Legends of Jazz. Showcase [Blu ray] :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

Excellent concert

2008-08-25
This is a must to have for your Jazz collection. Selection of performers, sound and video quality is GREAT. Highly recommend this concert. If you like jazz you can not go wrong with this disk.

The closest experience to being there live

2008-06-12
This is a masterfully produced disc. When you put this in your player and the theme music starts, you know you are in for a great night of jazz.

What truly makes this collection compelling is the well-balanced list of performances. There are artists new and old, well-known and not so well-known, from a surprisingly varied pool of jazz sub-genres: fusion, bebop, swing, latin, and bossa. There is even a blues performance thrown in. The performances themselves are mostly very good, with the occasional eye-opening one mixed in such as Marcus Miller's Panther.

The production value of the disc is fantastic too. I would've loved this even on VHS because it is ultimately about the music; but there is something to be said about the excellent high definition video and sound. This is truly as close as one can get to being there live. The disc is also very well organized. It is easy to switch between sound formats and you can access the performances individually from the main menu too. Even the artist bios are well done. In fact, I found this Blu-ray disc so great that I'm now torn between buying the Legends of Jazz DVD collection or waiting for a Blu-ray release. I will probably buy the DVD set now since the music and the performances are what's important I think.

As far as shortcomings, the only one I found is that the length is on the short side at 55 minutes. Everything else was perfect. If you like jazz, you'll love this disc.

Extra-ordinary Performances

2008-05-20
From the opening duet with Al Jarreau & Kurt Elling doing a scat rendition of Dave Brubeck's "Take Five", to Ramsey Lewis' tranquil piano on "dear Lord", this disc had me hooked. There is some amazing performances on here, but I was especially partial to Clark Terry's "Mumbles". The man had me mesmerized, smiling and laughing...not something you find yourself doing on a disc such as this.

The only reason I didn't give it 5-Star rating is due to it's length! I longed for more and I was disappointed when it was over. I sure do hope that they release another Legends of Jazz Blu-ray...I certainly will be one of the first to pick it up.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED...even if you're only a marginal jazz fan (like me I suppose).

The best image I've seen on BD

2008-05-04
If you want to impress your friends with the best possible quality image, just show them this BD. And it's only 1080i!!!. You can see the minor details of the hair, faces, instruments of the artists, the texture of the clothes, all.

But the image is so amazing that you can forget that the musical pieces in this blu ray are also fantastic.

The only pity is why they don't commercialize all the complete shows one by one in high definition. I'd buy all of them.

Perfect test disc

2007-12-13
Perfect disc for Demo , one of my favorite blueray beside Pat matheny the way up disc

Nice Collection

2007-12-12
The critically-acclaimed Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis - the first weekly television series devoted to jazz in more than 40 years - debuted nationally on PBS stations in April 2006. Now presented on the superior new Blu-ray Disc format Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis "Showcase" is an all-star collection of 13 riveting live performances from the series by some of the biggest stars in jazz.Format: BLU-RAY DISC Genre: MUSIC DVD/CONCERTS UPC: 878509000520 Manufacturer No: 090005

Not a demo material

2007-07-24
Having read a review at Hi Def Digest saying that this looks better than any material shot on film ever will, I ran to buy this disc (along with Chris Botti's favorably reviewed BD). I do not know what these people were thinking? Music, performances and sound are great, but this looks awfull and not wothy of a Hi Def disc. Really, some upscaled DVD's are looking much better. Very disappointing...

Absolutely Amazing!!!

2007-06-06
This is probably my favorite BR title to date. Although the video is 'only' 1080i, the PQ is excellent... Don't let the spec fool you because it's not 1080p. The audio is as good as it gets. It's very clear they went to extremes to make sure the audio was top shelf.

If you like Jazz, or even if you just want great demo material, this disc is a must own!!!

Jazz showcase

2007-05-21
The picture quality on this Blueray disc is oustanding. The soundtrack is encoded as DTS HD master audio. It still sounds very good even if my equipment can only extract the DTS 1.5 mps core. My Sony BPS1 does not have the capability to decode DTS HD master Audio. All blue ray concerts should have uncompressed PCM. Uncompressed PCM never needs decoding and is compatible with most receiver's.

Great sound check

2007-05-12
This Blu-ray DVD is a great test for your home theater system. It produces a copious amount of sounds to reveal your receiver and speaker system's dynamic range. The video quality is 1080i, but it is clear none the less.