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Category:    Home > Reviews > Music > Concert > Compilation > Jazz > Folk > Blues > The American Folk-Blues Festival – The British Tours 1963 – 1966: Volume Four (Hip-O Records) + Jumpin’ & Jivin’ – Volume One (Acorn Media)

The American Folk-Blues Festival – The British Tours 1963 – 1966: Volume Four (Hip-O Records) + Jumpin’ & Jivin’ – Volume One (Acorn Media)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: C/D     Film: B

 

 

Universal Music has yet to issue any titles in either High Definition format yet, but they have been pretty good about releasing much material in the standard DVD for mat for a while.  Now, they are licensing or subletting material from their substantial holdings and two new releases are very interesting compilations worth checking out.

 

Jumpin’ & Jivin’ – Volume One is hopefully the beginning of a new series of classic releases from Acorn Media.  Not known for many music programs, this is the first respectable collection of pre-Music Video shorts known as Soundies among other names.  We have covered several collections of such material, but this is easily the best looking and sounding of the sets we have seen to date.  Lena Horne, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstein, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller and Count Basie Orchestra are among those featured in prime form and classic performances.

 

The American Folk-Blues Festival – The British Tours 1963 – 1966: Volume Four is from Hip-O Records has great and rarer footage from the likes of Muddy Waters, Big Joe Williams, Big Joie Turner, Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williams and Lonnie Johnson.  For all we hear about American artists touring Britain in the 1960s, we do not see enough footage of it.  Here is a set that makes up for that.

 

The 1.33 X 1 black and white image on both DVD releases is detail and depth challenged, with the footage needing some work, but it all looks good for its age either way.  The PCM 16/48 2.0 Mono on both discs are decent and a nice change from more compressed Dolby Digital 2.0 or 1.0 Mono we are more likely to suffer through.  Extras in the form of a few bonus tracks with Waters and Sister Rosetta Tharpe on The British Tours DVD are the only extra either collection offers, but both make for great archival viewing of some of the most important American Music ever made.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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