Jazz It

Rating:
Summary: Jazz it, buy it!
Review: This is a wonderful, tantalizing music DVD that shows some of the wonderful breadth and diversity in jazz. There is much to relish including the Ahmad Jamal Trio rendering of "My Foolish Heart" which is treated more playfully uptempo than usually heard, Joe Henderson, Herbie's funky intro to "Just One Of Those Things" from 1987, Chick Corea and Gary Burton together on "4 in 1" with it's tight ensemble playing and Monkian touches, NHOP's bass playing with Oscar Peterson, Bobby McFerrin's highly entertaining interaction with Herbie and Michael Brecker, the Zappa tribute etc. etc. Much of this material was filmed in Germany and the sound and picture quality is generally very good even though these are all live performances from different venues dating back to the early 80s. It makes you wonder how much great jazz material is out there still languishing uselessly in someone's archives....
The only slightly frustrating thing is the incompleteness of some the performances and the inavailability of this material in a more complete form. As a sampler however, this has great stuff and makes a wonderful gift for those curious about jazz or those who are totally immersed in it. And, it's a little more than $10. Who could ask for anything more?

Rating:
Summary: You don't interupt art !!!
Review: What can I say. If you like appetizers with with no main course this is the disc for you. This disc at first glance looks to be the motherlode that many jazz fans have been searching for on DVD. The lineups are spectacular. The filming and sound is pretty much excellent throughout. So what's wrong? These are ticklers. They are basically 4 minute segments from other TDK filmed concerts. They end uncerimoniously in mid solo, with a few exceptions (McCoy Tyner manges to complete Naima in the required time limit). I find it very upsetting to fade out in the middle of a Joe Henderson solo. This is the rule not the exception. So what is a jazz fan to do? Just try to find the concert films on line !! You will only find the total collection at Amazon UK for very hefty prices. If the material were accessible at reasonable prices I would applaude this disc. As it is I found it upsetting, to say the least.