Search - Jazz Masters Series - Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra on DVD

Straight ahead viewing

jimac51 | Allentown, Pa United States | 08/18/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Well,it's exactly as advertised-57 minutes of the band (and an interview with Mel). In that sense,the music is fine-4 1/2 stars for the performances-but the staging and directing is a bit stodgy. Five cameras-the soloists are all there-it's just not that much visually. I do not have high end playback equipment,but the sound is OK with me.
A little info would help.
The recording date for this is Feb. 21,1982.
The three Hancock compositions("Snap","Dolphin" and "Eye") are not arranged by Herbie but by Bob Mintzer. They were collected on an audio recording in Montreaux,1980 on MPS(US label-Pausa). Brookmeyer is composer and arranger on "Smile". Interestingly,"Smile" was recorded by the same band(no personnel changes) just a month earlier at the Village Vanguard.
Noted star players in the band who have had solo careers include trumpeter Tom Harrell,saxophonist Joe Lovano and bassist Mark Johnson. And many of the other players have long term alligiance with the band-a couple going back to the Thad Jones era. Some are still with the band today. Pianist and current composer in residence Jim McNeely,trombonists John Mosca and Douglas Purviance and alto saxophonist Dick Oatts are all part of the most recent recording by the band,now known as the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.
This kind of info would be nice to be included on the video,as well as on screen mentioning of soloists when they appear. Also,the Lewis interview is not close captioned-a minor problem but it would be nice.
Though this band has been around for 40 years,there is little video around and this may be the longest amount of material available. Pity."