The best music DVD series ever, bar none

[auburngrad82]

I have a special love of music DVDs, everything from End of the Century (Ramones) to Down From the Mountain (traditional music) to Don't Look Back (Dylan) but I have recently discovered the best DVD music series ever created.

My wife bought me the Jazz Icons DVD set for Christmas. It's television footage from the '50s and '60s of some of America's greatest musicians- John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughn, Charles Mingus etc. There is very little in the way of American television footage of these guys. Thank God that Europeans have been in love with jazz for decades and have kept these beautiful recordings. The quality of the video and sound, considering that these were recorded to tape over 40 years ago, is incredible. You get not just the "headline" acts but the supporting musicians like Eric Dolphy, Stan Getz, Oscar Peterson, Jimmy Cobb etc as well. The liner notes are second to none.

The series is, in one word, incomparable.