Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.
A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM is a nicely-tuned hour, sweet and nostalgic stuff for the eyes and even to viewers for whom jazz music holds minimal interest.
The 1994 short feature tells the story behind the famous Esquire Magazine photo of 1958, for which young shutterbug Art Kane put out a call to all the great jazz artists in New York City to gather for a single group portrait on a Harlem stoop at 10 a.m. in the morning on August 12. Kane was amazed when practically all of the notoriously night-owl musicians (it was said jazz players didn't know there were two ten o'clocks in one day) really did show up.
