Ray Charles’ first European performance at the 1961 Antibes Jazz Festival would prove to be one of the pivotal moments in his storied career. In fact, in July 1961 one would have been hard-pressed to think of any other musician, popular or otherwise, who had achieved so much on so many different levels — socio/political, business and musical — in the previous two years and this performance marked the beginning of Charles’ ascent to international superstardom.
The Antibes performance was very strong and presented a wide-angle take on the range of Charles’ musical interests and proclivities featuring jazz, blues, Tin Pan Alley pop, Latin rhythms and gospel-inflected R&B. There wasn’t another artist alive at the time that had this broad of a palette and is shown here in the classics Georgia On My Mind, Let The Good Times Roll and What’d I Say.
Etta James made many appearances at the Montreux Jazz Festival across her long and distinguished career from her first concert in 1975 through to her last in 2008. This Blu-ray focuses on the concert from 1993 when she was at her absolute peak and complements it with selected tracks from many oth...
A powerful performance from one of the greatest jazz singers of all time - Filmed live in 1976, Nina Simone sings a selection of great songs including Little Girl Blue, Stars and I Wish I Knew How.
