"Director: Ulli Pfau"

• Don Cherry's Multikulti | DVD | (15/02/2010) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-6.99 (-35.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Don Cherry (1936-1995) created an influential legacy by contrasting his Bebop-style Jazz with genres such as Free Jazz and World music. His rise to prominence came in the late 1950s performing Free Jazz with Ornette Coleman. Their music not only shook up the Jazz community with their avant garde sound and inventive compositional structure, but became part of the liberating social revolution that resonated in 1960s American culture. '...one of the most lyrical and important jazz trumpeters'- ...

• Maceo Parker - Roots Revisited | DVD | (18/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Music which is a throwback to 60s soul jazz and features top musicians of the 80s.

• Best Of Jazz Open 1998 | DVD | (20/04/2001) from £21.58   |  Saving you £-1.59 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Best of Jazz Open 1998 is not, as the title suggests, highlights from the entire "jazzopen" music festival which took place in Stuttgart in July 1998, but performances taken from the closing evening concert dedicated to the so-called "pope of jazz", presenter, festival organiser and producer Joachim-Ernst Berendt. The musicians were chosen in collaboration with Berendt, resulting in some remarkable music-making from the haunting solo trombone of Albert Mangelsdorff, to the breathtaking duel/duet between Robert Majewski's trumpet and Hendryk Miskiewicz's saxophone which forms the climax of "Night Time Day Time-Requiem". Though obviously improvised one might argue whether the virtuoso digitally processed performance by Urszula Dudziak is jazz at all, while saxophonist John Handy joins forces with traditional Indian musicians the Maharaj Brothers moving eloquently in the world/fusion/crossover territory more famously explored by John McLaughlin. Appropriately they give way to the John McLaughlin Group itself, "Social Climate" offering an atmospheric mood piece for Gary Thomas' fine flute playing, leading to a rousing electric guitar climax by McLaughlin. A mixed bag from which some tracks will appeal more than others, it is regrettable that the complete concert was not included; this 57-minute collection looks as if it was originally edited to fill a one-hour TV slot. On the DVD: There are no special features except two trailers for classical DVDs. The programme is presented in standard TV 4:3 and is sharp and detailed, though there are occasional compression artefacts. The sound is stereo and while full and clear the mixes sometimes so favour the lead instrument that other details such as cymbal hits can be seen but barely heard. --Gary S. Dalkin

• Elvin Jones-Jazz Machine | DVD | (23/06/2008) from £19.98   |  Saving you £2.01 (9.10%)   |  RRP £21.99

  ELVIN JONES: JAZZ MACHINE Touted by life magazine as the world's greatest rhythmic drummer and described by percussion icon Louie Bellson as Mother Earth coming alive with syncopation it would be impossible to overstate the importance of drummer Elvin Jones in the evolution of current and mainstream Jazz. This historic concert DVD features Elvin Jones playing with the thunderous power that reverberated throughout not only the Jazz community but all of music helping Jones move the drum kit from the back of the club to the forefront of music. Sonny Fortune - Saxophone Flute Chip Jackson - Bass Ravi Coltrane - Saxophone Willie Pickens - Piano Elvin Jones - Drums Song Selections: Is There A Jackson In The House? Ray El Doll Of The Bride