Miles Davis-Tutu (DVD-Audio) (1986) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Introduction Booklet Discography Biographies-Cast-Miles Davis Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	1986
Running Time	42:17
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Peter Doell Eric Calvi
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Miles Davis Marcus Miller
Case	DVD-Audio Jewel
RPI	$32.95	Music	Various

    Legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis (1926-1991) is so influential that many other famous jazz musicians are linked to him - either because they have played with him or for him, or they have been inspired by him. The list of musicians who have been part of his band read like a Who's Who of Jazz: Gil Evans, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, and Billy Cobham are but a few names of former band members who became famous in their own right. His career spans nearly 50 years from the 1940s to the 1990s and he was part of nearly every important innovation in jazz during that period. And yet his playing style is quite distinctive - lyrical, introspective and melodic, and yet with a blistering intensity.

    Many of Miles' best albums are with the Columbia label, including Kind Of Blue, Sketches of Spain and many others. In 1986, he switched labels to Warner and Tutu is his first Warner album, winning him his fourth Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance.

    It is a somewhat controversial album, since it is highly engineered and overdubbed with a heavy synth backdrop. Most of the other instruments are overdubbed and played by producer Marcus Miller. There are a few guest musicians including Paulinho da Costa (percussion) on several tracks, George Duke (keyboards) in Backyard Blues, Omar Hakim (drums and percussion) on Tomaas and Michael Urbaniak (electric violin) on Don't Lose Your Mind.

    Most of the songs can be described as "moody but funky". I prefer early Miles, but this is quite listenable. Sony has been remastering and releasing most of Miles' albums on Super Audio CD in recent years, so I suspect this is Warner's attempt at stealing some of the thunder.

Video

    Like most of the Warner DVD-Audio discs released to date, the video content on this disc is in full frame NTSC. We get one photo still per song that also includes the song title, composer credits and track duration.

Audio

    There are three audio tracks on this disc: MLP 5.1 96/24 and MLP 2.0 96/24 on the DVD-Audio portion, and Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) on the DVD-Video portion. A Linear PCM and dts 5.1 track would have been nice additions.

    First of all, the CD. The copy that I have is the original release, circa 1986. Digital audio mastering technology was still in its infancy then, and the CD sounds very dull and muffled by today's standards.

    By comparison, the MLP 2.0 track is a revelation! Forgive me for using the well worn cliché, but listening to the high resolution remastering is exactly like lifting a velvet curtain off my speakers. This remastering really brings out the dynamics and punchiness of the recording, with real improvements in deep bass and high frequencies. Cymbals sound scintillating. The drums and bass kicks out across the room. Compared to the CD, it is about 3dB louder but then the CD is recorded at a soft level by today's standards.

    The MLP 5.1 is equally as impressive, featuring a discrete surround remix from the original multi-track. Most of the music is carried by the front left and right speakers, with the centre channel used as an ambience filler. Various instruments are placed into the rear speakers, mostly percussion and synth but also including the occasional rhythm guitar.

    Track 7 (Don't Lose Your Mind) features some imaginative panning of instruments and sound effects across all speakers and is quite enjoyable to listen to - certainly far more enjoyable to the (by comparison) "boring" stereo version!

    The subwoofer is used effectively to support the low frequency portion of the music, but deep bass is also present in the front left and right channels.

    The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track definitely does not sound as crisp and punchy as the MLP 5.1 audio track.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The extras are minimal and replicated on both DVD-Audio and DVD-Video portions of the disc.

Menu

    The menus are full frame and static, but include an animated introduction and menu transitions.

Booklet

    This is a single page folded into three. It is in black and white. One side contains three photos of Miles Davis (hands and face). The other side contains track listing, and musician/production credits.

Discography

    This is a set of six stills selected from a sub-menu. Each still displays the album cover and track listing. As is to be expected, only Miles Davis albums with the WEA label are included here - none of the Columbia albums are included.

Biography

    This is a set of six stills featuring a short text biography of Miles Davis.

Credits

    This is a set of four stills listing musicians and production team.

    This disc appears to be identically featured across all regions.

    Tutu is the first album from legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis on the Warner label and Warner obviously thought it was worthy of remastering for DVD-Audio. The results are excellent, and far superior to the CD release.

    Audio tracks include MLP 96/24 5.1 and MLP 96/24 2.0 on the DVD Audio portion, plus Dolby Digital 5.1 on the DVD-Video portion. The quality of the audio is excellent.

    Extras are minimal.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall