Antonio Ferrera presents Masada – Live At Tonic 1999

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Concert: B-

 

 

The unrecognized trend of videotaped projects being treated like they are shot on film as if “a film by…” can mean tape is getting worse, and a sub-cycle of pretentious “important filmmaker” plugs for these taped projects is even more annoying.  That is especially a shame when the program is not bad.  With the help of the controversial Rockumentary filmmaker (yes, real film) Albert Maysles, Antonio Ferrera brings a 68-minutes-long cut of the Jazz band Masada to DVD Live At Tonic 1999.

 

This does consist of many tight shots of the four-piece band playing their hearts out, but there is not much more form to it, though the idea of shooting the show like this and trying to keep it so tight has been done before and engulfing the viewer in this approach with digital stereo sound seems like a good idea to maximize impact of the music and presence of the musicians.  However, this is shot on analog videotape and not film, which is not as intimate.  Note that this is the 1.33 X 1 type and not the more increasingly common 1.78 X 1 widescreen TV ratio, though Maysles may still be trying to prove some old school idea in his influence on Ferrera.

 

There is no doubt that this is a good ensemble, and the tracks are as follows:

 

1)     Hath-Arob

2)     Sippur

3)     Jair

4)     Ne’eman

5)     Kedushah

6)     Beeroth

7)     Kochot

8)     Shechem

9)     Paran

10)  Ashnan

11)  Katzatz

 

 

 

Needless to say that these are all Yiddish titles, but are also all instrumentals, so do not allow yourself to be too thrown off.  They are all quite good and not speaking Yiddish, I wondered if I was missing something.  Hopefully down the line, someone will tell me if that suspicion is correct, but this is a different kind of Jazz experience than the dozens of DVDs we have covered in the genre so far, so Live At Tonic 1999 might be the kind of title Jazz fans looking for diversity might just want to pick up.

 

The Dolby Digital 5.1  & 2.0 Stereo sound is a bit of a disappointment, neither offering surrounds, which I cannot explain.  Too bad, because this band can play.  With the space on this DVD, they could have added DTS, but without surrounds, that idea is moot.  The disc itself has no extras, but comes in a paperboard foldout with some long text by director Ferrera about the project and the artwork is on the classy side.  This is part of the Tzadik DVD series.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo