"Blues For Joan Miro" starts with the sculptor leading the piano player around an exhibit of his work. Neither man speaks each other's language, so they are playacting for the camera with their animated discussions in front of each piece, but it doesn't matter, for when Ellington sits down at his keyboard, you can tell he was affected by the wildness and shapes of the sculpture he had just seen.
The balance of disc one is taken up with footage from the 1977 Montreux Jazz Fest mentioned earlier. Interspersed are clips of Joe Pass improvising on his guitar around "Ain't Misbehavin'", and "Prelude To A Kiss" filmed in 1979, and two cuts of Ella Fitzgerald from the same year. She proves that almost thirty years after Gjon Mili's 1950 film, she's still the queen when it comes to vocal improvisations.
Disc two is primarily photo galleries, interviews, and the like dealing with the making of the Mili film in 1950. As an added bonus they've included the 1944 film Jammin' The Blues giving you an idea of what they were trying to accomplish with the second movie. Comparing the two projects you can see why they wanted to move off the soundstage to Mili's studio; the footage from the second movie has a relaxed intimacy that is missing from the formal shooting patterns of Jammin' The Blues.
Even in spite of the sound being pre-recorded in the second movie, it somehow manages to capture more of the free spirit of improvisation and jazz than any of the other tracks on this recording. Although each of them has an impact and power of their of their own, these black and white images from the early 1950s are the ones that have stayed with me long after I've finished viewing it.
Norman Granz Presents Improvisation is great collection of live jazz concerts and filmed jazz featuring some of the most renowned players in history. Watching these great players and singers improvise and perform is a treat. No fan of jazz music will want to be without this documentation of some truly great moments in twentieth century jazz.
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