Product Description **Exclusive Bonus Disc** Sonny Rollins: This collection includes two Sonny Rollins 1959 European concerts in which he is accompanied by recently re-discovered bassist Henry Grimes. Rahsaan Roland Kirk: performs Oliver Nelson's Stolen Moments backed by a cream-of-the-crop European rhythm section consisting of drummer Daniel Humair, pianist George Gruntz, and bassist Guy Pedersen.A super-modest Sonny Rollins is interviewed in Stockholm 1959 before he performs Ellington's It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing at a blistering tempo with bebop-era standout Joe Harris on drums and Henry Grimes on bass.Nina Simone: This collection includes a no-holds-barred Nina Simone live performance of Mississippi Goddamn followed by an interview with the Swedish program host. Features a 12 page booklet with liner notes by Ashley Khan, John Kruth and Rob Bowman. Review A sequel to perhaps DVD's most revered jazz sets again plumbs European archives. Nina Simone performs Bob Dylan's The Ballad of Hollis Brown and sings movingly of Martin Luther King Jr. Saxist Sonny Rollins offers two versions of St. Thomas. Bill Evans' piano-playing can be intense, but the brow of seemingly looser Oscar Peterson is drenched, too. Also: Lionel Hampton, Cannonball Adderley and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. -- USA Today, Mike Clark, October 2, 2008Few jazz experiences are more enjoyable than putting on a classic Rahsaan Roland Kirk album and marveling at his ability to play two and three saxophones at the same time. But a record like "Rip, Rig, and Panic" or "Blacknuss" can deliver only so much information. Actually watching Kirk do what he did elevates the experience to a whole new level. This is why the "Jazz Icons" catalog of DVDs has become so invaluable. With its third series arriving this week, the "Jazz Icons" project from Naxos has quickly become one of the most intimate ways to experience the full artistry of our jazz legends. The seven new DVDs can be purchased individually or as part of a box set, which comes with a bonus disc. This installment features concerts and television recordings from Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Lionel Hampton, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Oscar Peterson, Sonny Rollins, and Nina Simone, all filmed in Europe between 1958 and 1975. -- Boston Globe, Steve Greenlee, September 28, 2008Jazz is America's most durable cultural export of all time, hands down. I am admittedly biased, having grown up in the '60s when jazz was a vital art form, stretching boundaries and ripping envelopes clear in half. Names like John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman meant more to me than Mick Jagger and John Lennon, though I later learned to respect pop music as well as jazz. And now, like a beautiful deja vu, comes the latest installment of the "Jazz Icons" DVD collection from Naxos and Reelin' in the Years Prods. It is a stunner. The crisply shot black and white footage looks as good as it sounds, gleaned as it is from live performances in clubs and festival settings. Sonny Rollins, who famously refuses to listen to or watch any of his old performances (knowing he'd hear something he'd want to change, even all these years later!) is caught in youthful mid-1960s form, filmed in Denmark and blowing lyrically and muscularly all at once. Rahsaan Roland Kirk has to be seen to be believed, playing three reed instruments at once, then switching to flute and blowing his breathy and funky lines at warp speed and maximum-swing. What a force of nature and incredible showman. Seeing him is the bonus -- that's what makes this collection so valuable. My favorite pianist, the cerebral and intense Bill Evans, was filmed in Denmark in European venues in the mid-60s and Nina Simone, the imperious and unpredictable diva, is as beautiful as she is self-assured. Oscar Peterson, Lionel Hampton and Cannonball Adderley round out the package, which ought to be Purchase One on your Xmas list for any of your jazz-loving significant others. Make your kids watch it!. . . You will be unable to resist buying the whole caboodle. Blame me. -- InsideSoCal.com, By David Weiss on October 9, 2008Now the third box set of aural gold is coming our way, looking crisp and sounding just as good as its two archival predecessors. . . Everyone will have a favorite moment of some kind. This boxed set is full of them. -- Tucson Citizen, Chuck Graham, November 6, 2008Sitting in a jazz club I sometimes wish I could go back half a century to witness the all-time greats in their prime. With excellent sound quality and footage lovingly filmed in European venues, Jazz Icons DVDs come close to making my wish come true. Camera angles can make these discs better than live; watch Bill Evans' and Oscar Peterson's fingers as they work their magic on the piano. Cannonball Adderley's band - with Joe Zawinul, Louis Hayes, Yusef Lateef, Nat Adderley and Sam Jones - is astounding. Sonny Rollins is on fire in trio and quartet settings. Rahsaan Roland Kirk's horn section, consisting of Kirk playing two, or three horns at once, is otherworldly. Seeing can be far better than just listening; Nina Simone's rendition of "Four Women" is riveting. And there's no shortage of wonderful surprises, like when Lionel Hampton leaves the vibes to play fantastic piano and drum solos. -- Rochester City Newspaper, Ron Netsky, October 22, 2008The outstanding "Jazz Icons" DVD series of vintage jazz artists in concert returns with another high quality feast for the eyes and ears, This time the box set features seven individual DVDs of black and white performances by singer Nina Simone, pianists Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans, saxophonists Sonny Rollins, Cannonball Adderley and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. An eighth bonus disc features additional performances by Simone, Kirk and Rollins. Highlights abound! -- Urban Network, A. Scott Galloway, September 2008The sound quality is first rate, and the performances are extraordinary. -- Newsweek MagazineThese wondrous performances highlight the individualistic artistry of canonical jazz figures such as Sonny Rollins, Oscar Peterson, Lionel Hampton, Nina Simone, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. No doubt, this is an inestimable gift to posterity and to jazz pedagogy. . . These deluxe-edition DVD's also underscore a high degree of technical skill in the art of craft of moving image photography, and an equal level of appreciation for jazz on the European continent. -- eJazzNews.com, John Stevenson, September 2, 2008This is the third release in the Jazz Icons series, bringing the total up to 27 volumes, making it possibly the most complete jazz-on-film library available. -- New York Sun, Will Friedwald, September 29, 2008Wild Applause: This is a smashing set of DVDs featuring never-released live and studio performances by seven singular artists: Sonny Rollins, Bill Evans, Nina Simone (left), Oscar Peterson, Cannonball Adderley, Lionel Hampton and Rahsaan Roland Kirk (a bonus disc for boxed-set buyers has other rare tracks by Rollins, Simone and Kirk). Taped for television in cities across Europe, these club and concert performances capture the musicians at peak moments in their careers. -- San Francisco Chronicle, Jesse Hamlin, October 24, 2008 P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); From the Contributor Jazz Icons: Series 3 Boxset contains all seven new titles plus a bonus disc, not sold separately, containing exclusive performances by Sonny Rollins, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Nina Simone. Each DVD features a 24-page booklet with an essay written by an authoritative jazz historian as well as rare and unseen photos. Jazz Icons DVDs are produced with the full support and cooperation of the artists or their estates, who, in most cases, are contributing rare personal photographs, memorabilia, and forewords. **Exclusive Bonus Disc** Sonny Rollins: This collection includes two Sonny Rollins 1959 European concerts in which he is accompanied by recently re-discovered bassist Henry Grimes. Rahsaan Roland Kirk: performs Oliver Nelson's Stolen Moments backed by a cream-of-the-crop European rhythm section consisting of drummer Daniel Humair, pianist George Gruntz, and bassist Guy Pedersen. A super-modest Sonny Rollins is interviewed in Stockholm 1959 before he performs Ellington's It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing at a blistering tempo with bebop-era standout Joe Harris on drums and Henry Grimes on bass. Nina Simone: This collection includes a no-holds-barred Nina Simone live performance of Mississippi Goddamn followed by an interview with the Swedish program host. Features a 12 page booklet with liner notes by Ashley Khan, John Kruth and Rob Bowman. See more
J**N
Priceless!
I own and treasure all three of the Jazz Icons box sets. They are an important part of the recorded legacy of many of the greatest jazz musicians who lived in the last half of the 20th century. These are programs recorded by European broadcasters while these major jazz artists were on tour in Europe with their working bands. The musicians were "up" for it, and so were the broadcasters. The quality of the music, the sound, and the video production are all excellent given the technology available they were recorded.No time is wasted with uninformed TV hosts interviewing musicians they know nothing about. The cameras nearly always seem to find the soloist, there's never the distraction of inane visuals to detract from the performance. The produced DVDs are all well edited and have good musical continuity.The sound crews all used top quality recording mics, put them in the right place, and mixed them to produce a balance that makes sense musically. I'm a recording engineer specializing in live jazz, and I'd be happy to have my name on any of these shows!Compared to the Jazz Icons series, the recordings of US broadcasters during the same time frame are worse than a bad joke, they are a tragedy. Lousy sound quality, lousy production, time squandered by clueless hosts and so-called stars. A tragedy because the visual legacy of so many great artists has been lost, or so poorly represented.There are a few exceptions, most notably the magnificent "The Sound of Jazz" from 1958, arguably television's finest hour, and the subsequent "The Sound of Miles Davis."
R**A
Get it
As I said on another review of a Jazz Icons disc, buythis set. This is such a great value. If you are a jazzfan, and don't own any of the Jazz Icon series, I urgeyou to purchase all of these box sets. This is a hugedeal. These sessions range from grainy black and whiteto rich color, but all of the performances are so greatone can overlook this, if you love this music as muchas I do. You get a bonus disc with this set, even ifsay Roland Kirk isn't your cup of tea, the price makesit free, but he was an astounding talent, so give ita try.
B**B
Five Stars
Wonderful series
W**N
Jazz Icons, series 3
In the limited, esoteric world of video footage of jazz performances, the Jazz Icons series stands alone. Other companies churn out performances, often of questionable video quality, and almost always with minimal liner notes. The Jazz Icons series unearth beautiful performances of musicians at their peak creativity. They then match these wonderful performances with thorough liner notes about the musician and the performances.I hope that this endeavor continues until all of the unseen performances from Europe are released. There are many musicians that have not been covered by these releases, such as Miles Davis, Bud Powell, Ben Webster, Errol Garner, Stan Getz, Ornette Coleman that would be very interesting subjects of future Jazz Icons series. Our job is to spread the word, and keep purchasing these, to encourage future releases.
B**N
Five Stars
Awesome
S**Z
Another Great Collection By Jazz Icons
Having Just Received This Third Edition of The Jazz Icon Series for my Birthday I Must Tell You , The First Two Collections Are Great, This One Is Over The Top Fantastic!!!. Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Cannonball , WOW!! Great Examples of How Big the Jazz Tent Is, Come On In ! The Jazz Is Hot. Take Some Time, Open a Bottle of Wine, Relax and ENJOY !!!
A**R
Five Stars
Pretty good
D**D
Cannonball!
I really like the Cannonball DVD with a great sextet. I watched Bill Evans last night and that was good too. I haven't watched the rest yet
Trustpilot
4 days ago
1 month ago
