Merl Saunders - Blues From the Rainforest: A Musical Suite
Talk about one from the vault. This DVD features two different versions  of a 1990 San Francisco concert by Merl Saunders and the Rainforest Band: one, a  straight concert shoot, and the other, a TV show,San Francisco After  Dark, which uses excerpts from that performance and intersperses them with  clips of Saunders talking about his commitment to preserving the rainforest.  There's also a music video of the title song that features the late Jerry  Garcia, a frequent Saunders collaborator, playing guitar. In addition, there's a  24-minute documentary about the plight of the rainforest. How much you enjoy  this package depends on your taste for Saunders's music, which mixes jazzy R&B;  instrumentals with synthesizer-heavy New Age noodling meant to evoke the sounds  of--you guessed it--the rainforest. Garcia-philes, be warned: Though he is  billed as a special guest and plays on the hour-plus audio program, he makes  only that one appearance in the music video.--Marshall Fine