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TURN-ONS AND TURN-OFFS IN CURRENT HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASES : VIDEOCASSETTES : ****Excellent ***Good **Fair *Poor

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“The Monterey Jazz Festival: Featuring Mel Torme, Woody Herman and Joe Williams.” Sony. $29.95. Monterey used to be one of the great festivals, years ago, but its present paucity of fresh ideas is illustrated here. Despite some fine moments with Mel Torme and Joe Williams, too little is new or exciting. The Herman band must surely have played something more interesting than his duet with a cliche-ridden Japanese clarinetist, just as Williams probably sang some slow blues but is represented here mainly by several sound-alike up tempos. Sadly, this 1983 tape is far below the level of a superb earlier Monterey documentary that for unknown reasons was never released. Information: (212) 757-4990. **

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