This disc contains one of the most famous concert performances in the history of jazz.
Neither the front or rear cover give details, and there is no introduction on the disc. But the concert is the 1958 CBS Sound of Jazz broadcast, which has been famous for almost half a century for its showcasing of the greatest lady of jazz, Billie Holiday.
The Billie Holiday segment, with her performing a long version of her self-penned Fine and Mellow, has been in circulation on LP and CD for most of that half-century, and I have owned it in most of its incarnations.
But until now, I had never seen the complete television broadcast, 50 minutes long, and with seven blissfully brilliant tracks in all, featuring Count Basie, Red Allen, Thelonius Monk, Ben Webster, Jerry Mulligan, Roy Eldridge and Billie Holiday's long-time closest jazz collaborator, Lester Young.
The performances are vintage in the best way - redolent of history, but crackling still with their creativity and fire. Omitted is the narrator's introduction of the nine musicians who perform with Billie. But we do hear Billie's own voiceover introduction to her song. And her performance, so laid-back and joyous (which was rare at this late stage of her career), is one of the greatest she ever gave.
While Billie Holiday rightfully provides the highlight, drummer Jo Jones is another featured performer who fully deserves the spotlight which is continually cast his way.
Jo Jones' insouciant charm is the epitome of cool. In the same year he performed with Chuck Berry at the Newport Jazz Festival, chronicled in the wonderful jazz movie Jazz on a Summer's Day - how ironic that the same year gave us both the height of the jazz summer and that primal early scream of rock 'n' roll.
The DVD falls into two volumes. The second volume moves us ahead to 1961, opening with pianist Ahmad Jamal, and concluding with Miles Davis. Davis gives us two tracks - So What, recorded with one of his greatest quintets, in a searing performance. But then it moves onto Orchestral Sketches No. 1 and 2, arranged so stiflingly by Gil Evans, that even Miles' own brilliant trumpeting cannot disguise the sterility of the setting.
This Volume Two is something of an anti-climax. But the brilliance of the 1958 concert is worth the DVD's price of admission by itself.
Quality? The video quality is like something the dog dragged in. Not so much black and white as shades of grey with plenty of atmospheric haze.
The audio benefits a bit from the extra warmth generated from the 5.1 processing. But it is still full of gravel and scratches.
But neither the video nor audio quality affect the enjoyment of the performances. The soundtrack is still full-blooded enough to let us really relish the jazz. And the image is enough to give us the incredible atmosphere of the event. This is an indispensable document of a high-point in jazz history.
