Great Day in Harlem [DVD] [1994] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

This little documentary film became an immediate classic when it was released in 1995 and was clearly a labour of love for producer/writer Jean Bach.
The "great day" celebrated was the assembling of 57 renowned jazz musicians for a group photograph in front of one of Harlem's brownstones on 126th St. on an August morning, 1958. It was the first Esquire photography assignment for freelance art director Art Kane and the photo appeared as a double-page spread in the magazine - it has become one of the most iconic photographs in jazz history.
The film itself only runs for about an hour; interviews, stills, some 8mm. footage shot on the day and clips from "the Sound of Jazz" TV shows are cleverly edited to tell the story of the event and give some background to the people involved.
The 2-disc DVD special edition release comes in a digipack with a 4 page liner note by Whitney Balliett:
Disc 1 - Main Feature 60 mins.; Featurettes - "Stories from the making of..." 43mins; "Art Kane" 10mins; "Next generation - Bill Charlap and Kenny Washington, 25mins; "Copycat photos", 12mins.
Disc 2 - "Explore the photo" or "musicians A-Z"; both of these options access the same material - 50 short items on each musician averaging 2-3 mins each; there is no option to play all, but I estimate there is 100mins + playing time on the disc - I would recommend using the A-Z option as the navigation on the photo screen can lead you to miss a few items.
The presentation is in 1.33:1 aspect ratio throughout and in mono sound; there are no subtitles.

This is a slice of jazz history all lovers of the music will treasure; it is NOT primarily a music disc - music pervades it throughout but it is heavy on talk - informative and entertaining nonetheless.
Incidentally, this is the photo that provides a key moment in the Spielberg film "The Terminal", which features a cameo appearance by saxophonist/composer Benny Golson.

One August day in 1958, young photographer Art Kane invited all the jazz musicians then working the night clubs in New York City to meet on 124th Street for a group photo to grace the cover of `Esquire' magazine. Some 50 different musicians showed up for the photo, and this film by Jean Bach is the story of that occasion.

The problem Kane had was getting so many jazz musicians to show up at 11 O'clock in the morning, as jazz musicians work all night and often do not get to bed until sunrise. One jazz musician remarked at his astonishment on discovering that there were "two ten O'clocks in the day".

But with a handful of exceptions, show up they did. The film contains short face-to-camera interviews by many of the surviving musicians in the photo, who included Dizzie Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Marian McPartland, Count Basie, Sonny Rollins (an excellent & deeply thoughtful contribution), Gerry Mulligan, Charles Mingus, Maxine Sullivan, Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins. They talk about the occasion, about jazz, life in general and each other.

This is a 2-DVD set. DVD-1 is Bach's original and highly entertaining film; DVD-2 contains 3 hours of bonus material, a meticulously assembled montage of quotes about each musician participant which you can access via clicking on each musician's name. You have to work through each one individually, as there's no `play all' option.

Kane's original photo contained a front-row of street kids sitting on the sidewalk with the musicians. Many of these (obviously in their mature years) have been tracked down and interviewed for the film too.

It's not really a `music DVD' as such, but overall it's a great piece of history.

if you're a jazz lover of 40's,50's, 60's jazz then this is the DVD for you. Sadly most of the musicians have now passed but you can buy the poster which I now have framed in my living room, only wish I was among them on those famous steps.