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3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Not all fads are bad Mar 14, 2011
By Samuel Chell
This video delivers more than I'd bargained for--15 tunes by two legendary if short-lived aggregations--the Billy Eckstine band, considered by many the most auspicious assembly of players in the music's history, except for those followers of the music who would bequeath the honor to the disc's other featured big band, that of John Birks Gillespie. For music that had the reputation of being far-out, progressive, inaccessible, the proceedings suggest quite the contrary, from the full-bodied voice of Mr. B and infectious tenor saxophone of Gene "Jug" Ammons to the nimble footwork and athletic choreography of Dizzy and the amiable sounds Helen Humes--or a striking sound-lookalike. (The notes don't bother with matters of identification, though followers of the music will have no difficulty recognizing John Lewis, Ray Brown, Milt Jackson and Art Blakey.)
There's not much breathing room on the program which, in spite of an extended bass solo by Ray, is hot and heavy, thickly textured and full-blown from start to finish, bringing the viewer closer to the impression the group made upon a young Miles Davis when he first heard the band he, like the other founding fathers of "bebop," would be destined to play in. With the addition of a burlesque routine plus the jive talk (and a vocal) by Diz, the modern-day listener could be forgiven for assuming that the music of Bird and Diz was nothing less than a commercial success if not a national craze. Sadly, it was a brief flickering flame that would nonetheless become a litmus test for the majority of jazz musicians who followed, seeking above all to be taken seriously by their peers.
The highlight of the disc is, unquestionably, the visual antics and superlative playing of Diz each time he's in front of the camera (with "Things to Come" a stand-out). Almost as enjoyable are Billy's "Rhythm on a Riff" and his original ballad "I Want to Talk About You" (recorded by Coltrane multiple times, perhaps most notably on "Live at Birdland"). Tadd Dameron's "Our Delight" is the only tune out of the 15 that continues to played today--a detail that in itself might be seen as representative of the music's fate.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
The real swinger: a big surprise from Billy and Dizzy + their big bands Mar 09, 2007
By Carlos from Rio
"Carlos from Rio"
There is something misleading in this DVD title because, in fact, Billy Ekstine swings and sings while Dizzy Gillespie also swings and sings.
Both masters show in front of their big bands, both real swingers with the typical repertoire from their times plus some dance and humor scats.
Yes Dizzy Gillespie does sing as he leads his band and also plays the trumpet. Also Ekstine does play his trombone and conducts his band besides his quite brilliant singing.
Helen Humes sings one song with the Dizzy Gillespie's band: a must.
DVD ALL REGION NTSC B/W.
 artjoy Feb 12, 2012
By artjoy
Very disappointed. There are no recent pictures of Billy Eckstine during his more popular time, most, if not all the films are about his formative years during the 1940's,this is the main reason I bought the DVD,Dizzy is O.K.Billy was very popular during the 1950's, and 1960's,and there is nothing,so I'm still looking.
3 of 5 found the following review helpful:
So this is why jazz doesn't sell... Feb 12, 2007
By souldrummer
I've been viewing and reviewing this DVD quite a bit over the last few days. My elderly grandmother received this as a gift from a friend, and as a jazz head, I wanted to watch these two masters at work in original concert footage.
This DVD is really no frills. It's basically about 2-5 minutes of documentary footage narrated by folks who I believe are from Britt's Big Band. After that it's a few film footage tracks by vocalist Billy Eckstine and several tracks by Dizzy Gillespie's big band. Not much in the way of liner notes. Just the music. It's basically a window into what it would have been like to be a young person in this time frame.
The audience for this is strictly people who have a heavy interest in jazz. If you're not as into jazz, you would probably be better served by making an investment in something like Ken Burns Jazz first, a product that is more tailored toward a popular audience.
I was blessed by this because I didn't realize how a much of a *show* big band jazz was. There's much more to this than music. There's tap dancing, flamboyant conducting in the Cab Calloway tradition, and even comic introductions for the Dizzy Gillespie tunes. Watching things like this, I can see why jazz doesn't sell well today. Jazz currently takes itself so seriously that it doesn't make a great effort to provide some visual hooks to get the people to watch and come back.
I would have to see more special features and subtitles for the soloists to give this five stars. I'm a drummer. I know that I'm watching rare big band footage of Art Blakey backing up the Billy Eckstine band on the first half of this, but most folks will just focus on Mr. B himself and will miss a lot of the great musicianship that is supporting him.
I could write about this for days. Watching this with my grandmother triggered some amazing stories about what it was like for her growing up and living through this amazing period in Black Music.
--4 stars
--SD
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