New Eric Dolphy DVD

[Ken Dryden]

Ejazzlines.com has a new Eric Dolphy DVD available that includes four numbers from a 1961 performance in Berlin, along with footage of the Charles Mingus Sextet on April 12, 1964 in Oslo.

The 1961 show has a few shortcomings:

There is a dweeb emcee who takes forever to announce each selection, then walks right in front of a camera as the band is playing. The camera work and editing are odd at times, particular the focus on Dolphy during his bass clarinet solo of "God Bless the Child" (listed as a sax solo on the cover, duh!) which cuts off the lower half of his body for far too long. And the last tune is listed as "Blues Improvisation," while I know it is a tune I recognize from Dolphy's Prestige Boxed set (I didn't have time to check the real title). But the quality of the footage, the sound and the performances make it worth the investment.

I haven't watched the Mingus set yet (I have the previously issued VHS of this concert) but it consists of some great stuff.

[couw]

That "dweeb emcee" happens to be J.E. Berendt, responsible for the television series Jazz Gehört & Gesehen, of which this is an episode. The guy did a real good job of introducing jazz in its widely varied aspects to a large German public. He also travelled through the US together with William Claxton, which resulted in the famous Jazz Life photo document. You should give the guy some slack for prying loose all those public funds and for educating the masses!

Or learn German and listen to what he has to say

[Ken Dryden]

That "dweeb emcee" happens to be J.E. Berendt, responsible for the television series Jazz Gehört & Gesehen, of which this is an episode. The guy did a real good job of introducing jazz in its widely varied aspects to a large German public. He also travelled through the US together with William Claxton, which resulted in the famous Jazz Life photo document. You should give the guy some slack for prying loose all those public funds and for educating the masses!

Or learn German and listen to what he has to say

I took 5 1/2 years of German but didn't have time to try to translate all of it. Joachim E. Berendt did a lot to promote jazz in his career, but I felt like having his long commentary prior to each number was going overboard and interfered with the flow of the music. Then again, it was 1961...

In any case, my comments were a bit overboard.

[couw]

This is concert footage, right? The studio sessions are much better, a lot less talking in between, just some short interviews. I remember seeing the "Piano Summit" concert which focussed on the evolution of jazz piano. Very interesting musically, but a LOT of blahblah in between and some of it quite toe-curling, trying to fit the players present into the story Berendt was trying to tell.

Jaki Byard having loads of fun in a duo with Earl Hines made up for the lot.

[Claude]

Joachim Ernst Behrendt (who died in 2000) is widely considered as the german pope of jazz. He wrote the "Jazzbuch", a general introduction into jazz that has been translated into many languages and was constantly updated. He was a radio show host, organized concerts and produced records (mainly for MPS).

His introductions during concerts tended to be a bit too long, maybe because he considered jazz to be an art worth of some explanations, and not just entertainment.

[Ken Dryden]

Joachim Ernst Behrendt (who died in 2000) is widely considered as the german pope of jazz. He wrote the "Jazzbuch", a general introduction into jazz that has been translated into many languages and was constantly updated. He was a radio show host, organized concerts and produced records (mainly for MPS).

His introductions during concerts tended to be a bit too long, maybe because he considered jazz to be an art worth of some explanations, and not just entertainment.

I bought an English translation of Berendt's The Jazz Book back in the 1970s. I searched for a lot of the stuff he listed in the discography and finally just acquired George Gruntz: Noon in Tunisia (as a Japanese CD reissue).

I remember reading how he died after being hit by a car while crossing a street and thinking "Das ist aber schade" or something like that.

I wish more hosts of jazz television broadcasts would follow the lead of the creators of "The Sound of Jazz" and let musicians do most of the talking...long introductions by anyone are tedious.

[AllenLowe]

Berendt is quite the poet, and for those who haven't seen the DVD, he says the following;

"Ikh ver alt, ikh ver alt... Un der pupik vert mir kalt."

Edited June 8, 2006 by AllenLowe

[Ken Dryden]

I just reviewed the Dolphy DVD for Coda, though I'm not sure which issue will include it. The mislabeled "Blues Improvisation" is actually Dolphy's "245," which was recorded the year before for his Prestige album Outward Bound, his debut as a leader. Also, bassist George Joyner is better known as Jamil Nasser.

The Mingus portion is also good, though there are some brief dropouts and distortion in the footage (particularly if you look at Mingus' bass strings). But I haven't looked at my Shanachie VHS copy of the 1964 Oslo concert, so it may have been in the original source.

In any case, if you are an Eric Dolphy fan, you'll want to pick up this DVD. It's available through ejazzlines.com.

[bertrand]

Does the DVD include the complete Mingus concert (4 tracks - about 55 minutes or so)?

Thanks,

Bertrand.

[Ken Dryden]

The Oslo set by the Mingus Sextet is complete, as on earlier releases:

So Long, Eric

Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk

Ow (sometimes labeled Parkeriania)

Take the A Train

On the last track, Jaki Byard takes a wild stride piano solo, but it is Dolphy's wailing bass clarinet

that steals the show.

[AllenLowe]

sorry, I love Dolphy, but nobody steals the show from Jaki -

[sidewinder]

Joachim Ernst Behrendt (who died in 2000) is widely considered as the german pope of jazz. He wrote the "Jazzbuch", a general introduction into jazz that has been translated into many languages and was constantly updated. He was a radio show host, organized concerts and produced records (mainly for MPS).

His introductions during concerts tended to be a bit too long, maybe because he considered jazz to be an art worth of some explanations, and not just entertainment.

That was one of the first jazz books I ever bought - again back in the mid-1970s in English translation. J.E Behrendt really knew his stuff, for sure !

[MartyJazz]

Ejazzlines.com has a new Eric Dolphy DVD available that includes four numbers from a 1961 performance in Berlin, along with footage of the Charles Mingus Sextet on April 12, 1964 in Oslo.

The 1961 show has a few shortcomings:

There is a dweeb emcee who takes forever to announce each selection, then walks right in front of a camera as the band is playing. The camera work and editing are odd at times, particular the focus on Dolphy during his bass clarinet solo of "God Bless the Child" (listed as a sax solo on the cover, duh!) which cuts off the lower half of his body for far too long. And the last tune is listed as "Blues Improvisation," while I know it is a tune I recognize from Dolphy's Prestige Boxed set (I didn't have time to check the real title). But the quality of the footage, the sound and the performances make it worth the investment.

I haven't watched the Mingus set yet (I have the previously issued VHS of this concert) but it consists of some great stuff.

Coincidentally as I've been transferring my private musical performance videotapes to DVD, I worked on a tape today that has two concerts from the same periods as the DVD you mention. They differ in that the Mingus material is of the Stockholm rehearsal done on the 13th of April, 1964 wherein Mingus tells Dolphy that he'll miss him and asks Dolphy where he will be going after the tour. The group performs "So Long Eric" (short and long takes) and Meditations on Integration (false start and a lengthy take). The other date is the quintet session Dolphy did with Idrees Sulieman, Rune Ofwerman, Jimmy Woode and Sture Kallin, also in Stockholm, on November 19, 1961. Visually the quality is execrable on both but essentially viewable with at least the audio portions surviving relatively undistorted. They are roughly 29 minutes apiece and I'd love to eventually see a commercial release of this material in better quality.

In the meantime, while I have the Shanachie release of the Mingus in Oslo videotape (also converted to DVD-R), I definitely did not know of the Dolphy in Berlin '61 video so I guess I'll have to pick that up. Thanks for the heads up. That ejazzlines site has quite a few interesting DVDs.

[fomafomic65]

(.....) In any case, if you are an Eric Dolphy fan, you'll want to pick up this DVD. It's available through ejazzlines.com.

I think you should buy first his Last Date dvd (a doumentary by Hans Wilkema with music from "Last Date", Interakt 2004), which seemed to me better and richer than this. I already had that MIngus performance in VHS and Divx, anyway