Multimedia Review

Billy Cobham's Glass Menagerie. Filmed in March 1981, Riazzino, Switzerland. Billy Cobham, drums; Michal Urbaniak, electric violin, lyricon; Mike Stern, electric guitar; Gil Goldstein, keyboards; Tim Landers, electric bass; Tazio Tami, director. 2002 [orig. VHS: Polivideo, 1981]. TDK Mediactive DVUS-JBCGM (90 mins.; Picture format 4:3; Sound: Stereo Digital 5.1; Region: All).

World of Rhythm. Filmed 26 January 1983, Palazzo dei Congressi, Lugano, Switzerland. Herbie Hancock, piano; Ron Carter, bass; Billy Cobham, drums; Stanley Dorfman, director. 2002 [orig. VHS: Olivia/Polivideo, 1983]. TDK Mediactive DVUS-JWOR. (90 mins; Picture format 4:3; Sound: Stereo Digital 5.1; Region: All).

TDK Mediactive has created a series of concert videos that document a cross-section of prominent jazz performers, as of the early 1980s. Originally distributed in VHS format, the DVD reissues offer several features likely to please jazz enthusiasts, including 5.1 Digital Surround Sound (geared for home theaters), explanatory notes, and biographies of the players. Released in a series that also includes concerts by the Gil Evans Orchestra and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, the two reissues addressed here improve on their original versions, which were already well produced. These improvements, while satisfying, offer tantalizing glimpses of what jazz music videos can yet become, in their cinematic presentations and in their usefulness as documents for further study.