This DVD rather unhelpfully gives pianist Keith Jarrett top billing. In fact, in the first segment Jarrett performs as a member of the Charles Lloyd group, and in the second, as a bit player in Miles Davis’ group.

Opportunistic billing aside, is it any good? Well, the Standing Oh!vation label seems to specialise in digging out obscure TV performances and dates from European archives, and this is no exception. Let’s be honest, this release and others like it are primarily for musical trainspotters who simply must collect everything by a specific artist, regardless of quality.

Well, the Charles Lloyd material doesn’t look or sound too bad, and it certainly captures Jarrett performing brilliantly; while Lloyd’s trumpets and flutes take precedence, Jarrett is allowed plenty of room to move, and you can hear/see the beginnings of the precocious talent that was later allowed to flower on his solo extemporisations for Germany’s ECM label. The other players in this group are Ron McClure (bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums), also genuine jazz stars in their own right.

The second part is more worrying. Capturing Miles Davis’ band in two separate performances in 1970 and 1971 respectively (the first at the ‘Isle of Wright’… surely they mean ‘Wight’?) both the picture and sound quality are so degraded that you’d have to be an obsessive Miles fan to really need it. Of course it does capture Miles Davis and his band at several extraordinary moments in its evolution, but the bootleg quality denies the viewer/listener to experience it the way it must have actually been. Oh, and Keith Jarrett fans will be sorely disappointed with this portion, as he’s a bit player in this context, really. GARY STEEL

Sound 2.5

Visuals 2.5

Overall 2.5