A Great Day in Harlem (film)

A film by Jean Bach. Nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category, Quincy Jones narrates this moving film that shares the story and sounds behind Art Kane’s historic 1958 group photograph of the period’s jazz legends—the most famous photograph in the history of jazz!

ABOUT THE FILM
Jean Bach's 1994 film, A Great Day in Harlem, is one of the best documentaries about jazz music. It is filled with anecdotes, history, and clips of classic performances. The film shows how jazz is a musical language that a network of artists developed together. While individuals had iconic personalities, everyone in the portrait performed and recorded with each other.

ABOUT THE PHOTO
Art Kane attributed his famous photograph to being young and naïve. In August 1958 he was hired by Esquire magazine to come up with a photo to open an article about jazz. He figured he would contact every major jazz musician in New York to show up on 126th street in Harlem at 10am to take a group portrait. Getting jazz musicians anywhere together at 10am seemed impossible, but to everyone's surprise 57 musicians showed up, including Milt Hinton, Charles Mingus, Gene Krupa, Sonny Rollins, Maxine Sullivan, Jimmy Rushing, Coleman Hawkins, Mary Lou Williams, Thelonious Monk, Lester Young, Gerry Mulligan, Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie.