Video / DVD News

DVD: Joe Zawinul

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
August 15, 2008

Joe Zawinul: A Musical Portrait  (ArtsHaus Musik). This well crafted documentary offers generous helpings of Zawinul's music while outlining his life and philosophy. Zawinul's luxurious existence in Malibu during his final years ("I have everything I want in life") contrasts with a visit to his boyhood home in Vienna and his account of surviving an Allied bombing in 1944. The sequences featuring the last edition of The Zawinul Syndicate illustrate his charisma and power as a leader. Director Mark Kidel's videography, editing and ...

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Introducing "Dirt Road Blues" on truefire.com

Source: Just Roots PR
August 9, 2008

Master Player and Teacher, Paul Rishell Releases Interactive Video Software for Learning Country Blues Guitar

Just released! Featuring 16 songs taught and performed in 40 video segments with notation, text comments, interactive powertab, looping, frame advance, zoom, and other useful controls. Works on PC or Mac and also includes access to Truefire TV on the web. For intermediate and advanced students and players.

Playing and singing country blues guitar is no easy task. It's just you and the box summoning ...

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New West Records Presents Norah Jones: Live from Austin, TX

Source: All About Jazz
August 4, 2008

New West Records proudly introduces Norah Jones: Live From Austin, TX, the latest DVD release from the acclaimed PBS Austin City Limits television series. Taken from the full ACL concert that was then edited into the half hour TV show, the DVD contains previously unreleased performances. The 18 song disc was filmed in Hi-Definition and has DTS 5.1 Surround Sound. Norah Jones: Live From Austin, TX, will be the first release from the series available as a Limited Edition 180 ...

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Warner Bros. Celebrates Hollywood's Jazz Age

Source: All About Jazz
July 30, 2008

The cycle of gangster movies launched by Warner Bros. in the early 1930s often included scenes in speakeasies with anonymous musicians in the background. Anatole Litvak's “Blues in the Night" (1941) and Jack Webb's “Pete Kelly's Blues" (1955), which were released this month by Warners on DVD, reversed the perspective. These are Warner gangster pictures told from the band's point of view: Idealistic white jazz players, determined to play their music despite rude audiences and mob interference, win the day ...

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Vernon Neilly on DVD in Movie "Walk Hard"

Source: All About Jazz
July 30, 2008

Award Winning guitarist Vernon Neilly can now be seen in your living room, on your computer, and anywhere that you might have access to a DVD player, with the release of “Walk Hard, The Dewey Cox Story". Neilly, who has appeared in two other major motion pictures, “Along Came Polly" and “Starsky and Hutch", plays along side Saturday Night Live veterans John C. Reilly, and Tim Meadows as part of the “Bobby Shad" band in this hilarious comedy. The film ...

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In Tense Times, James Brown Stays Cool

Source: Michael Ricci
July 29, 2008

James Brown in the '60s' shows how the Godfather of Soul calmed Boston

James Brown became a powerful symbol of black culture, thanks to such hits as “Say It Loud -- I'm Black and I'm Proud" and “I Got You (I Feel Good)."

On April 5, 1968, James Brown stood as a voice of reason and restraint in a city on the edge of rampage. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated the day before in Memphis, Tenn., ...

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Guitarists Go Beyond Conventional Harmony & Chords with Modern Chord Melody

Source: All About Jazz
July 27, 2008

Jazz chord melody may very well be the most challenging of all guitar styles to truly master. Players must develop right-hand thumb and finger independence, a robust vocabulary of jazz voicings, a strong sense of melody and and arranger's feel for composition. And these are just the fundamentals. Once you have the “easy" stuff down, it's all about groove, arrangement, performance and improvisation. Modern Chord Melody takes the student beyond conventional harmony and chords by introducing a broader, more contemporary ...

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Pixar's New Bunny Toon Steals Wall-E Show

Source: All About Jazz
July 20, 2008

PRESTO Well Worth the Price of Admission Alone

Chances are you've been urged to check out Disney's animated robot flick “WALL-E," which has received critics' praise this summer. And you should--if only for Pixar's exuberant introductory short, “Presto," which steals the show as a throwback to classic Warner Bros. critter capers.

The minifeature stars Presto DiGiotagione, a stage magician whose headlining gag is pulling a bunny out of his top hat. Problem is, that bunny (named Alec Azam) is in ...

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