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DVD/Film Reviews

DVD/FILM REVIEWS

The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live

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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 ...

DVD/FILM REVIEWS

Chicago: The Terry Kath Experience

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Chicago: The Terry Kath Experience FilmRise 2018 Michelle Kath Sinclair's The Terry Kath Experience is a combination of history and homage to the her late father, the guitarist and one of the founding members of Chicago. The film proceeds with a streamlined logic, not to mention an abiding sense of love and affection, that nonetheless never turns maudlin. In part because director Kath, photographer Jordan Levy and co-editors Micah Levin and Tony Papa refuse ...

DVD/FILM REVIEWS

The Doors: Live At The Isle of Wight Festival 1970

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The Doors Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 Eagle Vision 2018 Inveterate naysayers will inevitably disparage continuing archive releases by the Doors and, to some degree, it's a point well taken: is there any band with a comparable catalog and a greater preponderance of reissues? Yet negativism ignores a crucial point in the issue of titles such as the heretofore-unreleased Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970: this latest title, like ...

DVD/FILM REVIEWS

Van Morrison In Concert

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Van Morrison In Concert Eagle Rock Video 2018 The video equivalent of last fall's pair of albums, Versatile (Legacy, 2017) and Roll with the Punches (Caroline, 2017), Van Morrison's In Concert is comprised of not just one, but two concerts. The main feature was recorded for the BBC Music In Concert Series in 2016, while Up On Cypress Avenue is a slightly shorter hour-long bonus (sic) commemorating the Belfast cowboy's seventieth birthday (hence its ...

DVD/FILM REVIEWS

Django: A Film As Much About History and Culture as About A Musical Icon

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Django Director: Étienne Comar Milky Way 2017 Django Reinhardt (1910-1953) practically invented jazz guitar. A product of gypsy culture and music, living and working in Paris in the 1930s-40s, he and his group, the Hot Club Quintet, which notably included violinist Stephane Grappelli, brought their own brand of swing to the clubs of Montmartre. American musicians like Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, and Duke Ellington were captivated by Reinhardt's playing and, along with his recordings and ...

DVD/FILM REVIEWS

Saxophone Colossus Featuring Sonny Rollins: A Film By Robert Mugge

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Sonny Rollins Saxophone Colossus MVD Visual 2017 Sonny Rollins' life and career is the stuff of legend, not the least of which intervals include the period he 'retired' to perfect his craft with practice sessions on 'The Bridge' in New York or his numerous influential pieces of recording, including the album after which Robert Mugge named his documentary. And while there's certainly no questioning the logic of the title for that reason alone, the ...

DVD/FILM REVIEWS

La La Land

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Damien Chazelle's film La La Land, although also partly jazz-based, comes as a stark contrast to his previous directorial project, the brutal and intense Whiplash (2014). In essentially what seems a typical boy-meets-girl romantic scenario, La La Land follows the relationship between Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a pianist and jazz traditionalist who wants to open his own bar, and Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring LA actress. This isn't something that is rushed into and comes after the film initially takes some ...

DVD/FILM REVIEWS

May It Last: A Portrait Of The Avett Brothers

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MAY IT LAST Oscilloscope Laboratories 2017 The opening scene depicts Scott and Seth Avett walking through the maze of hallways located in the bowels of Madison Square Garden in New York City prior to the band's inaugural performance at the venue in April of 2016. When a security guard asks for their credentials to proceed, they display Southern manners and show their passes quickly. “Awesome sauce," the security woman waves them through and the two ...

DVD/FILM REVIEWS

Jeff Beck: Live at the Hollywood Bowl

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Jeff Beck Live at the Hollywood Bowl Eagle Rock 2017 As fashionable as concert sit-ins have come to be in recent years, such guesting can be the bane of the live performance. So often it is the case that such invitees can interrupts the flow and/or momentum rather than nurturing it. However, Jeff Beck's August 2016 celebration in Los Angeles of his fiftieth anniversary is the exception to that rule: the stream of diverse personnel ...

DVD/FILM REVIEWS

Rolling Stones From The Vault: Sticky Fingers Live at the Fonda Theatre 2015

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Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers at the Fonda Theatre 2015 Eagle Rock Video 2017 The Rolling Stones have been nothing if not savvy (most of the time) throughout their fifty- year plus history, so it's no surprise the release of their latest title, Sticky Fingers Live at the Fonda Theatre 2015, is simultaneous with their 'No Filter' tour of Europe. But this is no better timed than the show itself, the first of their 'Zip Code' ...