Product Details

• Actors: Ambrose Akinmusire, Fabian Almazan, Omer Avital, Joe Beaty, Adam
• Format: Color, Dolby, Surround Sound
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Sunny Side Records
• DVD Release Date: February 2, 2010
• Run Time: 480 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B003102K36
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #72,319 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jazzmix, November 24, 2011

By 

Jamil - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: JazzMix: Live in NYC [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

This dvd is excellent, and well worth watching. A word of caution - you MUST be a jazz fan to even begin to appreciate the music. Definitely one of the best music dvd's I've watched n a while.

Stand out performances from Ambrose Akinmusire, Jason Lindner, and Jaleel Shaw.

Jamil - Cape Town, South Africa

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointingly Mixed in Quality., August 25, 2011

By 

Bruce "from Brighton" (UK - England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: JazzMix: Live in NYC [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

As a big Jazz fan, when I came across this it seemed very appealing. Blu Ray with Dolby 5.1 surround sound, 8 hours of live music from New York Jazz clubs - what could be better?

However, when I got the set, I felt it was strange that I had not heard of many of the performers and I mentioned it on online forums to Jazz players in the US - they were similarly nonplussed at the choice of artists.

It seems a French crew were given the chance to go and film who they wanted over the month of November 2008 and they seem to have chosen acts that mostly cross over with hip hop or electronics and the actual Jazz content is quite minimal across the 8 hours. The acts are so varied though, that I can't imagine many people liking them all. So I shall go through them one by one, in order.

VAL INC etc.
This is very experimental, noise, electronics which dominate with a bit of free blowing and some guitar - in my view not really Jazz and has nothing to do with the Jazz tradition - fast forward very useful thank you!

AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE 5TET
Now this is a bit more ike Jazz, but I found the leader/trumpeter to be self indulgent and not as good as many other trumpeters in the same vein, It was listenable, but not worthy of a showcase like this.

JASON LINDNER BIG BAND
I actually liked this a lot although I hated the rapping - the big band elements were great! Again the leader was over-indulgent and it was all a bit "bohemian" Jazz cliche - but the music was worth it - a find!

CHRIS DAVE & FRIENDS
I did recognise Robert Glasper who is very good at this kind of thing - liked the Herbie Hancock references. However, the hip hop/rap crossover was annoying and the whole thing lacked focus and intensity - they just seemed to be sitting around on a Sunday afternoon, noodling. Some of the bass playing was sloppy as well - disppointing.

JALEEL SHAW 4TET
Into disc 2 and finally something I recognise as Jazz of a high standard - no electronics, no hip hop etc. Just great sound and great Jazz! Why couldn't there have been more like this?

The opening track really has atmosphere and the feeling of being in a New York Jazz club in Soho. The leader writes some good tunes and there is great playing from everybody. 1 out of 8 is not a good success ratio though. And they fade it out!

THEO BLECKMANN & KNEEBODY
Oh dear - back to the weird stuff. Charles Ives meets a rock band - interesting and atmospheric, but in no way is this Jazz and it was wearing after a few tracks. There is just no Jazz here whatsoever.

FIELDWORK & TRIO
The last two groups of artists fall into the same category for me - Dark,Dreary and Difficult! By now after 6 hours I am losing the will to go on and these two trios were just playing completely dissonant and disjointed music. All free improv. with no grooves or hooks for the listener to latch on to. To me it was just self-indulgent and not worthy of being give the opportunity afforded here.

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In summary this was a big disappointment and while the picture quality and sound was magnificent - none of this matters if you don't like the music. I feel the film makers chose artists on the basis of how "hip" they thought they might be, with few considerations as to musical talent. We were very lucky therefore to get some good moments, as live Jazz on Blu Ray is quite rare.

But the shame is that such an opportunity has been wasted for the most part. I can't imagine many people will sit through all 8 hours of this.