Jazz Scene USA – Shelly Manne/Shorty Rogers (TV)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: D     Episodes: B-

 

 

More and more Jazz TV and rarely seen Jazz from early videotapings are surfacing on DVD.  A pair of episodes from the 1962 TV series Jazz Scene USA had been issued by Shanachie and it is a shame more were not.  The two shows here feature Shelly Manne and Shorty Rogers, with the commercial breaks not obvious for the syndicated programs they were.  Manne’s songs are:

 

1)     The King Swings*

2)     Fantan

3)     The Isolated Pawn*

4)     Speak Low

And Rogers’ songs are:

5)     Greensleeves

6)     Time Was

7)     Martians Go Home

8)     The Outsider

 

* These selections composed By John Williams for the TV series Checkmate.

 

These are Jazz of the time, very “in” and vibrant, without the weight of the big band era and the kind Film Noir made famous.  Being half-hour-slotted programs, they only add up to under an hour of programming and it is a shame more shows were not on the DVD, as a couple of more could have fit.  This was issued in 2001, but the company ought to consider a box of the entire series, because this that good and the company only did three other titles in the series before suspending releases.

 

The full frame image is monochrome and from old TV masters, so they only look so good, but their condition is not as awful as TV on DVD we have seen from previous times.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is a few-generations-down representation of the original TV mono sound, but its compression makes the original sound a bit worse.  Whether better materials exist is one question, but a sound clean up would be nice down the line.  The only extra is some smart text on the back of the box, which is still more than many such titles from Shanachie have in the way of extras.  This Jazz Scene USA installment will do until a box set can be issued.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo