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