Pre-1975 Jazz DVDs

[GA Russell]

I would enjoy seeing music from the 50s and 60s.

Are there any DVDs available besides the Ralph Gleason show? What was that called?

[Free For All]

There was Jazz Casual which was Gleason's show. Jazz Scene USA was hosted by Oscar Brown, Jr.

I know both shows have been issued on DVD. I've noticed lately they've issued combinations of several Jazz Casual shows on one DVD. I just picked up a DVD with all three of Woody Herman 's appearances. The Jazz Scene USA releases are twofers- two half-hour sets by different artists. One of the cool things about Jazz Scene is that each guest does their own version of the show's theme song, so you get to hear the tune interpreted by Cannonball, Rosolino, Kenton, Jimmy Smith et al.

Really great music on both shows.

EDIT: Also recently released are several DVDS of mid-70s Montreux jams with artists such as Milt Jackson, Basie, OP, Mary Lou Williams, Roy Eldridge etc. I've heard these are very good quality.

Edited October 6, 2004 by Free For All

[Claude]

Try to find a DVD with The sound of Miles Davis TV show from 1959. It is absolutely essential. It is available on 2 european DVDs, but I don't know about a US release.

Then there is also the very entertaining Jazz on a summer's day, which is a documentary-fiction from the 1959 Newport Jazz Festival . But it does not contain complete performances, just short extracts from tunes.

There is a site dedicated to Jazz on film: http://www.jazzonfilm.com

Most of the films listed there never made it to DVD or even VHS, or the VHS is OOP. One of the ways get them is through filesharing networks, where many TV or VHS dubs are shared. This is illegal of course, it can take days to download a movie and the picture quality varies a lot.

[king ubu]

Try to find a DVD with The sound of Miles Davis TV show from 1959. It is absolutely essential. It is available on 2 european DVDs, but I don't know about a US release.

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=6342

Find some discussion there. As you'll see I got a single DVD with the Jammin' the Blues film, the Miles, and some more.

ubu

[GA Russell]

Thanks for your recommendations! The name Jazz Casual came to me as I was driving home from work today. Funny how you get ideas while driving!

[GA Russell]

It occurred to me to go to Amazon and look under DVD>Music>Jazz for ideas. Unfortunately, most of them are out of print.

I then went to Deep Discount DVD and just punched in "Jazz" for the title and came up with quite a few, although most are more recent than 1970 as you would imagine.