Leslie Pintchik Quartet Live In Concert (2010/PintchHard Blu-ray/CD + DVD/CD) + Leslie Pintchik – We’re Here To Listen
(2010/PintchHard CD)
Picture:
B-/C+ Sound: B Extras: D
Concert/Music: B+
A very
talented pianist, Leslie Pintchik is back with her first Blu-ray, her first DVD
and her first concert, plus her third studio album. As impressive as ever, The Leslie Pintchik Quartet Live In Concert is one of the best
Jazz Blu-rays to date, running an hour and offering about an hour of Pintchik, Scott
Hardy on Bass, Mark Dodge on Drums and Satoshi Takeishi on Percussion. A very engaging program, the smooth, tight
set includes:
1) Scamba
2) Over Easy
3) Completely
4) Blowin’ In The Wind
5) Mortal
6) Too Close For Comfort
7) Somewhere/Berimbau
It is
nice to know that a music artist you like is also great in person and Pintchik
has a great personality and talks to the audience throughout, with truly witty,
funny comments that show that this is an artist with something to say and
share. The more you watch, the more you
want to see. The more I see and hear her
work, the more I realize she is one of the most underrated artists in the music
industry and her fellow musicians are just as top rate. Their work is enough to make you love Jazz
all over again and could bring new fans to the genre.
This
extends to her new studio album, We’re
Here To Listen, which includes the following tracks:
1) Blowin’ In The Wind
2) I Can't Make You Love Me
3) There You Go
4) Completely
5) In The Wrong Place
At The Right Time
6) Wabi-Sabi
7) For All We Know
8) Ripe
9) Discreet
10) Ancient
So what
is the common denominator between these latest releases and Miss Pintchik’s
previous studio albums that make them so good?
It is several things. She is just
that good, that talented and obviously loves what she is doing, very much like
Diana Krall is totally in her element and then some when she is on. I wish they’d do a duet of some kind!
And it
also seems she is getting even better as a musician and performer, which is
saying something since she was so talented to begin with, so these latest
releases show her artistic growth and if you have never heard her or heard of
her, this is the time to try out her work.
As usual, she delivers some of the best music of the year.
The 1080/24p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on the Live Blu-ray does look better than the anamorphically enhanced 1.78
X 1 image on the DVD version, both with good, stable HD-shot images, but we do
get slight motion blur, yet is it not as bad as the many 1080i concerts we have
covered to date (at least 100+) on Blu-ray alone. I liked the color on the Blu-ray in
particular and the director and camera operation is solid enough.
All discs
offer PCM 2.0 Stereo, meaning we get no multi-channel mixes this time (though a
DTS-MA 5.1 and/or 7.1 lossless mix would have been amazing), but I liked the
PCM 48/16 Stereo on the Blu-ray best because it was a little smoother than the
DVD and CD (at 16/44.1) versions, while the studio album CD Listen (also at 16/44.1) in both sets
is just fine for the format. The Listen CD is another top rate studio
recording and Pintchik continues to make some of the best Jazz recordings in
the business. None have any extras, save
the CDs with the video formats, but the music is so good, you’ll play it over
and over again.
Cheers to
another set of triumphs for Miss Pintchik!
Can’t wait to see and hear what she does next.
Read more
about Pintchik’s previous studio albums in exceptional Super Audio CD (SA-CD)
editions at these links:
So Glad To Be Here
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1730/Leslie+Pintchik+-+So+Glad+To+Be+He
Quartets
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6292/Leslie+Pintchik+%E2%80%93+Quartet
You can
also visit her website about ordering all of her titles and even acquiring
downloads, which include very nice 96/24 Stereo versions of her latest album at
this link:
http://www.lesliepintchik.com/
- Nicholas Sheffo
