This is, so far, the strongest of the Martin Scorsese Blues Film Collection documentary series I've seen.

That's a totally subjective view, of course, based largely on my admiration for both Clint Eastwood and for the great pianists he discusses and interviews.

How great it is to be able to see Clint, a keen musician himself, sitting at the keyboard and just reminiscing with the likes of Ray Charles, Dave Brubeck, Pinetop Perkins and Jay McShann. This is not just an historical survey -- it's history being made, as we see Dave Brubeck playing in duet alongside Jay McShann, as Clint watches on, smiling with the greatest satisfaction.

Clint's definition of the blues is wide, enabling him to embrace jazz and boogie-woogie as extensions of his theme. That lets him bring in some great historical material, including lots of Fats Domino -- but unfortunately, nothing from one of my favourite jazz pianists of all, the incomparable Fats, also known as Mrs Waller's little boy.

Never mind -- to make up for that omission, we get a good sampling of my other great favourite, Thelonious Monk. And we get Professor Longhair, Marcia Ball, Pete Johnson and other wonderful talents in this memorable fusion of past and present.

There's a dazzling scene, far too short, of Andre Previn in duet with Oscar Peterson. Oscar was of course a wondrous pianist -- and Andre simply stands out as just one of the most talented of all musical figures of the 20th Century, able to turn his prodigious gifts to just about everything musical. He started off as a wunderkind of Hollywood musicals, proved a deft hand in jazz, and is now working as one of the world's leading classical conductors.

This is a wonderful documentary, full of the joy of music-making. The blues are often sad; this film though is just brimming over with life and happiness.

This is a reasonably good quality image, though of course it varies considerably depending on source -- from modern material filmed just for the documentary, to the archival finds of performances by Otis Spann, Art Tatum, Professor Longhair and others.

There is a choice of a 5.1 Surround or stereo audio track; the stereo is cleaner and more precise and is far preferable in this instance.

Extras are a very small-print biography of Clint Eastwood and a partial filmography, along with a teaser-trailer for the Blues Film Collection as a whole. There is a collection of trailers for other Madman DVD releases -- You See Me Laughing, Standing in the Shadows of Motown, Princess Mononoke, Shane Maloney - The Brush-off, Shane Maloney - The Stiff and Live Forever, Amandla!.