Ernie Watts Quartet ALIVE

Recorded live at the St. Anthony Main Street Festival on July 24, 1986, the Ernie Watts Quartet's contribution to the Some Call It Jazz series from Quantum Leap/MVD contains 60 minutes of great music and little in the way of liner notes and additional information. Some of the better camera work from the assorted programs taped by producer/director Gregg Kubera is found on this 58-and-a-half-minute DVD. It's a very enjoyable hour of Watts' "analog saxophone" with the usual people milling about during the street festival. Perhaps it was because of Watts' status as a Grammy winner that the camera crew decided to keep this concert in focus — or maybe they had so much practice taping the various events with Randy Sabien and Brian Torff & Manfredo Fest that this time they got it right. The Don Rice audio is once again superb, with the piano, bass, and drums mixed to perfection. All the releases in this series from MVD with these important artists are lo-fi delights, and this is one of the best — 60 minutes of Ernie Watts' sax wailing with superb accompaniment is a nice video find.