Jazz On A Summers Day (Blu-ray)

The Newport Jazz Festival was created in 1954 by Rhode Island socialites Elaine and Louis Lorillard, and it couldn't have come at a better time in history. With a few exceptions, the big band jazz scene had waned in the early 1950s and, in its place, smaller groups and solo performers took centre stage, which suited the nature of a festival perfectly, and Newport achieved immediate success. By its fifth edition, the talent lineup reflected Newport's status as one of the pre-eminent music festivals in the US.

Photographer Bert Stern and director-editor Aram Avakian’s film of the 1958 iteration of the Newport Jazz Festival captures many of the key performances across its four-days. Performers included Dinah Washington, Gerry Mulligan and Art Farmer, Chico Hamilton and Eric Dolphy, Anita O’Day, Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong and the extraordinary Mahalia Jackson.

A key element of Jazz on a Summer’s Day, which would come to inspire subsequent concert films, was its focus on the audience. Through cutaways interspersed throughout the performances, the filmmakers present a time capsule of the US as it edged towards the New Frontier of the Kennedy era. It was this moment – the hope of change – that so many jazz artists had been pushing towards. The resulting combination of performance and observation makes Jazz on a Summer’s Day one of the greatest concert documentaries ever made.