Monterey Jazz: 40 Legendary Years
09-11-99, 03:26 PM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 1999
Posts: 366
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
This documentary takes a look back at the first 40 years of the Monterey Jazz festival. Who has performed at Monterey? A partial roster: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Charles Migus, Thelonius Monk, Billie Holiday, Sara Vaughn, John Hendricks, Carmen McRae, Dave Brubeck, Gerry Mulligan and Sonny Rollins.
With all that material to draw upon, I had high hopes for this project, but I was pretty disappointed. Much of the performance footage is shown with “wild” sound (not synched) that is obviously not the music being played by the musicians shown on the screen. I would guess that the film makes had a lot of problems getting the rights to the music. There some nice footage of Etta James singing “Tell Mama”, but precious little else in the way of live performances.
In 1967, Ralph Gleason, one of the festival’s founders and organizers, decided that pop music was culturally relevant and deserved a place in Monterey. That year the pop performers included Simon & Garfunkle, The Byrds, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane, The Butterfield Blues Band, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moby Grape, Laura Nyro and Otis Redding.
How many of these artists are mentioned in the film? Zero. The whole “pop” experiment is treated as an aberration, a fall from grace for the true believers. Some of the Monterey pop performances are legendary. They are totally ignored in this revisionist history.
There are some nice interviews (especially with Dave Brubeck), but after a while he whole exercise becomes almost painfully self-congratulatory. It feels like a booster film commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce rather than an examination of real human beings and their art.
If you really like Jazz, and are interested in the history of the festival more than the performances, you might like this as a rental. Otherwise it’s bland and forgettable.
[This message has been edited by cwburch (edited 09-11-1999).]
With all that material to draw upon, I had high hopes for this project, but I was pretty disappointed. Much of the performance footage is shown with “wild” sound (not synched) that is obviously not the music being played by the musicians shown on the screen. I would guess that the film makes had a lot of problems getting the rights to the music. There some nice footage of Etta James singing “Tell Mama”, but precious little else in the way of live performances.
In 1967, Ralph Gleason, one of the festival’s founders and organizers, decided that pop music was culturally relevant and deserved a place in Monterey. That year the pop performers included Simon & Garfunkle, The Byrds, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane, The Butterfield Blues Band, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moby Grape, Laura Nyro and Otis Redding.
How many of these artists are mentioned in the film? Zero. The whole “pop” experiment is treated as an aberration, a fall from grace for the true believers. Some of the Monterey pop performances are legendary. They are totally ignored in this revisionist history.
There are some nice interviews (especially with Dave Brubeck), but after a while he whole exercise becomes almost painfully self-congratulatory. It feels like a booster film commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce rather than an examination of real human beings and their art.
If you really like Jazz, and are interested in the history of the festival more than the performances, you might like this as a rental. Otherwise it’s bland and forgettable.
[This message has been edited by cwburch (edited 09-11-1999).]
