One Night With Blue Note DVD: It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This 1985 Concert

If you are an avid fan of Blue Note jazz and you don't already have the DVD pictured One Night With Blue Note, you must get it immediately, for it is that good.

Immediately inside the first 5 minutes of this DVD you will realize that Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard is here to serve notice that he's the baddest trumpet mutha on the planet circa 1985.

Freddie's solo on Herbie Hancock's  "Cantaloup Island" is brash, in your face, pure Freddie! The Price is well worth it just for this performance. Oh yeah, Joe Henderson and Herbie are are pretty darn good too.

If that isn't enough, you also get a killer Jackie Mclean solo on "Appointment in Ghana," These dudes rose to the occasion and possibly considered it a last hurrah of sorts. The underrated trumpeter Woody Shaw also offers support to McLean.

 Many of the greats show up, drummer Art Blakey, Saxophonists Joe Henderson, Jackie McLean, Lou Donaldson, and Stanley Turrentine, vibist Bobby Hutcherson, Freddie Hubbard, and even a very lengthy solo performance of pianist Cecil Taylor on "Pontos Contados".

Another highlight is Charles Lloyd going above and beyond with the island themed "Tone Poem". Lloyd delivers a stellar Coltrane styled solo over top the nice groove of pianist Michael Petrucciani.

There has been some talk about the original VHS cassette and or Laserdisc are the ways to obtain this timeless classic, as some footage has been cut from the DVD, McCoy Tyner's performance of "Passion Dance" is not on this DVD. I don't know about you, but I don't have a VHS or Laserdisc player?

I am thankful to have this DVD, I do return to it quite often. It has a feature that can omit the narrator, who does a good job by the way, Some have commented they prefer the music without the narrator led ins, but I don't mind it at all.

In closing Freddie Hubbard, Charles Lloyd, and Cecil Taylor stand out the most, but all who perform do so  in stellar fashion.

In case you didn't know, producer Michael Cuscuna along with Capitol Records head Bruce Lundvall were responsible for this show and the resurrection of the reissue program. I know I am for one thankful that Cuscuna has done so much to keep jazz music alive.

Cecil Taylor's Unit Structures: A Fantastic Avant-Garde Jazz Record on Blue Note

Cecil Taylor, you love his music or you hate it.  Fortunately for me, right from the beginning I dug this guys percussive piano attack.

 15 years plus into my modern jazz journey he still is one of the few pianists that I really can stomach in a solo setting.

Keith Jarrett's really the only other one, this guy plays the piano like the drums, heavily percussive and full of ideas.

Taylor's genius is great, if not beyond most peoples perspective.

 Now if you don't subscribe to the Brandford Marsalis theory:  That his music is"self indulgent bull shit" then you are in the know, and likely already dig it. Despite what Ken Burns and the Marsalis family might say, I like it, even if it barely resembles anything you'd think of as traditional jazz.

Unit Structures, released in 1966 on Blue Note Records is part of a pair of mid 60's Blue Note masterpieces by Taylor, the other being Conquistador. Much of Taylor's music is really "chamber jazz", and always feels like avant-garde third stream music to me, classical avant-garde at least.

 Cecil has a solo on the One Night With Blue Note DVD I always marveled at. Probably more marveled that they let him participate, considering how some view him.

Unit Structures demands your attention, sure a few hints of classic jazz show up, especially in Jimmy Lyons alto and Ken McIntyre's Tenor tone.

 The 2 basses of Henry Grimes and Alan Silva add quite a bit of color, not much in the pocket walking for sure, but they play as if they are lead instruments at times, it's an interesting listen.

Pianist Taylor really holds my interest, with his different moods and that percussive attack. The music has a lot of peaks and valleys, plenty of the free wheeling blowing, and seemingly all over the place piano.

 The mood shifts, remind me of some Alfred Hitchcock movie theme at times, the build up, the tension, and then crash it home. These are well composed and performed compositions. Is this Jazz? maybe 2%, but this is 98% something else, and that something is breathtaking to me.

I love the ominous bass clarinet of Ken McIntyre on the title track, "Unit Structures" starts of slow then builds into a free for all, with Taylor going insane, then McIntire is really doing the job.

Lyons over blows to glory on his alto, it's really hard to describe this music, you must hear it for yourself. Be warned, if you are someone who rather prefers safe and swinging jazz, and I like that too, this is not for you, or the faint of heart.