Jazz Icons: Dizzy Gillespie Live in '58 and '70

Those of you familiar with the Gillespie Big Band of the forties will want this brilliant black and white film of these two more contemporary concerts of Dizzy, for one track, if not for the rest, THINGS ARE NOW, which is a reworking of THINGS TO COME, side B of the 78, with TWO BASS HIT on Side A. Magic. The Francie Boland/Kenny Clarke Big Band was in top form - Art Farmer was in the trumpet section!!!!! - and Ronnie Scott on tenor, gives one his best solos on film that I can recall seeing/hearing. It swings, it moves, amazing stuff. Thank heaven for state owned television!

Dizzy&Sonny Stitt(tenor/alto);All through the set,some of the most articulate solo's I ever heard them play is
right here on this dvd. Rounding out this group are;Lou Levy, Ray Brown,Gus Johnson. They have fun vocalizing on "Sunny side of the street". Other tunes are;"Loverman",featuring;Stitt on alto.,"Blues walk"
+ 2 more.
The next set is with the Kenny clark/Francy Boland big band . "Con alma" Manteca" +4 more tunes
Very exciting stuff! Music,singing and humor! A complete show!!!

The 1958 concert features a band with Sonny Stitt, Ray Brown, Gus Johnson, and Lou Levy. It is a tight group which swings easily and is very familiar with the material. Sonny Stitt is outstanding, in his prime. His alto feature is "Lover Man", an extraordinary display of virtuosity. Levy gets only a few chances to solo but plays quite well. Brown and Johnson deliver solid swing. Diz seems to be having a good time, witty and alert.

The 1970 concert with the Clarke-Boland Big Band is also quite good. But this band is not up to the standards one might hear on other Gillespie led aggregations, particularly the Latin tunes do not compare favorably with other versions on record. It is pretty obvious that Diz is a visiting soloist who is not in charge of the show. Still, he is in good form. Kenny Clarke is upstaged by a second drummer, Kenny Clare, who plays all the fills. Francy Boland contributes some driving piano solos.

In all, this is a quality disk of a jazz immortal in good company, well worth the price.

Hard not to like this dvd. A true legend, without all the nonsense overproduction found today. Dizzie was a huge part in changing the direction of jazz. Check it out!

if you dig on dizzy then you will love this dvd. two outstanding performances with outstanding audio and video. really! i dont know if the jazz icon people spent time remastering this footage or if it was really well preserved, but i was very impressed with the audio/video quality. to me its a small miracle that archival type footage such as that released by the jazz icon series is avaiable. they are to be commended. i also purchased art blakey, thelonius monk and buddy rich and although i have not watched the buddy rich dvd yet the blakey and monk dvds are also outstanding in quality and content. more please! each dvd also comes with a really nice booklet about the artist. highly recommended!