Big Band’s on the Cutting Edge, Thanks to DVD-Audio

How would you like to have a jazz album in which experiencing the music is like being seated in the middle of the studio with the band while it’s playing? An album that also includes a video documentary of the making of the album? That’s right, a video documentary.

Let’s not stop there. How about if it also included transcriptions of some of the solos, written in the instrument’s key and available on video, allowing a budding--or accomplished--musician to play along with the solo? Add to that video bios of the players, as well as narration by the leader, describing passages in each of the pieces, as they are played.

Sound like an unlikely wish fulfillment? Not at all. In fact, it’s already here, in composer-arranger Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band recording “Swingin’ for the Fences” on the Silverline label. It is, of course, a DVD-Audio album, one that has just been nominated for two Grammys: best instrumental composition for “Sing, Sang, Sung” and best instrumental arrangement for “Bach 2 Part Invention in D Minor.”

The recording is the first significant effort to use the DVD technology--with its capacity to provide both video and audio, the latter in surround-sound, six-speaker format--for an expansively produced jazz recording. (Other jazz DVDs have begun to arrive, but most consist of collections and reissues, with relatively minimal visual content.)

Seated earlier this week in a large studio at West Los Angeles’ 5.1 Entertainment--a facility that is aggressively exploring the production of DVD music--with Goodwin and 5.1 principals Leo Rossi and Ken Caillat, I had the opportunity to encounter the full scope of Goodwin’s album in the best possible environment. Having already heard a CD version of “Swingin’ for the Fences,” I initially assumed that--since I would be hearing the DVD version on high-end studio equipment--the audio would be first-rate.

As it turned out, I was completely unprepared for what I heard. The experience was like being surrounded by the music, engulfed in a complete embrace of sound. And, yes, sure it was reproduced on equipment priced beyond the reach of most people. But I’ve been exposed to studio-quality sound for decades, and this was something different--a new, immersive way of hearing recorded music that may well have profound effects on the way we listen and make recordings.

What’s the best analogy? Maybe something like seeing color television after having only been exposed to black-and-white; or, as one observer told Rossi, like listening with headphones without wearing headphones.

“It sure scared me that first time I heard it,” Goodwin said. “Swingin’ for the Fences” had originally been produced as a traditional recording. When it was remixed for DVD-Audio surround sound, he was obliged to move past the original familiar notion of a landscape-style audio mix and instead think of the music as a three-dimensional experience.

“Once I got past my usual way of hearing things,” he continued, “I began to see how many creative possibilities there are in this technology.”

The embracing quality of the sound, the feeling of fully coming into contact with the music, would probably be enough for many listeners. But the additional enhancement of the numerous visual elements obviously take DVDs well beyond the now seemingly narrow confines of the CD universe.

It wasn’t surprising, therefore, when Rossi noted that consumers have already purchased more than 10 million DVD units, including 3.5 million in the month before Christmas. Nor is it surprising that many artists are moving quickly to get on the DVD bandwagon. Although initial efforts are focusing on live performances--with their already available combinations of sight and sound--a few enterprising companies and players are exploring the many options that the technology offers.

5.1. Entertainment’s three labels--Silverline, Immergent and Electromatrix--are offering both new material and remixed collections via titles such as “Classic Jazz” (including tracks by Horace Silver, Cannonball Adderley, Lee Morgan, Bobby Hutcherson and others), “Classic Country” (Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Crystal Gayle, etc.) and “Surf’s Up” (Jan & Dean, the Beach Boys, the Ventures, etc.). But it also is reaching into DVD’s wider potential with ambient, atmospheric collections combining visual imagery--”Air,” “Fire,” “Water,” “Earth” and “Spirit”--with appropriate musical accompaniment.

And in Goodwin’s “Swingin’ for the Fences” it has a pilot project that undoubtedly will serve as a model for jazz, as well as pop and classical, artists.

The cost factor, especially for jazz recordings, will obviously be a consideration. But it’s worth noting that the Goodwin album has already sold more than 6,000 copies--a piddling number by today’s mega-pop standards, but impressive for a relatively unknown artist leading a big jazz band. And doubly so, given the fact that DVDs cannot be played on compact disc machines.

A follow-up album to “Swingin’ for the Fences” was not exactly something that Goodwin expected, at least not this quickly. Although he tried, a decade or so ago, to maintain a smaller ensemble, Goodwin spent most of the ‘90s composing for film and television (he is a three-time Emmy Award winner).

“But I love the big band instrumentation,” he said. “And I just couldn’t let it go without giving it another shot.” Little did he know that the big band album he envisioned would wind up as an early DVD hit. And now all he has to do is figure out how to do another big-band jazz album with surround sound in mind from the very beginning.

“It’s pretty challenging,” he says with a smile. “But I’ll just have to see what I can come up with.”

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Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band can be heard in person, without the need for any electronic equipment, on Monday at the Baked Potato Hollywood, 6266 1/2 Sunset Blvd. Performances at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. Cover charge $15. (323) 461-6400.