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Saturday, May 13, 1989
Lewis Jordan and Mark Izu in Live Performance, followed by film Jazz on a Summer's Day
This is a return engagement for Lewis Jordan and Mark Izu, the innovative jazz duo who last October performed to a packed house at the UC Theater before the Archive's premiere screening of Clint Eastwood's Bird. Jordan (alto sax, voice) and Izu (bass, sheng) have performed together for over ten years, in duet, as half of the United Front ensemble, in the dance/performance/poetry project Music-at-Large, and as members of the performance group SoundSeen. They have appeared in Europe, Canada and throughout the U.S. Their unique compositions merge diverse preoccupations: Jordan's with theater, as well as with creative structures for improvisation inspired by the blues; Izu's with a blend of Asian classical music and Afro-American jazz incorporating a number of Asian instruments. Their first album together is Travels of a Zen Baptist. Jazz on a Summer's Day Still the definitive jazz documentary-shown tonight in a new print-Bert Stern's film, shot at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, was the first of the modern music festival docs, using improvised shooting techniques and atmospheric editing to capture the "feel" of the event as well as its most representative performances. Among the artists whose talents distinguish this film are Anita O'Day, Thelonius Monk, Sonny Stitt, Dinah Washington, Louis Armstrong, Chuck Berry, Mahalia Jackson, Gerry Mulligan, Big Maybelle, Sal Salvadore, Chico Hamilton, Jack Teagarden, and Jimmy Guiffre.
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