Powerful musical moments are undercut by exasperating blandness in this rerelease of Bert Stern’s film of the 1958 Newport jazz festival
This rerelease of Bert Stern’s filmed record of the 1958 Newport jazz festival happens to arrive in the UK just after Summer of Soul, about the 1969 Harlem cultural festival, known then as the “Black Woodstock”. Both events and both movies feature the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson – but there the comparison ends. Where Summer of Soul is amazingly vibrant and passionate, Jazz on a Summer’s Day is exasperatingly sedate and restrained and often just bloodless and dull, despite some occasionally intriguing musical offerings from musicians such as Thelonious Monk, George Shearing and Gerry Mulligan; Chuck Berry is there, on his bland best behaviour, and finally we get some powerfully charismatic appearances from Louis Armstrong and Jackson herself.
During the daytime, the movie bizarrely intercuts shots of the musicians on...
This rerelease of Bert Stern’s filmed record of the 1958 Newport jazz festival happens to arrive in the UK just after Summer of Soul, about the 1969 Harlem cultural festival, known then as the “Black Woodstock”. Both events and both movies feature the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson – but there the comparison ends. Where Summer of Soul is amazingly vibrant and passionate, Jazz on a Summer’s Day is exasperatingly sedate and restrained and often just bloodless and dull, despite some occasionally intriguing musical offerings from musicians such as Thelonious Monk, George Shearing and Gerry Mulligan; Chuck Berry is there, on his bland best behaviour, and finally we get some powerfully charismatic appearances from Louis Armstrong and Jackson herself.
During the daytime, the movie bizarrely intercuts shots of the musicians on...
- 8/27/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Dale Sheets, a television pioneer and a manager for some of the top names in music, died on Monday in Los Angeles of heart failure at age 91. His death was confirmed by longtime family friend and former business associate Rob Wilcox.
Sheets held many key entertainment industry roles during his 70-year career. An executive with McA Universal Chairman Lew Wasserman, Sheets became the personal manager of such musical artists as Mel Tormé, Vic Damone, Patti Page, Jack Jones, the Four Freshmen and George Shearing.
Sheets’ first client was Tormé, who he engaged with a handshake on a flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles.
Sheets focused on promoting Tormé’s gifts as a jazz artist, and booked him to perform for jazz venues, including the iconic Newport Jazz Festival and the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl. After “The Velvet Fog” signed a deal with Concord Jazz Records, he made...
Sheets held many key entertainment industry roles during his 70-year career. An executive with McA Universal Chairman Lew Wasserman, Sheets became the personal manager of such musical artists as Mel Tormé, Vic Damone, Patti Page, Jack Jones, the Four Freshmen and George Shearing.
Sheets’ first client was Tormé, who he engaged with a handshake on a flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles.
Sheets focused on promoting Tormé’s gifts as a jazz artist, and booked him to perform for jazz venues, including the iconic Newport Jazz Festival and the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl. After “The Velvet Fog” signed a deal with Concord Jazz Records, he made...
- 12/10/2020
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
For some documentaries to work, all the director needs to do is turn on the camera and let her subjects chat away. In I Stand Corrected, there's chatting plus the bonus of some real fine jazz, the interplay of which combines to create a simple, compelling look at a very brave, extremely talented woman, Jennifer Leitham.
The thrust of the tale, though, is that, after a highly successful career as a southpaw player of the double bass, appearing with the likes of Mel Torme and George Shearing, at age 48, Ms. Leitham underwent sex reassignment surgery. Yes, she started out life as a John.
Growing up in Redding, Pennsylvania, in the '50s, was no picnic for a lad who used to sneak into the closets of his mom and his best friends' sisters to try on their dresses. John knew then that was what made him happy. "My body was...
The thrust of the tale, though, is that, after a highly successful career as a southpaw player of the double bass, appearing with the likes of Mel Torme and George Shearing, at age 48, Ms. Leitham underwent sex reassignment surgery. Yes, she started out life as a John.
Growing up in Redding, Pennsylvania, in the '50s, was no picnic for a lad who used to sneak into the closets of his mom and his best friends' sisters to try on their dresses. John knew then that was what made him happy. "My body was...
- 6/21/2013
- by Brandon Judell
- www.culturecatch.com
Beryl Davis has died in Los Angeles, aged 87. The British singer, who was perhaps best known for her war-time ballad 'I'll Be Seeing You', passed away on Friday from complications from Alzheimer's disease. Plymouth-born Davis launched her performing career with her band leader father Harry Davis at the age of 3 and later shot to fame after singing on Bob Hope's radio show. She said that she was inspired by Us singers such as Ella Fitzgerald and toured around Europe before the war playing with well-known musicians Stephane Grappelli, Ted Heath and George Shearing. (more)...
- 11/1/2011
- by By Rebecca Davies
- Digital Spy
One of the great jazz pianists and bandleaders, he wrote Lullaby of Birdland
The pianist George Shearing, who has died aged 91 of heart failure, was the first postwar British jazz musician to move permanently to the Us and build a solid career there, effectively clearing the way for a host of other players to follow the same path. This was in 1947, at a time when Shearing and his countrymen, prevented by a Musicians' Union embargo from hearing the best American musicians in person, tended to regard these stars as supermen, wearing out their recordings, yet never imagining that it might be possible to perform alongside them in New York. However, Shearing put such negative thoughts aside and took the decision to emigrate.
His success was speedy and spectacular. By 1949, he had hit on the formula that brought him worldwide fame and colossal record sales, forming his quintet, later a sextet,...
The pianist George Shearing, who has died aged 91 of heart failure, was the first postwar British jazz musician to move permanently to the Us and build a solid career there, effectively clearing the way for a host of other players to follow the same path. This was in 1947, at a time when Shearing and his countrymen, prevented by a Musicians' Union embargo from hearing the best American musicians in person, tended to regard these stars as supermen, wearing out their recordings, yet never imagining that it might be possible to perform alongside them in New York. However, Shearing put such negative thoughts aside and took the decision to emigrate.
His success was speedy and spectacular. By 1949, he had hit on the formula that brought him worldwide fame and colossal record sales, forming his quintet, later a sextet,...
- 2/16/2011
- by Peter Vacher
- The Guardian - Film News
New York - The blind British jazz pianist and composer Sir George Shearing, most famous for his Lullaby of Birdland, died Monday at age 91. His manager Dale Sheets said the cause of death was congestive heart failure. He died in Manhattan. Shearing, whose parents were a coal worker and cleaning lady, moved to the Us in 1947 after his first successes in Britain. Two years later he had an international hit with 'September in the Rain.' His fame grew with his Lullaby of Birdland in 1952, later recorded by music greats like Ella Fitzgerald and Bill Haley and His Comets. His group, the George Shearing Quintet, performed for nearly 30 years before disbanding in the late...
- 2/15/2011
- Monsters and Critics
New York (AP) — Sir George Shearing, the ebullient jazz pianist who wrote the standard "Lullaby of Birdland" and had a string of hits both with and without his quintet, has died. He was 91. Shearing, blind since birth, died early Monday morning in Manhattan of congestive heart failure, his longtime manager Dale Sheets said. "He was a totally one-of-a-kind performer," said Sheets. "It was something wonderful to see, to watch him work." Shearing had been a superstar of the jazz world since a couple of years after he arrived in the United States in 1947 from his native England, where...
- 2/14/2011
- by Jake Coyle (AP)
- Hitfix
Jazz pianist and composer George Shearing, best known for composing the standard "Lullaby of Birdland," passed away in Manhattan on Monday morning of congestive heart failure, according his longtime manager Dan Sheets. He was 91. Shearing, who was born on August 13, 1919, in Battersea, London, composed more than 300 titles, landing multiple albums on the "Billboard" charts throughout the 1950s to 1990s. After arriving in America from England -- where he'd already developed a following -- in 1947, Shearing scored an early hit with a 1949 version of Harry Warren's "September...
- 2/14/2011
- The Wrap
Among the numerous items on his résumé, Garry Dial can include playing piano for Frank Sinatra. Not in concerts, however. Dial was someone Sinatra asked to work the ivories at his Waldorf Astoria quarters while people dropped in for chats. Not a gig to sneeze at, as there can't have been many musicians whom Ol' Blue Eyes eyed for such a personal assignment.But if Dial had never accompanied Sinatra, the Manhattan School of Music staffer and independent coach, who's currently helping Ben Stiller prepare for his keyboard duties in the Broadway revival of John Guare's "The House of Blue Leaves," would still know plenty about accompaniment. At his Midtown Manhattan home and studio recently, he was happy to dispense any number of tips to Back Stage.A Little Knowledge Is a Discordant ThingThe bearded and friendly Dial—ever ready to illustrate a point at the piano—has firm...
- 1/5/2011
- backstage.com
My father, Ian Warren, who has died aged 96, enjoyed the fine things in life: fast cars, dashing clothes, good food, fine wine and entertaining friends. He also loved music and rugby. He was one of the earliest jazz fans in Britain, had his own band while still a schoolboy (he played the saxophone and clarinet) and jammed with many of the big names of the day at his parents' house in Kensington, west London.
He befriended Duke Ellington and his band, and introduced himself to Louis Armstrong, who offered my father his first – and only – reefer in his dressing room at the Holborn Empire, central London. Later, in the Us, he met George Shearing, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Peggy Lee.
Ian's father was in the army before becoming an Egyptologist, and his mother was a member of the Seligman merchant banking family. Ian was educated at St Paul's school,...
He befriended Duke Ellington and his band, and introduced himself to Louis Armstrong, who offered my father his first – and only – reefer in his dressing room at the Holborn Empire, central London. Later, in the Us, he met George Shearing, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Peggy Lee.
Ian's father was in the army before becoming an Egyptologist, and his mother was a member of the Seligman merchant banking family. Ian was educated at St Paul's school,...
- 12/21/2009
- The Guardian - Film News
Rocker Rod Stewart has been made a Commander Of The British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in her New Year Honors list. The singer said he was "overjoyed" at the award when he received the news at his home in Palm Springs, California. He said, "It's a great honor. Although I'm living in California, I'm very proud to be British." The 61-year-old boasts more than 200 million record sales to his name and six chart number ones including "Maggie May," "Sailing" and "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" Other music stars on the royal list include deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie, who becomes a Dame, and blind jazz pianist George Shearing, who receives a knighthood.
- 1/2/2007
- WENN
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