Among the stars of Naxos' "Jazz Icons: Series 4."
A summer day without jazz and blues is incomplete. One place to get your fix is Muzeo, housed in a 1908 Carnegie Library building that miraculously survived the makeover of downtown Anaheim in the ‘70s. “State of the Blues: The Living Legend of the Delta” pays homage to the musicians associated with the sound of Mississippi Delta region with 125 sepia-toned portraits by photographer Jeff Dunas.
The handsomely mounted exhibit, on display through August 15, includes images of such headliners as B. B. King and Bonnie Raitt, as well as grizzled old-timers like Honeyboy Edwards and nonagenarian Pinetop Perkins, who has a new album due out this year. Up next at Muzeo: “Miradas: Mexican Art from the Bank of America Collection,” opening September 16. Call 714-956-8936.
Delta bluesmen don’t come much more authentic than 88-year-old James “T-Model” Ford. His latest recording, “The Ladies Man,” is nobody’s slick concept of what might be commercially successful—it’s just an old hepcat in a studio, singing and strumming acoustic guitar. Ford was given 100% control over the recording, which captures him in fine form on songs like “Chicken Head Man” and “Love Me All Night Long.” (Released by Alive Naturalsound Records).
If you’re shopping for Father’s Day and dad’s a jazz aficionado, you can’t do much better than Naxos’ “Jazz Icons: Series 4.” This terrific box set of DVDs features seven artists, including Anita O’Day, Coleman Hawkins, Woody Herman, Erroll Garner, Art Blakey, Jimmy Smith and Art Farmer. Reelin’ in the Years Productions has scoured the musty archives of European TV stations to put together some 10 hours of rare concert footage.
Each of the iconic figures gets a disc devoted to them, plus a booklet with extensive liner notes and photos; a bonus DVD, which cannot be purchased separately, offers encores from Hawkins (with Benny Carter), Garner and Smith. There’s no MTV-style editing to distract from the full-length, in-studio concerts, which date from 1962-1970 and really capture the magic of what it was like to see these legends in live performance.
One of the jazzmen included in “Series 3” is also on view in “Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus,” an Acorn Media DVD release. This acclaimed documentary shot in 1986 by filmmaker Robert Mugge captures Rollins not only in performance but at home, talking candidly about his life and work; the world premiere of his “Concerto for Tenor Saxophone and Orchestra,” is among the concerts.
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