Jazz on a Summer’s Day

Both the color and the performances pop off the screen in Jazz on a Summer’s Day, fashion and advertising photographer Bert Stern’s document of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. Codirected by Aram Avakian, the film anticipates such classic cinema verité concert docs as Monterey Pop and Woodstock and features an off-the-charts lineup of greats that includes Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong, Dinah Washington, Chuck Berry, Mahalia Jackson, Big Maybelle, and more! As critic Jonathan Rosenbaum notes, it’s “probably the best feature-length jazz concert film ever made.” (85 mins., 4K DCP)