Guest contributor Wayne Kogan is a colleague, good friend and most of all, a fantastic source of inspiration and information. He will be back once in a while with different music posts.
Anita O'day
The other night I sat down and watched the priceless movie "Jazz on a Summer's Day" for the fifth time. Filmed at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958 by Fashion Photographer Bert Stern, it is as fresh and timeless today as on it's first release. The Audience, often filmed close up, is every bit as interesting as the line up of top tier musicians including Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Dinah Washington, Chuck Berry, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, George Shearing, Jack Teagarden, Sonny Stitt, Chico Hamilton, Anita O'Day and Big Maybelle. Anita O'Day's stellar performance of Sweet Georgia Brown made her a big star. In 1958, jazz was hip, fashionable, and sophisticated. This movie is the first music festival film, made eleven years before Woodstock, is a true masterpiece and seldom eclipsed by the hundreds of films that have come after. Even non-jazz buffs will find this movie enjoyable. August 6-8, 2010 will be the fifty-sixth edition of the festival. See the photos below.
Louis Armstrong
George Shearing
thank you Wayne , for the ispiration
ReplyDeleteP.d'A
Job well done, Wayne! Thanks for reminding us of the halcyon years of jazz with these wonderful words and photos of the fest in tribute of less self-conscious times, and when some of the art form's best were still among us and jamming.
ReplyDeleteOnce, jazz impresario George Wein gave me a copy of "Jazz on a Summer's Day" in thanks for writing something for him. It remains one of my favorite flicks to this day. -Angela G.