Airto & Flora Purim: The Latin Jazz All-Stars Live at the Queen Mary Jazz Festival

I'll agree with the previous reviewer that the audio quality of this video is only fair at best, but I, for one, treasure this dvd because it is the only one I know of that has Joe Farrell on it. Joe was one of the greatest all-around reed/woodwind players ever; he and Airto and Flora were on the first two Return To Forever albums with Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke, and Joe just shines on tenor sax on this dvd. He was amazing. He died not too long after this concert, so this may well be his last recorded performance. He is missed!

I have been a fan of Airto since the first Weather Report album. It has always been next to impossible to see a recorded performance of Airto and Flora. Besides this offering the only other video I have been aware of is a Laser Disk of another performance. I bought a copy of this performance twenty years ago on VHS and was less than satisfied then as I am now. In the day of digital re-mastering, there is nothing in more need of work than this. The sound quality is equal to a loud roar. Instead of being able to hear the subtle sounds and textures of the many percussive instruments, you get a blur of poorly recorded sound. Add to that the fact that the performance is over just as everyone starts to loosen up and kick a.. well you know what I mean. The production company couldn't even play the last song all the way through before credits, things just fade away and it's over. I am obviously not impressed by the quality of production from the VIEW Video Jazz series. On the plus side is a great capoeira performance by The Batucaje Dance Troupe. There is magic when things start to happen, Flora will give you goose bumps. I only wish they had filmed more of it. You also get to see one of Joe Farrell's last performances for what that is worth. As I stated, it really only deserves one star, but considering this is the only thing out there to see these folks do what they do I gave it two. Now if we could only get a video performance of the real MASTER, the person Airto got "EVERYTHING" from, Dom Um Romao.