jazz on a summer's day july 25 - 31, 1997 photo: louis armstrong in JAZZ ON A SUMMER'S DAY

Bert Stern, 1958; 82 minutes Brand-new 35mm color print struck from original negative! Visit Bert Stern's Website. Bert Stern stood at the forefront of New York's photographic elite when he made JAZZ ON A SUMMER'S DAY, his first--and unfortunately, his only--foray into filmmaking. Stern's still images have long since become the stuff of art anthologies and gallery exhibitions, and his single movie remains a classic to which few music festival documentaries can hold a candle. This witty, insightful film gives us the Newport Jazz Festival as it was celebrated in 1958, by a joyous, interracial crowd of passionate jazz enthusiasts. Not only does Stern offer us performances by artists of the highest caliber--many now gone--but he also frames the faces of an audience from the Eisenhower era, as yet unmarked by coming socio-political storms. As superb film art, musical event and fascinating time capsule, JAZZ ON A SUMMER'S DAY is not to be missed! Featuring: Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Chuck Berry, Dinah Washington Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Jimmy Giuffre, Anita O'Day, Jack Teagarden, Chico Hamilton, Sonny Stitt, George Shearing, and Big Maybelle. calendar program notes and times

Mahalia Jackson in JAZZ ON A SUMMER'S DAY Anita O'Day in JAZZ ON A SUMMER'S DAY

"One of the most pleasurable of all concert films....When Mahalia Jackson, with her majestic chest tones, sings the word 'soul,' she defines it for all time." -- Pauline Kael "Stern's technique follows the improvisational ways of the jazz men, combining the style of the hairspring-trigger-happy newsreel photographer with the approach of the surrealist painter... . One of the most exciting jazz concerts ever recorded, a perceptive document of a time and place, a vivid adventure in sight and sound, a dazzling delight in glorious color." -- Judith Crist "Conjures up an innocence which may never have existed except in our memories, but which...is no less precious." -- Ken Emerson, The Boston Phoenix Friday, July 25: 4 and 8:30 pm Saturday, July 26: 4:15 and 8:15 pm Sunday, July 27: 6:15 pm Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, July 28, 29 and 30: 6:15 and 10:15 pm Thursday, July 31: 9 pm