A Great Day in Harlem

I recall first seeing the lauded and multiply awarded jazz documentary A Great Day In Harlem a dozen or so years ago on PBS, and while not a jazz fan nor aficionado, it was a short film (only an hour) that seemed to compress much of jazz history into a convenient package. Later on, when PBS historian Ken Burns turned his formulaic eye on the art form, with a monstrous nineteen hour documentary series, I felt he could have learned a lot from this film.

This film is a must not only for jazz fans, but for those who are interested in a history of American music. This film truly captures a moment in time.

A one hour documentary on how a famous picture of some 30 jazzmen in 1958 was prepared one morning in 125th Street and Lenox Avenue. Thirty-five years later, those that were still alive were interviewed reminiscing of how the event took place.

The best documentary about jazz ever. If you want to know what jazz performers are like, you will learn more from this one hour film than all the hours of Ken Burns' documentary put together.

Jean Bach does the seemingly impossible with "A Great Day in Harlem. She makes a 40-year-old B&W photograph come alive.

This fun, informative documentary covers the taking of a classic photo in 1958 for Esquire, that had almost every great Jazz star of the era, from Dizzy Gillespie, to Count Basie to Thelonius Monk, etc etc.While the film is too short (just under and hour) to go into any great detail, and maybe a little too much time is spent on various greats 25 years later saying how great everyone else was, there's a sweetness and infectious enthusiasm that director Bach (no spring chicken herself) brings to this collection of memories of a time and place.