"Actor: Thelonious Monk"

• Jazz On A Summer's Day | Blu Ray | (20/09/2021) from £10.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The Newport Jazz Festival was created in 1954 by Rhode Island socialites Elaine and Louis Lorillard, and it couldn't have come at a better time in history. With a few exceptions, the big band jazz scene had waned in the early 1950s and, in its place, smaller groups and solo performers took centre stage, which suited the nature of a festival perfectly, and Newport achieved immediate success. By its fifth edition, the talent lineup reflected Newport's status as one of the pre-eminent music festivals in the US. Photographer Bert Stern and director-editor Aram Avakian's film of the 1958 iteration of the festival captures many of the key performances across its four-day affair. Performers included Dinah Washington, Gerry Mulligan and Art Farmer, Chico Hamilton and Eric Dolphy, Anita O'Day, Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong and the extraordinary Mahalia Jackson, who would go on to give one of the most moving performances at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, featured in the documentary of that event, Summer of Soul. A key element of Jazz on a Summer's Day, which would come to inspire subsequent concert films, was its focus on the audience. Through cutaways interspersed throughout the performances, the filmmakers present a time capsule of the US as it edged towards the New Frontier of the Kennedy era. It was this moment the hope of change that so many jazz artists had been pushing towards. The resulting combination of performance and observation makes Jazz on a Summer's Day one of the greatest concert documentaries ever made. Extras: Audio commentary by music journalist Natalie Weiner Archival interviews with director Bert Stern

• Jazz On A Summer's Day | DVD | (10/09/2001) from £13.33   |  Saving you £2.66 (19.95%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The 1959 Newport Jazz Festival was a true musical watershed, as Jazz on a Summers Day reveals. This 75-minute film captures an event poised on the cusp of a new era, as the cool jazz of Jimmy Guiffre and the effortless scat of Anita ODay intermingle with the hard bop of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet and the smouldering fusion overtones of the Chico Hamilton Quintet. Theres a crisp contribution from Chuck Berry, a typically feel-good set from Louis Armstrong--including a hilarious duo with Jack Teagarden--and, as evening shades into night, a heartfelt performance from Mahalia Jackson, closing with a melting rendition of "The Lords Prayer". Bert Stern has assembled all these and more into a satisfying sequence, complete with footage of an enthusiastic and informal audience. Shots of the yachting line-up from the Americas Cup round out a blissful and what now seems blissfully naïve occasion. On the DVD: Colour picture quality has worn well, whereas sound has deteriorated notably at times: Thelonius Monks quarter-tones could easily be a semitone flat! Even so, its worth putting up with this to enjoy a tour through music-making whose relaxed spontaneity would be impossible to emulate today. --Richard Whitehouse

• Great Performers Tom Dowd and the Language Of Music | DVD | (08/10/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Tom Dowd And The Language Of Music profiles the extraordinary life and legendary work of music producer/recording engineer Tom Dowd. Historical footage vintage photographs and interviews with a who's who list of musical giants from the worlds of jazz soul and classic rock shine a spotlight on the brilliance of Tom Dowd whose creative spirit and passion for innovative technology helped shape the course of modern music.Tom Dowd's credits include recording sessions with Aretha Franklin Ray Charles Eric Clapton Otis Redding John Coltrane The Allman Brothers Band Tito Puente Dizzy Gillespie Thelonious Monk Cream Rod Stewart Lynyrd Skynyrd Booker T & the MG's and countless other musical luminaries.

• Vintage Collection - Jazz Masters 1958-1961 | DVD | (23/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Vol. 1 1958-1959 A package of the most famous jazz broadcast of all time. An all-star studio session with some of the giants of post-war jazz captured together performing a series of classic set pieces. Featuring: Henry Red Allen Count Basie Thelonious Monk Jimmy Giuffre Jimmy Rushing and a heart stopping sequence from Billie Holiday with Lester Young as one of her accompanists. Vol. 2 1960-1961 Features more priceless jazz material from vintage American television with perfor

• Thelonious Monk - Thelonius Monk - Live In '66 | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Thelonius Monk: Live In '66

• Masters Of Jazz | DVD | (27/06/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Featuring spectacular archive footage seemless performances and vivid pivotal interviews with an extraordinary array of the most famous and infamous figures in the American jazz scene including Armstrong Basie Parker Coltrane Monk Charles Holiday Vaughan BB King Duke Ellington Dizzy Gillespie Tony Bennett Billy Taylor Carmen McRae Charles Mingus Wynton Marsalis Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald Masters Of Jazz is the most impeccably detailed and indispensible 12 hou

• Steve Lacy - Lift the Bandstand | DVD | (04/12/2006) from £6.73   |  Saving you £2.26 (33.58%)   |  RRP £8.99

  This indispensable DVD offers one of the most interesting films ever made about a modern experimental jazz pioneering. The star is Steve Lacy the soprano sax innovator talking about his musical concepts and his major influences from Sidney Bechet to John Coltrane Cecil Taylor Gil Evans and Thelonious Monk who showed him the way to 'lift the bandstand'.The documentary film directed by Peter Bull presents clips of all these artists who underpin the human inspirations behind Lacy's processing of sly wit precise abstraction and mystical method. He's revealed as a sort of post-modern modernist whose music can sing it's laughing at itself crying.

• Jazz Shots from the East Coast Vol. 1 | DVD | (15/08/2005) from £13.60   |  Saving you £1.39 (10.22%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Although there have been many regions throughout the United States - and the world at large - that have greatly contributed to the development of jazz a special place must be reserved for the two coasts - namely the cities of New York and Los Angeles - where the bulk of modern jazz developed and evolved.This outstanding DVD pays homage to the two coasts and to some of the most important musicians who have spent a major part of their career there. Some of these musicians were born in the Midwest or the South and later moved to one of the two coasts. What is taken into account when placing the musician in the East or West Coast categories is where they spent the bulk of their artistic career or where they recorded their most influential works. In the case of Lester Young - whose incredible impact was felt throughout the entire country - he was placed on the West Coast due to his especially strong influence on the generations of saxophonists from that Coast.This collection focuses exclusively on live performances ranging from clubs to festivals to TV studio engagements without any speakers or introducers... Nothing but music!Tracklisting:01. Bill Evans Trio - Up With The Lark02. Bill Evans - Waltz For Debby03. Ahmad Jamal Trio - Darn That Dream04. Ahmad Jamal Trio - Ahmad Blues05. Phil Woods Quartet - My Old Flame06. Thelonious Monk Trio - Blue Monk07. Johnny Griffin - A Monk's Dream08. Oscar Peterson - Newport Blues09. Duke Ellington - Moon Indigo10. Duke Ellington - Sophisticated Lady11. Duke Ellington - Take The A Train12. Keith Jarrett - Tagore13. Keith Jarrett - Passin' Thru14. Jimmy Smith Trio - Mack The KnifeBonus Tracks:15. Oscar Peterson Trio - Newport Blues16. Roland Kirk - Unknown Theme

• Jazz On A Summer's Day | DVD | (20/09/2021) from £8.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The Newport Jazz Festival was created in 1954 by Rhode Island socialites Elaine and Louis Lorillard, and it couldn't have come at a better time in history. With a few exceptions, the big band jazz scene had waned in the early 1950s and, in its place, smaller groups and solo performers took centre stage, which suited the nature of a festival perfectly, and Newport achieved immediate success. By its fifth edition, the talent lineup reflected Newport's status as one of the pre-eminent music festivals in the US. Photographer Bert Stern and director-editor Aram Avakian's film of the 1958 iteration of the festival captures many of the key performances across its four-day affair. Performers included Dinah Washington, Gerry Mulligan and Art Farmer, Chico Hamilton and Eric Dolphy, Anita O'Day, Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong and the extraordinary Mahalia Jackson, who would go on to give one of the most moving performances at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, featured in the documentary of that event, Summer of Soul. A key element of Jazz on a Summer's Day, which would come to inspire subsequent concert films, was its focus on the audience. Through cutaways interspersed throughout the performances, the filmmakers present a time capsule of the US as it edged towards the New Frontier of the Kennedy era. It was this moment - the hope of change - that so many jazz artists had been pushing towards. The resulting combination of performance and observation makes Jazz on a Summer's Day one of the greatest concert documentaries ever made.