Erroll Garner: No One Can Hear You Read (2011/First Run DVD)/Peter Frampton: Live In Detroit (1999/Eagle Blu-ray)/Gypsy (1962/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/J.J. Grey & Mofro: Brighter Days – The
Live Concert Film (2011/MVD Visual DVD)
Picture: C+/B-/B/C+ Sound: C+/B/B-/B- Extras: C/C+/C/D Main Programs: B-
PLEASE NOTE: The Gypsy Blu-ray is only available from Warner Bros. through their
Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
Here are
four different music titles that are all new releases and worth going out of
your way for if you like music…
Atticus
Brady’s Erroll Garner: No One Can Hear
You Read (2011) is amazingly the first real biographical look at one of the
most important piano players of all time, a groundbreaking Jazz virtuoso and
much more whose work most people have heard and heard of, but they did not
necessarily know it was him. At the
site, we only covered one compilation DVD and wish it had been much more, so
even at about an hour, this is a very welcome release that begins to show just
how amazing and what a true giant in world music he was.
Hard to
believe he is not remembered much, but Brady interviews a slew of people who
knew him including his sister Ruth Garner Moore, daughter Kim Moore,
writer/scholar Jim Doran, Maurice Hines, Dick Hyman, Steve Allen and others
including Woody Allen who has very effectively used his music in several of his
films.
Garner
began in Pittsburgh a long time ago when it was still a Mecca for the arts and
music talent, especially Jazz in the Hill District and on the legendary Wylie
Avenue (see the Wylie Avenue Days
documentary for more) which gave the world many Jazz giants at once. From there, his advanced grasp of music (he
could not read music, thus the title is a quote form the man himself) and this
vital and long overdue document begins to address a man who is a legend and
more than deserves to be remembered and identified all over again.
I
remember how popular he was before his death, all the TV appearances, how much
his music was loved and how amazing and one-of-a-kind his piano playing
was. He was great, is great and always
will be great, which is why I highly recommend this disc. I hope Brady gets to expand it one of these
days, because there is so much more to say, to hear and to know.
Extras
include bonus interview clips with Brady, Hyman, Allen and Doran.
Peter Frampton: Live In Detroit is a surprisingly decent 1999
show from the 1970s singing guitar solo sensation that is an odd taping as
Frampton tends to have more energy, enthusiasm, fun and joy than his audience
who seem to be bored, somehow older than him and not with it. I considered as he played through his 17 song
set where he did not sound like a legacy artist at all that if he talked to the
audience a few more times, they might have participated more, but they were
just not all there.
Fortunately
for real fans, he is and after a montage of all his studio and live album
releases, he jumps right into his music and never stops. Without sounding stale, he covers his classic
hits and can definitely still play after all these years. The band is a plus and this show deserves its
Blu-ray release.
Extras
include a Frampton interview and a rehearsal performance of “Boot It Up” from the FCA! 35 Tour, a Blu-ray of which Eagle
also issued, reviewed elsewhere on this site.
Mervin
LeRoy’s Gypsy (1962) is the
backstage musical telling of how the overprotective mother (Rosalind Russell)
who never made it in show business intends that her daughter Louise (Natalie
Wood in what was a somewhat racy performance for its time) become a burlesque
legend. Warner Bros. went all out with a
huge budget to make this film of the Broadway Musical a hit and it was, as well
as a critical success that cemented Russell’s popularity and only increased
Wood’s profile.
LeRoy was
a veteran when he took this on and had some musicals under his belt, but had
not taken on the genre in decades. This
would be his last big film and though it is long at 143 minutes and that means
in this case some moments that do not work, most of it is surprisingly
effective as it passes the half-century mark and still tops the ambitious Bette
Midler telefilm remake. Barbra Streisand
is still talking about remaking it herself.
But it is
this version that remains the quintessential one, with chemistry between the
leads, Karl Malden and a solid supporting cast that includes Parley Baer, Paul
Wallace, Betty Bruce, a young Harvey Korman, several stars playing themselves
(like Jack Benny) and even a very young Ann Jillian in her child star
period. In this edition with its fine HD
master, you can not only see the color, detail and depth, but the money the
studio put in the film because it is absolutely on the screen.
I was
surprised this became a online-only release, especially because it is one of
the studio’s key musicals, but this edition makes all previous video releases
obsolete and unless you have seen it in a good film print, you can finally see
here why people still talk about this film.
I was also surprised how grand this was and how consistently so it
managed to be. This is a big event film
that remains a big event and is worth revisiting if you have seen it
before. If you have never seen it before
and have a Blu-ray player, you have got to get this disc as even those who are
not fans of musicals will be shocked at how well it plays.
Extras
include the Original Theatrical Trailer and 2 Outtake Musical Numbers: a duet
version of “You’ll Never Get Away From Me”
and “Together Wherever We Go”.
Finally
we have Spookie Daly’s J.J. Grey &
Mofro: Brighter Days – The Live Concert Film (2011) is one of the best
combination concert film/documentaries I have seen in a while, detailing the
amazing stories, talents and music of singer-songwriter-musician J.J.
Grey. A potential breakout star, his
rich command of Rock, Country, Soul and some elements of Blues make him a
talented one-of-a-kind artist that the music business seems to suddenly have an
extremely difficult time in finding, signing and promoting.
In the
times when music lovers and people who knew the business were running the
labels, he would at least have some kind of big hit single by now and from the
songs featured here (they should have identified each before he sings them),
several possible hits are here with more than enough commercial appeal. I was impressed by how honest, funny, open
and even brutal the lyrics could be on some of the songs and how much fun and
rich in musicality the others were. He
is not just another tunesmith, but a serious talent to be reckoned with and one
you may be hearing about sooner than you think.
Grey also is very well spoken when he talks just as when he sings.
There are
no extras.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Garner
and Grey can be soft and a little
uneven, expected more so for Garner
since it combines so many film and video sources, but they are both very
watchable despite any flaws. The Grey
concert footage can look really good, as can the outdoor interview nature
footage, telling us this needs a Blu-ray release. The 1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition
image on Frampton is better and
pretty good for a 1999 taping, but it still has some motion blur and softness
throughout. Still, nice it holds up as
well as it does 14 years later (already!) and counting.
That
leaves the 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Gypsy the visual champ here, shot in
the large frame format Technirama, having some amazing demo shots, exceptional
uses of color, great color range and Grade-A production values befitting a
major studio musical. Yes, the print can
show its age here and there, holding the playback back a bit at times, but this
is usually fine and when the color is at its best, it tends to demonstrate how
great the dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor print versions of the film (now
very pricey, valuable 35mm
prints) were. Director of Photography Harry
Stradling, Jr. (Minnelli’s The Pirate,
Johnny Guitar, Auntie Mame, My Fair Lady,
Funny Girl, Hello Dolly!, Hitchcock’s Suspicion,
A Streetcar Named Desire) does some
of the most amazing work of his career here in one filled with unforgettable, even
groundbreaking moments, using that very widescreen frame to its fullest extent
and making for a must-own Blu-ray for all serious motion picture fans.
The lossy
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Garner
includes many monophonic moments, but the stereo is good when it is there and the
new interviews do not have any location audio issues. The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Grey is pretty good, well recorded and
would likely sound better in a lossless presentation as the bass never overwhelms
the music presentation. It is just the
Dolby cannot cut it versus what the soundmaster seems to offer music-wise.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Frampton is the sonic champ here with a rich, warm, consistent
soundfield throughout. The engineers,
mixers and producers really did their job well in this case, even if it is not
stunning overall, it is still more than consistently effective enough.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo on Gypsy
is pretty good and plays well in Pro Logic mode, but the film was originally a
multi-channel film including a 6-track magnetic sound presentation in 70mm
prints, but that soundmaster is currently lost or unavailable so all we get is
two channels. Still, this is a
well-recorded film for its time and nice here in a presentation that can
compete with all the soundtracks issued to date.
To order
the Gypsy Blu-ray, go to this link
for it and many more great web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
