Movies
April 2009 DVDs By Jeff Tamarkin
The Early Years
As a historical document, this collection of two half-hour Ad Lib TV programs, dating from 1980 and ’82 and featuring the young Dianne Reeves, is a keeper. Out of the gate Reeves was fully formed, instantly captivating and in control of every nuance. Attired...
April 2009 DVDs By Bill Meredith
Live at Montreux 1996
On par with his Miles and Weather Report days
April 2009 DVDs By Bill Meredith
New Morning: The Paris Concert
A stunning performance from the guitarist
January/February 2009 DVDs By Colin Fleming
Jazz Icons Releases a Thrid Volume of Vintage Live Performances
With their dramatically drooped heads and shoulders, the members of Bill Evans’ 1964 trio look like an early, pre-electric shoegazer band in a Swedish broadcast that’s practically jazz-noir, a typical stylistic touch in the ongoing Jazz Icons series. This...
January/February 2009 DVDs By Mike Joyce
Dueling Guitars1
Turns out Dueling Guitars1 has nothing to with oneupsmanship and everything to do with simpatico. Small wonder, then, that during this series of guitar duets, recorded live in a cozy setting, a member of the audience asks Paul Bollenback and John Hart to...
January/February 2009 DVDs By Jeff Tamarkin
In Vienne
It’s instructive to compare Sonny Rollins’ performance at this June 2006 French concert to the 1965 and ’68 TV footage recently released as part of the exceptional Jazz Icons series. What’s remarkable is just how little his music-making approach has changed...
November 2008 DVDs By Mike Joyce
The Ralph J. Bunche Suite
A master guitarist displays his gifts for composing and arranging
November 2008 DVDs By Mike Joyce
The Walker’s Duets
There are moments during this collection of duets, taped over a five-year period at Walker’s in Lower Manhattan, when you half expect Peter Leitch to put down his guitar, stand up and call for a little quiet. Really, people! What’s distracting is not just...
November 2008 DVDs By Bill Meredith
Imaginary Day Live
Guitarist Pat Metheny thumbed his nose at the recording industry in 1994 with the CD Zero Tolerance for Silence, but its 40 minutes of white-noise feedback proved a point. Metheny knew he was popular enough for a major label like Geffen not to release it...
June 2008 DVDs By Bill Milkowski
Blue Note: A Story of Modern Jazz
The story of the classic jazz label Blue Note is essentially the story of Alfred Lion, a German emigre whose love affair with jazz began in 1926 when he saw Sam Wooding’s Chocolate Dandies as a young boy in Berlin. “It was the first time I saw colored musicians...
