A Great Day in Harlem/The Spitball Story

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And what a day it was: nearly 60 jazz musicians, gathered on a Harlem street one morning in 1958 for what photographer Art Kane rightly, if immodestly, calls "the greatest picture of that era of musicians ever taken" (incredibly, it was also Kane's first professional shoot). Like Ken Burns's Jazz, this 60-minute documentary, an Oscar nominee in 1995, is a mixed-media affair: still photographs and 8 millimeter color footage (shot by bassist Milt Hinton and his wife) of the day itself are combined with interviews, background music, and performance clips of some of the players involved (from legends like Lester Young, Count Basie, Charles Mingus, and Thelonious Monk to lesser-knowns like Maxine Sullivan, Red Allen, and Vic Dickenson) to tell the story. There are anecdotes about 35-cent dinners, all-night jams, and film loaded upside down; about pianist Horace Silver's vegetarian diet and trumpeter Roy Eldridge's high notes; about old friends reuniting and what Hinton calls "just sheer happiness." Looking at the photo years later, Dizzy Gillespie sums it up simply: "There's a whole lotta people I like on there!"

And speaking of Diz, the DVD also includes "The Spitball Story" (produced, like the Great Day documentary, by Jean Bach), an entertaining if slight tale about the trumpeter's days with bandleader Cab Calloway. Seems Gillespie, a renowned practical joker, delighted in launching spitballs at his fellow musicians. Calloway wasn't amused--especially when one particular projectile landed onstage near him. Although Gillespie for once was not the culprit, the two had a nasty confrontation, resulting in Dizzy's firing from the band. It was, he recalls, "the best move I ever made in music." --Sam Graham

Description

A Great Day in Harlem (1994, 60 min.) - The story and sounds behind the most famous photo in the history of jazz. In August of 1958, in front of a Harlem brownstone, first-time photographer Art Kane assembled 57 of the greatest jazz stars of all time and snapped a picture that would live forever. Narrated by Quincy Jones, this Academy Award-nominated documentary includes interviews with nearly 30 jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins and Art Blakey, home movies, and rare performance footage. The Spitball Story (1997, 21 min.) - A short film about the firing of Dizzy Gillespie by Cab Calloway for one too many practical jokes.

Customer Reviews:

Bev Texas.......2007-09-11

Excellent is all I can say, WOW, so much talent and so many have gone. If you are a Jazz lover, what a collection to have, with music, interviews and history. A must buy!!!!!

got to have it........2007-06-11

Great documentary about a unique event. If you are into jazz you should see it. I wish it had more music on it, but you can't have everything!

A Great Day In Harlem.......2007-03-10

The product is masterful. The content is of great historical proportion. I hoped that bio info on more individual artists would be presented. However, this is truely a fine representation of era and subject matter.

great day in harlem commented.......2006-10-27

even though it left out quite a few others,its was good to see the muscians who brought to the world, bop,hard bop,swing. cats who really played their heart out,not only to scratch out a bare living,but for the total enjoyment and love of playing great music.

A great day for the music.......2006-08-04

The music is great. The interviews with fascinating jazz legends are wonderful. The film is totally entertaining and informative. The people who made this documentary captured something very special.

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