Customer Reviews

Norman Granz Jazz in Montreux Presents Dizzy Gillespie Sextet '77

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a very good performance but the lineup does NOT include Joe Pass, Zoot Sims, et al. The true line up has Jon Faddis, Ray Brown and Milt Jackson. I ordered this DVD thinking it was the Montreux performance with all the players including Pass and Sims and others, but it was not. But I love Jackson playing vibes and Dizzy's mature style is great too, so I'd recommend this anyway. These Montreux Festival DVDs overall seem like a good way to build up your straight-forward jazz DVD collection.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

This GREAT Gillespie concert, with some of the best playing I've heard from him in the 1970s so far, has all the tracks from
Dizzy Gillespie Jam: Montreux '77, plus one - the encore of the concert...
It would be fine if DVD and CD identified this great group in the same way, so that nobody gets confused and buys both DVD and CD, thinking he's buying different concert recordings, but let's not be too demanding of music industry... It's a mirracle these things are still available on the market... Apparently, Dizzy's regular rhythm section ended up in Nederlands, due to some mix-up with the flight schedules and plane-changes, so Dizzy and Jon Faddis were stranded in Montreux with their trumpets, but without the rest of the band...
Thankfully, Norman Granz had a certain penchant for organisation
(and he knew some of the best people in the business), so he hired Ray Brown (b) and Jimmmie Smith (dm); Brown recommended Monty Alexander for the piano spot and, when Granz added the one and only Milt Jackson (vb), this became a jam session more than Dizzy Gillespie sextet session (CD has the more accurate title than the DVD)...

The music is swinging really hard and the only actual quibble I have is that the young and tallented Jon Faddis didn't try to "attack" Dizzy; he sounds (to me, here, at this concert) maybe too similar to Dizzy for his own good (down to the curved trumpet). However, that doesn't mean his playing is not great, or that he in any way diminishes the music. On the contrary, my wishful thinking in no way made me enjoy this DVD any less...
And knowing most songs from the CD didn't matter either - seing Dizzy Ray Brown or Milt in action is priceless and, since I've seen Jon Faddis live recently, it's quite interesting to compare that memory with the image and sound of this fresh young and lean player... Monty Alexander is no slouch himself (as far as visual attractions go, he can switch from "normal" mainstream playing to playing the piano strings as if they were on guitar...)...

You know from the start this is going to be great. Ray Brown and Dizzy get things going with a gentle intro to 'Girl of my Dreams'. The camera pans out and the band swings. Monty Alexander on Piano, Jimmie Smith Drums, Milt Jackson vibes and a young Jon Faddis also on Trumpet.

The remaining tracks are:

Get Happy

Once In A While

But Beautiful

Heres That Rainy Day

The Champ

Here 'Tis

If you like good swinging Jazz you'll like this. All the other DVDs in this series are worth getting as well.

The personel listed above is not the personel for this DVD, but for the Norman Granz Jazz in Montreux "Jazz at the Philharmonic '75" DVD. I cannot truly rate this item because I don't own it, but while viewing it I noticed that it was the same personel as the Philharmonic '75 concert, which, by the way, is excellent. I assumed that the personel being the same was not a coincidence being that Dizzy Gillespie's name is not on the list of personel. Don't let this deter you from buying this DVD as I'm sure it's excellent also.

What an unbelievable programme!

Performances by all artists are superb.

It is an absolutely first rate dvd from start to finish.

This is a dream lineup never again to be repeated again.

Personell:

Benny Carter - As good as ever.

Clark Terry - Nice to compare different style and technique.

Roy Eldridge - Not in the same league. His programme with Oscar P

in the same series is however first class. I know the link between Dizzy and Roy but this time it just does not fit.

Zoot Sims - Was high on something? Excellent performance.

The pianist is Monty Alexander. He drives the group to greater and greater heights. A real pile-driver of a performance as soloist and backing pianist. A pity he appears so infrequently on dvd.

Joe Pass - What can I say?

Keeter Betts - Fine.

Bobby Durham - Fitted in well and not over-recorded.

Buy it!