art blakey/lee morgan on dvd?

[reg]

hi

could anyone tell me if either Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Japan 1961 or Live in Paris 1959 are available on dvd. did these only come out on laserdisc? is there any more footage of lee morgan on film apart from these and the jazz 625 from 1965 available?

thanks

reg

[bertrand]

There is 20-25 minute episode of the TV show Soul with Morgan's last quintet plus Bobbi Humphrey, filmed just a few weeks before his death. They play 'Angela', 'I Remember Britt' and 'Sidewinder' (cut short at the end of the credits).

Bertrand.

[reg]

would that be the same recording as the second half of We Remember You/Lee Morgan on Fresh Sound FSCD-1024?

[bertrand]

Yes, the music on the CD is the soundtrack to the show.

Bertrand.

[Guest]

is that Morgan/Bobbi Humprhey show just a "legend" or is in exientence and traded on vhs or dvd-r?

[Stefan Wood]

It exists. I saw the footage at the Library of Congress, along with Bertrand.

[Rooster_Ties]

I've occasionally seen listed on eBay 30-40 minutes of video of a Blakey date with Lee and John Gilmore.

Is THIS footage from that date with Gilmore?? (Hard to tell from the clip, but I see nothing that indicates that it COULDN'T be Gilmore.)

How is this date?? - both performance-wise?? -- and video-quality wise (assuming the typical version that's floating around)? Is this date only available through gray-market channels?? -- or is there a comercial release of it out there somewhere?? (meaning a legit copy).

Edited March 22, 2006 by Rooster_Ties

[sidewinder]

Yes, that is John Gilmore and the performance was recorded by the BBC in London during March 1965 as part of the BBC2 'Jazz 625' series. Victor Sproles on bass and John Hicks on piano. I have the VHS in my hand as I type this. The full performance of 'Buhaina's Delight' lasts for just over 8 minutes.

The session is musically excellent and well filmed/recorded by the BBC, in the B&W format of the time. Both Morgan and Gilmore are in good form. This series was a landmark as far as jazz on TV in the UK was concerned. My copy of the video was for sale by PNE video around 10 years ago (I think there were 16 titles in the series. Wish I'd bought the lot. )

Edited March 22, 2006 by sidewinder

[Guest]

is one allowed to copy it from the Lib. of Congress?

[bertrand]

Absolutely not.

Bertrand.

[bertrand]

Sorry about the posting above being a bit curt. I will try to give more explanations.

There is a treasure trove of recordings, video etc. in the Library's holdings, plus sheet music galore (including the thousands of copyright deposits I have been gathering over the years). Of course, the Library has to be strictly rigorous in releasing any of this. All the rights-holders have to give their approval. As a result, even though I have alerted some record company executives about the existence of this material (guess which), I think they are hesitant to take on the herculean task involved in getting the approvals. The Monk/Trane from last year was a glaring exception - I was amazed at how fast it came out. I know both T.S. Monk and Ravi Coltrane were very gung-ho, which helped, but I think there's more to the story but I haven't gotten to the bottom of it yet.

Anyway, for the same reasons, I am very rigorous in observing the rules with respect to the sheet music collection. I only make copies if I have permissions.

All this would be fine, EXCEPT I have good reason to suspect things have slipped out and I think I know the source(s), and this really galls me, because it could compromise my whole project. A certain board member (who hardly ever posts) chastized me in a PM when I said that I did not have a copy of some tape in the Library with some comment like 'everyone gets tapes out of the Library of Congress'. This pissed me off royally, considering how much effort I have made over the years to stay within the system, even though it has stifled me sometimes in my research efforts.

So, to answer your question more fully, it is not possible to get a copy of this tape unless you have permission from all the stakeholders. This would be, at the minimum, the Lee Morgan and Freddie Waits estates, Billy Harper, Harold Mabern, Jymie Merritt and Bobbi Humphrey, and the producers and/or owners of the rights to the TV show Soul! (which probably included the estate of the late host, whose name escapes me at the moment). The same tape has a show on Horace Silver, so there's a whole new set of problems. Just getting permission from Horace is probably an insurmountable challenge.

It seems ridiculous to have to go through all this just to have a copy, especially when it's obvious that a lot of us would gladly buy a DVD of this show (from CD Universe, of course ) if it were to be released. Of course, no one will go to all the trouble described above for something that will not sell all that well.

Bertrand.

Edited March 23, 2006 by bertrand

[brownie]

Everybody is familiar with the BBC material by now, more footage from the Lee Morgan-John Gilmore Messengers has surfaced recently.

Filmed at the Paris Olympia on February 27/29, 1965 (not 1967)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQaoRGo9yYs

Pianist is John Hicks, bass player is Victor Sproles!

[JohnS]

Thanks for the link Brownie. I saw this band in London. Apart from Morgan and Blakey the rest of the band were unknown to me at the time.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

WHAT THE HELL!?!? are you freaking kidding me? theres more footage of the gilmore-morgan group. god i wished this band recorded in the studio (for labels other than limelight). although im startled to see this, im not suprised. what the heck is the trading circle for this sort of stuff, it must be so exclusive. this one youtube guy (in i think brazil) has it -all-! its only a matter of time till a mobley vid arises. he played concert halls in europe too, not just clubs.

Edited April 19, 2012 by chewy

[umum_cypher]

Here's how Philippe Koechlin reviewed the Olympia gig in Jazz Hot (no. 208):

And the messengers?

- Not bad, my friends, they weren't bad. Yes, one can say, above all, that they weren't bad.

And how was Lee Morgan, who I think, once upon a time, you called 'the best trumpeter of the young generation?'

- We said that? Well, he wasn't bad.

Talk about spoiled! To me the commitment is amazing. Though it's true that Lee's solo is metaphorical for his career in general: starts on a high and gets into difficulties pretty quickly ...

I never really used to, but I like Blakey's post-Elvin style update more and more.

Edit: it occurs to me that there's a tape (which I haven't got round to listening to yet) of one of the opening sets from these Olympia shows - by the Jimmy Giuffre trio (!). Headline of the Melody Maker review of the Giuffre set at the tour's London stop: 'My Word, It Did Sound Queer'.

Edited April 19, 2012 by umum_cypher

[robertoart]

I saw the Gilmore footage a few weeks ago on youtube and thought not to link it because everyone would have seen it. Never assume I suppose.

What is it with these collector hoarders? Would it possibly have adverse effects on professional releases perhaps (or musician's families interests), if footage was 'liberated' to public domain sites like youtube? Do the collectors alert production companies of the availability of film/audio. Or is it all about money.

There is one youtube collector who tapes things off TV, then offers edits on youtube with 'contact info' if you want more. C'mon can't you just upload this kind of content?

[umum_cypher]

I saw the Gilmore footage a few weeks ago on youtube and thought not to link it because everyone would have seen it. Never assume I suppose.

What is it with these collector hoarders? Would it possibly have adverse effects on professional releases perhaps (or musician's families interests), if footage was 'liberated' to public domain sites like youtube? Do the collectors alert production companies of the availability of film/audio. Or is it all about money.

There is one youtube collector who tapes things off TV, then offers edits on youtube with 'contact info' if you want more. C'mon can't you just upload this kind of content?

There have been cases where owners of rare music footage have put extracts up to test the water - see if it gets enough hits to justify putting it out commercially.

[bertrand]

That's a very wise approach.

If I access multiple times with the same IP address, does this count as one hit or many? In the latter case, we at organissimo might be able to speed up the release!

Bertrand.

[JohnS]

Edit: it occurs to me that there's a tape (which I haven't got round to listening to yet) of one of the opening sets from these Olympia shows - by the Jimmy Giuffre trio (!). Headline of the Melody Maker review of the Giuffre set at the tour's London stop: 'My Word, It Did Sound Queer'.

The Giuffre set did sound strange. All we had been exposed to was the Train and the River.