Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers

Rating:
Summary: Musical and visual gem
Review: as the previous reviewer Samuel Chell has explained in detail, this DVD has excellent audio/video quality and tasteful production - considering the era it has also been especially well preserved. According to the credits it was directed by Gianni Paggi and captured on video by a 3-camera team.

The evening concert was held July 20th, 1976 at Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy - on a stage which appears to have been set up in the center of a historical district public square. As the other review indicates, this setting only adds to the communal, relaxed and bohemian atmosphere of the performance (along with the musicians' hip Euro/Afro threads; bassist Brown wears a longsleeve T-shirt emblazoned with the letters J I M M Y G A R R I S O N).

the compositions performed by the Jazz Messengers are:

1. Backgammon
2. Along Came Betty
3. Uranus
4. Blues March
5. All The Things You Are
6. Gipsy Folk Tales

Musical highlights - tenor saxophonist Dave Schnitter's powerful playing will indeed send you in search of his out-of-print 1976-81 albums on the Muse label. The full range of veteran trumpeter Bill Hardman's solo technique and vibrant sound is also beautifully spotlighted on every song. Cameron Brown on bass and pianist Mickey Tucker weave the band's groove while each contributing their own eloquent, passionate narratives (e.g. Tucker on 'All The Things You Are' and Brown's energetic focus throughout). Maestro Blakey propels and challenges his sidemen - the video begins with his drum solo.

the audience at Umbria Jazz '76 was given a swinging jazz treat here.

playable Art for your DVD library.

Rating:
Summary: Rare and Rewarding
Review: This concert date by Blakey, filmed during the summer of 1976 in Umbria, Italy, is visually stunning. The setting is a make-shift stage in the street, nestled among stucco houses in a space so confined as to suggest an intimate night club. The crowd is attentive and receptive, though not especially enthusiastic. Some listeners are simply peering out from open casa windows. Sartorially, this edition of the Messengers fits in particularly well. They look less like jazz musicians than a band of gypsies or street performers--unkempt, ungroomed urchins dressed as much for slumming as concertizing (what a contrast to the formal Marsalises, who in 5 years would be putting in their time with Blakey).

More importantly, the TDK crew manages to put the viewer right in the center of the ensemble, a privileged position compared to any in attendance that day. The shots are sharp and revealing, the cutting is judicious and completely in synch with the music, camera placement is varied, providing long shots as well as close-ups but never losing primary focus on the music. The audio engineering isn't up to this level, as the ensemble balance occasionally suffers, and the toning down of Blakey's usually dominant percussion seems overdone. Fortunately, the soloists are captured with sterling sonic clarity.

Apart from the quality of the production, a primary reason to own this disc is the personnel, largely overlooked and unheralded--but not forgotten by some of us. The veteran Bill Hardman may be the one trumpet player in Blakey's groups (which included Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Wynton Marsalis) who rivals another former Messenger star, Clifford Brown. Yet it's becoming ever harder to locate recordings by him. Same with the diminutive but high-powered Dave Schnitter, none of whose four LP's has ever been issued on CD. Notwithstanding some sloppy execution on the ensemble passages, the bigness of his sound and daring, passionate fire of his playing are simply unmatched by any other Blakey tenor player, from Mobley and Golson to Shorter and Branford Marsalis. He showed up out of the blue, traveled with Blakey for five years, then suddenly and mysteriously evaporated.

Sadly, there are no other recordings, to my knowledge, of the Messengers with this frontline. No doubt this one, too, will soon fall by the wayside. I'm just happy to have picked up a copy.