Jazz in Exile

In an earlier, shorter release (1978) this was a drag; extensive re-editing produced a delight. Too little music and too much talk - about jazzers escaping to enthusiastic Europe from a cool reception in the States (after all, the music's black) - has been rebalanced by the greatly increased concert footage. The music is mainly Hard Bop (tenorists Dexter Gordon and Johnny Griffin trading gutsy phrases, Phil Woods' sliding, striding alto, virtuoso bassist Richard Davis punching out an agile blues with Ben Sidran), but covers enough ground to include archive footage of Billie Holiday and Lester Young, and the modern histrionics of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. More could have been heard from the women (Carla Bley and Betty Carter), and sometimes the solos are cut too short. By and large, though, the film certainly delivers the goods.