GRIST FOR THE VCR MILL

Jazz videos are proliferating--not at the rate one might hope, but certainly enough to justify the ownership of a VCR by any serious follower of the music.

One recurrent problem is that too many of the shows up to this point have been little more than LPs with images. Aside from an occasional brief interview with the subject there is rarely any attempt to build a true documentary performance, blending past and present footage with well planned historic surveys.

A reason for this limitation could be that most of the videos received recently are simply live concerts transferred to tape. More new material, to which more forethought is devoted, may be forthcoming if there is a concerted effort to produce shows in the studios.