- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4 (2D), MVC (3D)
- Resolution: 720p (59.940Hz)
- Audio Codec: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (98kHz/24-bit) “Stage” and “Perspective” mixes, LPCM 2.0 Stereo (96kHz/24-bit)
- Subtitles NA
- Subtitles Color: NA
- Region: ABC (Region-Free)
- Rating: NR
- Run Time: 60 Mins.
- Discs: 1 (1 x Blu-ray 3D)
- Studio: AIX Records
- Blu-ray Release Date: August 28, 2012
- List Price: $34.98
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Overall
[Rating:4.5/5]
The Performance
[Rating:5/5]
Video Quality
2D HD: [Rating:4/5]
3D Effect: [Rating:5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3.5/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1280X720p screen captures
(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Performance
[Rating:5/5]
Mark Waldrep and his AIX Records have done it again by bringing together veteran crossover flautist James Walker and his ensemble Free Flight with crossover pianist Bryan Pezzone for one of the label’s signature “live” captured, all natural recordings. The recording session for Threads took place in Los Angeles’ Zipper Auditorium and the disc contains ten tracks, five of them composed by Pezzone and one, “Mo’s Art,” is a jazzy arrangement of Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major K.545 by Mike Garson, a pianist who has played with Free Flight for many years. The synergy between Walker and Pezzone is electric on this recording, amazing when one thinks that this recording was a special project that brought the artists together on short notice. Pezzone, however, has played with Free Flight as a pianist on and off for many years and that chemistry is well evident in this performance. How they clicked so well musically can be heard in the beautifully melancholic piano and flute duet by Pezzone, “Lament,” but even in the general interplay between all the musicians, such as the precise rhythms of “Skeeball,” another Pezzone composition.
Track Listing:
- Mo’s Art
- Blackie and Max
- Skipping
- Lament
- Gershwin Medley
- Skeeball
- All the Things You Are
- Methane 5
- Bach Sonata in E Flat Movt. II
- Libido
Video Quality
2D HD [Rating:4/5]
3D Effect: [Rating:5/5]
As with all AIX 3D releases at this point, Threads was captured in 720p.While this isn’t the optimal resolution for high definition on Blu-ray, it provides a reasonably detailed and life-like image in 2D, if just slightly softer than 1080p. The 3D is marvelous here with such a sense of natural depth and realism that you feel as if you are almost there looking in on an intimate session right in front of you. There’s nothing gimmicky and crosstalk is slight.
Audio Quality
[Rating:5/5]
Man, listening to AIX high-res recordings take me right back to my younger days and make me feel like gigging and jamming again, especially their “Stage” mixes, presented here in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (96kHz/24-bit), which must be why I often prefer them to the “Perspective” mixes, here in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (96kHz/24-bit). With the stage mix on this recording (and in general) everything sounds fuller and more energetic. It really gives you a “you are there” experience, like you are on stage jamming with the band. This sensation is further amplified by AIX’s recording technique of using only the natural acoustics of the performance space – in this instance the Zipper Auditorium in Los Angeles, CA – and avoiding any artificial dynamic or EQ processing. The “Perspective” mix is also rather good in its own right, however, so don’t take that the wrong way. For those who prefer their 5.1 music recordings to sound as if they are in the audience, say, the 10th row center or so, then it doesn’t get much better than this. For all the 2-channel purists, a LPCM 2.0 (96kHz/24-bit) mix is also offered up here. For me, after sitting through the two 5.1 versions, this 2.0 mix lacks punch, but in comparison to most of the poorly recorded and mastered dreck out there, it is like the Mona Lisa and the others are toddlers doing finger painting. Every instrument in this recording sounds so true to form, regardless of which mix you prefer, that all debates about which is the “correct” way to listen will fall way as you sit back with a grin on your face.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3.5/5]
The disc has been supplied with the usual mixture of supplements from AIX Records, including the liner notes, artist bios, and a photo gallery. Of particular interest, however, is a clip of Free Flight performing on the late great Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, from 1982.
The supplements:
- James Walker Bio (1.78:1; 720p; 3D)
- Brian Pezzone Bio (1.78:1; 720p; 3D)
- About Free Flight (1.78:1; 720p; 3D)
- Photo Gallery (1.78:1; 720p; 3D; 00:02:02)
- Discography (1.78:1; 720p; 3D)
- Bonus Video – Free Flight performing on The Tonight Show in November 1982.
- Liner Notes (1.78:1; 720p; 3D)
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:4.5/5]
Classical, jazz, new age, smooth jazz, progressive jazz, crossover, or whatever else you want to call this high quality music, it is played and recorded at a high level and should appeal to fans of jazz or classical who have a hunger for new sounds.
Additional Screen Captures
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Purchase James Walker and Free Flight: Threads on Blu-ray 3D at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
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[amazon-product]B008DWG0QU[/amazon-product]
Purchase James Walker and Free Flight: Threads on Blu-ray 3D at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:4.5/5]
The Performance
[Rating:5/5]
Video Quality
2D HD: [Rating:4/5]
3D Effect: [Rating:5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3.5/5]
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