Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #96758 in VHS
• Released on: 1991-07-01
• Format: NTSC
• Original language: English
• Running time: 60 minutes

Amazon.com
The Manhattan Transfer flex their jazz muscles in this 80-minute, 19-song concert, recorded over two nights in Tokyo in 1986. The quartet (Tim Hauser, Janis Siegel, Alan Paul, and Cheryl Bentyne) were touring in support of their hit Vocalese album, and much of the show is devoted to that style, which consists of singing words over existing jazz instrumentals. Tunes by Woody Herman, Count Basie, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, and others feature lyrics by Jon Hendricks, one of the pioneers of vocalese; it's a bravura performance, with all four singers effortlessly negotiating the torrents of words and tricky melodies. The remainder of the concert includes several Transfer favorites, like "Birdland," "Java Jive," and "The Boy from New York City," and features enough costume and set changes to sustain visual as well as musical interest. All in all, a satisfying set sure to appeal to Manhattan Transfer devotees. --Sam Graham

Customer Reviews

Good show, but can we get a more current one?
This is the DVD release of a 1986 show from Japan. This was released on VHS and Cassette in the late 1980's. Fans of The Manhattan Transfer know that their talents and body of work is nearly unsurpassed, so why do we have only one DVD concert of them, and why did we have to dig back over 15 years to get it? There is nothing really wrong with this concert DVD (aside from the fact that the 80's hairdos and stage costumes look really silly now), but their fanbase should be large enough by now to warrant releasing a more recent slate of shows. In this show's defense, the material on their "Vocalese" album (which this show was part of a tour to promote) is extremely difficult to sing live, and the Transfer manage to pull it off without missing a beat.

This is a poor indication of the group's quality,
though not their fault. The production of the DVD is almost amatuerish. The visuals are impeccable, but when you buy a music DVD, you hope for quality of sound as well. This sound seems to have been recorded using a microphone hung in the middle of the auditorium. Frequently, the vocals are uninteligible, drowned out by the back-up group. If you have ever seen them in concert, you know what a treat the experience is. In this case, however, the effort of the group is evident but the results of the recording are disappointing at best.

Seeing Is Believing
Manhattan Transfer has now been performing for an amazing 36 years (26 for Cheryl Bentyne), and it's doubtful they'll ever top "Vocalese," the dazzling recording on which they manage to execute John Hendricks' Joycean transcriptions of Clifford Brown-Sonny Rollins' solos without missing a beat. So challenging is the repertory on this particular set that I would have imagined some "creative" studio editing was responsible for the final product. Imagine again. This live concert filmed in Japan is living proof of the utter technical precision of the group not to mention its showmanship and stage-savvy choreography.

The highlights are Sonny Rollin's "Airegin" and, my personal favorite, Clifford Brown's "Joy Spring" (retitled "Sing Joy Spring"). Almost equally enjoyable are Thad Jones' "To You" and, of course, Joe Zawinul's "Birdland." Much of the remainder of the program falls under the category of "classic rock." I confess to fast-forwarding through much of this material, even though it's clearly a crowd pleaser with the Japanese and, to be fair, it gives the group a chance to "de-pressurize" a bit.

Certainly this is the crowning, unmatchable visual documentary of the group at its peak and should be sought out. Be careful, however, that you don't initially order (as I did) the shortened, overly produced "music video" version, also entitled "Vocalese." And disregard the preceding reviews. The repertory and sound quality are both just fine.

Some fans of jazz have traditionally dissed groups like Manhattan Transfer (or Lambert, Hendricks & Ross or the Four Freshmen) on the grounds that it's less jazz than "copy cat" music performed by non-musicians (i.e. vocalists). Bassist Charles Mingus was perhaps the most outspoken critic of such attempts to "transcribe" jazz into "vocalese." Whether or not these four exceptional singers are jazz musicians or jazz "ambassadors," all I know is that they've given me pleasure and inspired me to return to the originals.

The group has had a tremendous run, but before they run out of transfers and pull into the last station, I hope they record some more jazz transcriptions--preferably Mingus tunes like "Goodbye, Pork Pie Hat," "Fables of Faubus," "Pithecanthropus Erectus," and "Better Git It in Your Soul." (I can hear Mingus tap dancing in his grave.)