Jazz on DVD

[BillF]

Jazz on DVD is a relatively new area for me. I've been a member of Lovefilm (U.K. equivalent of Netflix) for almost a year and only used it for cinema movies. Some days ago I misspelled a film name during a search and got Sun Ra instead! Realising there might be more, I entered the word "jazz" and got 800 items!! So I added a modest 32 to my rental list and the first arrived today: Maynard Ferguson and His Orchestra and the Tony Scott Quartet at the Prague Jazz Festival 1968. The leaders were hugely impressive, their Czech accompanists less so.

Any recommendations for unsuspected DVD treasures which I can probably get from Lovefilm? If you're really into jazz DVDs, which do you think are absolutely unmissable?

[sidewinder]

Bill - try the Clarke/Boland Big Band "Live In Prague", if they have it available. It's excellent.

Edited November 5, 2009 by sidewinder

[BillF]

Bill - try the Clarke/Boland Big Band "Live In Prague", if they have it available. It's excellent.

Actually, that was first on my list, moved to second only because of the tag "long wait". Great minds think alike!

[sidewinder]

I would also recommend that Don Ellis DVD 'Electric Heart', if they have it. Pat Martino's 'Unplugged' is worth seeing too - although that one is a sort of medical documentary with added jazz.

[Jazzjet]

I would also recommend that Don Ellis DVD 'Electric Heart', if they have it. Pat Martino's 'Unplugged' is worth seeing too - although that one is a sort of medical documentary with added jazz.

Totally agree with the Don Ellis 'Electric Heart' recommendation. Wonderful stuff!

Also, the Miles Davis at the Isle of Wight ( 'A Different Kind of Blue' ) if thats your bag. Great restroration job.

[JohnS]

Jazz on DVD is a relatively new area for me. I've been a member of Lovefilm (U.K. equivalent of Netflix) for almost a year and only used it for cinema movies. Some days ago I misspelled a film name during a search and got Sun Ra instead! Realising there might be more, I entered the word "jazz" and got 800 items!! So I added a modest 32 to my rental list and the first arrived today: Maynard Ferguson and His Orchestra and the Tony Scott Quartet at the Prague Jazz Festival 1968. The leaders were hugely impressive, their Czech accompanists less so.

Any recommendations for unsuspected DVD treasures which I can probably get from Lovefilm? If you're really into jazz DVDs, which do you think are absolutely unmissable?

I've been with Lovefilm for quite a while too and only used it for movies. I never really thought about getting jazz dvds, but then I'm not really that keen on them preferring to listen rather than watch. But on Bill's recommendation I'll have a look and see what there is anything to tempt me.

[MartyJazz]

Well, of course most of the 30 black & white Jazz Icon DVDs that have been released in the last couple of years are terrific, especially the '60s material of Rollins, Coltrane, Blakey (2), Monk, Adderley, Dexter Gordon, Bill Evans.

More "recent" video recordings that are technically better in terms of color and production values, but most importantly also have quite excellent musical content are:

Joe Lovano Nonet recorded at the "New Morning", Paris in 2001 (Inakustik). Well, well worth a viewing.

Ahmad Jamal, "Live in Ballbeck", 2003 (Dreyfus)

Stan Getz, "The Last Recording", Munich concert with Kenny Barron, 1990 (Geneon)

Chick Corea "Akoustic Band", Munich concert, 1986 (Geneon).

Hope you follow up on any of these recommendations.

[BillF]

Jazz on DVD is a relatively new area for me. I've been a member of Lovefilm (U.K. equivalent of Netflix) for almost a year and only used it for cinema movies. Some days ago I misspelled a film name during a search and got Sun Ra instead! Realising there might be more, I entered the word "jazz" and got 800 items!! So I added a modest 32 to my rental list and the first arrived today: Maynard Ferguson and His Orchestra and the Tony Scott Quartet at the Prague Jazz Festival 1968. The leaders were hugely impressive, their Czech accompanists less so.

Any recommendations for unsuspected DVD treasures which I can probably get from Lovefilm? If you're really into jazz DVDs, which do you think are absolutely unmissable?

I've been with Lovefilm for quite a while too and only used it for movies. I never really thought about getting jazz dvds, but then I'm not really that keen on them preferring to listen rather than watch. But on Bill's recommendation I'll have a look and see what there is anything to tempt me.

You'd have to be very picky not to be tempted by something in 800 items, John! In all fairness, though, I should add that quite a percentage of these are unavailable for rental (as opposed to purchase) for copyright reasons.

Edited November 6, 2009 by BillF

[BillF]

Well, of course most of the 30 black & white Jazz Icon DVDs that have been released in the last couple of years are terrific, especially the '60s material of Rollins, Coltrane, Blakey (2), Monk, Adderley, Dexter Gordon, Bill Evans.

More "recent" video recordings that are technically better in terms of color and production values, but most importantly also have quite excellent musical content are:

Joe Lovano Nonet recorded at the "New Morning", Paris in 2001 (Inakustik). Well, well worth a viewing.

Ahmad Jamal, "Live in Ballbeck", 2003 (Dreyfus)

Stan Getz, "The Last Recording", Munich concert with Kenny Barron, 1990 (Geneon)

Chick Corea "Akoustic Band", Munich concert, 1986 (Geneon).

Hope you follow up on any of these recommendations.

Many thanks, Marty. Have just aded the Lovano Nonet to my rental list.

[BillF]

Have just watched the Joe Lovano Nonet DVD. Great! Thanks for the recommendation, MartyJazz. Personnel and content (i.e. largely Dameron numbers) very close to the Lovano 52nd Street Themes album which I own and love, but just enough difference to make things really interesting. A real winner! Next on order from Lovefilm: Jazz Icons: Dexter Gordon Live in '63.

[BillF]

Bill - try the Clarke/Boland Big Band "Live In Prague", if they have it available. It's excellent.

Thanks for the tip! Just watched this and they were at the top of their form. (The amateurish TV camerawork didn't matter.)

[JohnS]

I'll own up to not being that much of a fan of jazz on dvd. But I do have the Lovano nonet and that's very good and I can add to the recommendations. There's a nice Brad Mehldau too which I dig into occasionally, I'm trying hard to like the guy more.

I've sampled a lot of the Jazz Icons through friends and there's a lot of good stuff there but I can't say that I've been encouraged to buy. I've just borrowed the Coltrane and I have that to play and I'm really looking forward to that.

[BillF]

Just watched Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers: Live in '58 in the Jazz Icons series.

The classic band filmed in a Brussels concert. Excellent sound and visual quality.

[Jim R]

For whatever it might be worth, here are a few earlier threads on this topic:

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=7110

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=13533

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=30144

[BillF]

For whatever it might be worth, here are a few earlier threads on this topic:

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=7110

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=13533

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=30144

Thanks for the links. Loads of info there to inform my future choices from Lovefilm's library!

Edited January 3, 2010 by BillF

[JohnS]

Courtesy of a friend I borrowed the Jazz Icons John Coltrane dvd. European tv broadcasts from 1960, 61 and 65. Very good audio and picture quality. Definitely recommended.

Edited January 3, 2010 by JohnS

[BillF]

Jazz Icons again, this time Basie Live in '62 in Sweden.

Again great sound and visual quality and the band were beautiful until the arrival of the vocalist and Sonny Payne's seemingly interminable drum feature. (Larry Kart said it all in the link immediately above.)

[BillF]

Zoot Sims Quartet/Shelly Manne Quartet in Concert

Two 1970 L.A. club sessions: Sims with Roger Kellaway, Chuck Berghofer and Larry Bunker at Donte's and Manne with Bob Cooper, Hampton Hawes and Ray Brown at Shelly's Manne-Hole. Sound and visual quality not impeccable, though adequate, but some sensational music!

Edited January 16, 2010 by BillF

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

oh god i want that shellys manne hole complete vid so bad....

[paul secor]

Just want to put in a mention of Cecil Taylor: All the Notes, a film by Christopher Felver -lots of footage of Cecil playing, rehearsing (alone & with others), talking about music & other matters, and a cool sequence of him dancing as he prepares to go out to hear some music. Wonderful stuff & highly recommended to anyone who loves Cecil's music.

Available from http://www.chrisfelver.com/films/index.html

[BillF]

Following recommendations here, just watched Dexter Gordon Live in '63 and '64 from the Jazz Icons series:

Certainly a 5* DVD! Dexter in brilliant form in three European sessions, with excellent support that includes Kenny Drew and Art Taylor on one session and George Gruntz and Daniel Humair on the others.

Edited January 20, 2010 by BillF

[Peter Friedman]

Just yesterday I watched this one.

Bud Shank - Against The Tide : Portrait Of A Legend - Jazzed Media

I very much enjoyed it. Bud is interviewed and plays short bits of music with his

excellent quartet of Mike Wofford, Bob Magnusson and Joe LaBarbera.

A CD is also included that features the complete versions of the tunes that were heard

very briefly on the DVD. Other tunes are also included on the CD.

Edited January 20, 2010 by Peter Friedman

[BillF]

Count Basie Jam '75

A Norman Granz extravaganza from Montreux involving a disparate group of musicians whose main thing in common seemed to be their star status: Eldridge, Griffin, Milt Jackson, Basie, NHOP and Bellson. High point: extraordinary - and, to me, unexpected - rapport between the Count and NHOP, 46 years his junior. I think I read somewhere that Basie asked NHOP to join the orchestra, but he refused. An understandable invitation, as he seemed to have quite as much impact on his own as Freddie Green plus a bassist! Low point: lengthy introduction by Nat Hentoff, read to camera from a written script!

[Larry Kart]

"Stan Getz -- The Last Recording"

http://www.amazon.com/Stan-Getz-Last-Recording/product-reviews/B000641Z86/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

from Munich, 1990, 93 minutes, excellent sound and camera work, with Kenny Barron (in top form), Alex Blake, Terri Lynn Carrington, and two synth players on some pieces (they don't get in the way). Stan takes a little while to fully warm up, but he certainly does -- the version of Mal Waldron's "Soul Eyes"! Best of all, in some hard to define but to me unmistakable way, seeing Getz play here tells a great deal about who he is and how he plays -- to a degree that few jazz videos do in my experience. I usually find that the visual information doesn't add that much to the sonic information and that I'd just as soon close or half-close my eyes and pay attention to the sounds only -- which is how I often listen to music I like anyway. With this one, I can't take my eyes off what I'm seeing. Another video that gave me that feeling is the Jazz Icons Monk, but the reason for that was more obvious -- seeing Monk's hands on the keyboard and feet on the pedals -- than it is (or seems to me to be) here.

[BillF]

Gerry Mulligan Art Farmer Quartet Live in Rome 1959

Audio quality acceptable; visual quality poor. Bleached-our b&w film not helped by dramatic lighting throwing giant shadows of the musicians on which cameramen dwelt ad nauseam! Overriding impression of this group is of their sensational technical polish. And they certainly were well covered for the time, so that I have now heard several renditions of their repertoire favorites. I have the What Is There to Say? album, plus an Italian bootleg CD on Bandstand of a concert which doesn't seem to be this one. Nice to remember, too, that they were superbly filmed (unlike here) at Newport in Jazz on a Summer's Day.