Terence Blanchard presents “Flow: Living In The
Stream Of Music”
(Documentary/Concert)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Main Program: C+
Terence
Blanchard is one of the top Jazz musicians around and has been a premiere
trumpet player in all that time. His
talents go further, with a rare grasp of music that has allowed him to be a
composer/conductor working primarily on Spike Lee’s often challenging feature
films. Flow: Living In The Stream Of Music is an attempt by director Jim
Gabour to show the man, his music, his film work and the influences before and
after him.
It is an
ambitious work made over the course of a calendar year that is a nice change of
pace from the usual Jazz titles we get that are either concerts with few extras
or compilations of past works with none.
Unfortunately, for technical reasons and also because it does not have
enough focus or angle, it still sadly falls short. I did learn and see some things I liked and
enjoyed, but editing is not tight enough in some places and interesting
questions that could have been asked are not.
Still, I would rather see an ambitious work that falls short than an
overly long outright disaster and serious Jazz fans will still enjoy it enough.
The 1.33
X 1 image is shot on analog NTSC tape, possibly in more than one form. The detail can be a problem and quality can
vary, sometimes becoming a bit softer than one would like. The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is barely stereo
at times and feels often like it was taped on the fly. There is slight location echo more than a few
times and even the Inside Man
sessions (for Spike Lee’s film, where Spike shows up) are not of the quality
you would expect from special features on a disc of the actual film. Extras include two small segments about the
musicians working together, but that is all.
- Nicholas Sheffo
