The Curzon Soho Cinema on the corner of Frith Street and Shaftesbury Avenue is on the way to Ronnie’s if you’re heading there from Leicester Square tube. On Wednesday May 9th (6.30pm), Curzon Magazine Editor Ian Haydn Smith and Alyn Shipton will host a screening of Jazz on a Summer’s Day there, in advance of the film’s re-release on region 2 DVD.

Ian Haydn Smith writes for LondonJazz:

Bert Stein and Aram Avakian’s film is a beautifully-realised document of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival in the US, featuring performances by Louis Armstrong, Thelonius Monk, Mahalia Jackson, Anita O’Day, Sonny Stitt, Gerry Mulligan, Dinah Washington and Chuck Berry.

The film has been hailed as a fascinating and visually rich account of American cultural life in the late 1950s. Opening in daytime, the early stages of the film see the filmmakers as fascinated by the audience – their fashions and behaviour – as they are by the performers. But as night descends the music increases in its intensity, culminating in Mahalia Jackson’s stunning set.

Alyn Shipton will be around after the screening to discuss the film’s importance as a record of one of the greatest periods in jazz history. It’s a fantastic film and a rare chance to see it on the big screen.
Booking is open.