First of all, I’m in love with Anita O’Day! What a performer she was here!
But this film is a wonderful portrait of a classic American institution--Newport, the granddaddy of American jazz festivals. I love the opening sequence with the soundtrack of Jimmy Giuffre’s sax trio playing against the wide-ranging visuals: Right away, we get the idea this isn’t a normal documentary, but is really a portrait of a summer holiday weekend.
Director Bert Stern was a still photographer (you may remember him as the one who did the now classic, innocently sexy photos of Marilyn Monroe rolling around on white bedsheets), and here, I think he really brings a fresh look to a medium for which he was not known.
My favoite moments are the aforementioned set by Anita O’Day and the incredible duet between Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden (about an hour and three into the film). These two performances are priceless!
My strongest criticism of the film is that the audience shots are often very poorly matched to the soundtrack. I swear some of those vignettes were shot between sets when nothing was happening on stage.
My strongest criticism of this particular version of the film is the incredibly in-artful insertion of the several (but thankfully very, very short)commercials. I can understand commercial breaks, but these are just shotgunned into the film with absolutely no thought as to where and how they are inserted.
But all counted (and that includes the commercials), this is a fine portrait of a time long-past, and a style of jazz that just isn’t found all that often anymore, except on recordings.
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