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DVD/Film Reviews
The US Festival 1982: The US Generation
Various Artists The US Festival 1982 MVD Entertainment Group 2018 By title alone, The US Festival of 1982 might seem light years removed from the abiding fascination with festivals now pervading our culture. But if director Glenn Aveni's ninety-minutes plus documentary proves anything, it's that this event founded and sponsored by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak presaged the sophisticated multi-media presentations of such events today. The scrupulous depiction of the evolution of the festival ...
read moreLajos Dudas: Ein Künstlerportrait
Lajos Dudas Lajos Dudas--Ein Künstlerportrait Stadt Neuss Kulturamt 2018 The German city of Neuss honors an adopted son with this three-part video project (under the auspices of the Culture Department of City Neuss (GER)). German/Hungarian clarinetist Lajos Dudas has made his home there since 1973, leaving the freelance life to teach at the Neuss School of Music. Dudas had been performing in rock and jazz, as well as a featured classical soloist. But his true ...
read moreOpen Land: Meeting John Abercrombie
John Abercrombie Open Land: Meeting John AbercrombieMusic Heritage Productions / ECM Records2018 It's almost a year to the day since the world lost John Abercrombie and, for many of his fans, that loss remains something still deeply and palpably felt. A guitarist who managed to be instantly recognizable without relying on many of the signatures that help identify most guitarists--certain approaches to phrasing and melody and specific tonal approaches amongst them--Abercrombie may not have garnered ...
read moreOpen Land: Meeting John Abercrombie
John Abercrombie Open Land: Meeting John Abercrombie Music Heritage Productions / ECM Records 2018 Named after John Abercrombie's 1999 ECM album of the same name (by his trio with organist Dan Wall and drummer Adam Nussbaum, plus guests trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, violinist Mark Feldman and saxophonist Joe Lovano), Open Land finds the guitarist late in his career. Much of the ninety minute run time shows him talking about his life as a jazz guitarist and ...
read moreBANG! The Bert Berns Story
BANG! The Bert Berns Story Abramorama 2018 BANG! The Bert Berns Story compares favorably to The Terry Kath Experience (FilmRise, 2017), not just in the elevated quality of its conception and execution, but in its authorship by an offspring of the subject. Just as the Chicago guitarist's daughter, Michelle Sinclair, helmed the documentary she produced and directed in homage to her late father, this feature is the result of exhaustive research and collation by the late ...
read moreStill On The Run: The Jeff Beck Story
Jeff Beck Still On The Run: The Jeff Beck Story Eagle Vision 2018 Unlike its decidedly idiosyncratic subject, Still On The Run: The Jeff Beck Story is a wholly conventional piece of video work focusing almost exclusively on the musical progression of the British guitar hero. It may be intended less for devoted fans than those more casual musiclovers who've had their curiosity piqued about what of the man's done and how he's done it ...
read moreEric Clapton: Life In 12 Bars
Eric Clapton Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars Eagle Vision 2018 There's a point right near the end of Lili Fini Zanuck's film devoted to Eric Clapton where the archetypal guitar hero makes a solemn statement regarding the profound importance of music in his life. His declaration strikes an unusually resounding chord because it points up, with eye-opening clarity, how much the man's musical endeavors are a secondary theme to his personal travails in Life ...
read moreRandy Brecker Quintet: Live at Sweet Basil 1988
Randy Brecker Quintet Live at Sweet Basil 1988 MVDvisual2018 Culled from direct-to-two-track digital recordings made on three of Randy Brecker's potent six-night 1988 run at New York City's Sweet Basil, and featuring a particularly top-drawer quintet of musical friends old and new, the original 1989 LP/CD release of Live at Sweet Basil (GNP Crescendo in North America, Sonet elsewhere) has long been out of print. That the original version featured seven broad-ranging Brecker compositions, performed ...
read moreJazz Ambassadors: Representing A Segregated America During The Cold War
Jazz Ambassadors THIRTEEN Productions 2018 Here, long overdue, is a comprehensive documentary about the legendary jazz musicians in the 1950s who served as “cultural ambassadors" under the aegis of the U.S. State Department, touring Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Soviet Union. The film comes sixty years after the fact. As Americans continue to mourn the loss of Tom Brokaw's “Greatest Generation" of WW II soldiers and their families, we jazz fans also grieve the passing of ...
read moreThe Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live
The Moody Blues Days of Future Passed LiveEagle Vision 2018 For an album that was, according to surviving members of the Moody Blues (guitarist/vocalist Justin Hayward, bassist/vocalist John Lodge and drummer Graeme Edge), recorded in a mere seven days, Days of Future Passed (Deram, 1967) remains one of the early masterpieces of progressive rock, in addition to becoming a relatively constant (and big) seller. There may, however, be a couple of myths behind ...
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Songs on the eve of... by Chris Abelen
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Venetian Blinds by Mike Freeman
Featured Event
Northampton Jazz Festival in Western Massachusetts: October 19-21, 2018. Paquito D'Rivera, Don Braden, and more!
Story of the Day
I love jazz because of Miles Davis and Vitor Assis Brasil. I was first exposed to jazz seeing I Festival Internacional de Jazz de São Paulo in 1978. I met Ron Carter at Arpoador. The best show I ever attended was Miles Davis at Canecão in Rio de Janeiro. The first jazz record I bought was Memorial Clifford Brown. My advice to new listeners..
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By Hernani Heffner
Member since: 2018
