton, Jo Jones, Armando Peraza, Yale College student ensemble Eli’s Chosen Six including trombonist Roswell Rudd, and Mahalia Jackson.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,316

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