A magnificent performance of Trane's masterpiece . Branford Marsalis' new recording of Coltrane's masterpiece, A Love Supreme, is superb on many levels.  If you're a fan of Trane, and even just luke-warm on Branford, I'm confident you'll find this to be a very worthwhile purchase.       Competent but lesser musicians playing ALS would try to channel Trane and the classic quartet.  Not Branford.  He is a mature artist with a fully-realized style.  He sometimes lovingly quotes Trane, or puts his own spin on a Trane riff, but he is clearly his own man on this recording of A Love Supreme.      Jeff Tain Watts understands the essence of Elvin and Elvin's contribution to ALS.  But, like Branford, Tain is his own man here.  He's great as a sideman, and plays a great solo at the end of Resolution.      Joey Calderazzo - an outstanding pianist who has done excellent and original work with many of today's top jazz artists - falls into McCoy mode in his first solo, but then plays like himself in his second one.  Both are great solos, but I think it shows a real maturity and confidence to be yourself rather than emulate the masters when playing their great works.     The bassist, Eric Revis, is very good, but I'm partial to Robert Hurst's performance on Branford's earlier recording of ALS.       It's worth comparing that earlier performance to the new one.  Branford first recorded ALS ten years ago for a CD compilation called "Stolen Moments:  Red, Hot & Blue".  That version is much shorter - only about 25 minutes, compared to the full-length version on the new DVD/CD combo.  On the older version, Branford's quartet went into the studio, didn't rehearse much (they were all fine musicians and all knew ALS), and started the tape rolling.  It is a wonderful performance, and well-worth having in your collection.  But it sounds like they are not trying to record anything original, just to have a fun time playing Trane's music.  (Be warned, though, that most of that CD contains acid jazz & hip hop.)     In contrast, the new recording does have a bit more of Branford's personality and interpretation.  For example, the chord changes in Acknowledgement are clearly different than on Trane's original recording - not so different to be annoying or trite - but different enough to let you know that Branford has something new to say.  Plus, in the 10 years since the earlier recording, Branford has grown from a very good but young musician to a true master in his own right, and this is evident on the new recording.        The sound & picture quality are PHENOMENAL.  I have about a dozen concert DVDs covering various genres.  This is easily the best sounding & looking of them all.  My TV/DVD player is plugged into a mere bookshelf stereo (albeit a good one), and the sound was SUPERB.  Then, I took the DVD over to a friend's house who has Dolby 5.1 home theater sound, and my God, I thought I was in the club with the musicians!   The picture quality matches the sound quality.  I viewed this DVD on a high-definition wide screen TV, and it was really quite thrilling.      The DVD includes a bunch of interviews.  First is a 30-minute interview between Branford and Alice Coltrane.  She talks a lot about Trane, his music, his relentless pursuit of perfection, some reminiscing about when he wrote ALS, and she and Branford have interesting exchanges about the nature of jazz and other topics.  Then there are a bunch of shorter interviews on various aspects of ALS, including some with Michael Brecker.  I think the interviews are insightful and add value to an already great disc.      Finally, there's a brief segment called "Branford Casual" that shows Branford walking around town, working out at the gym, practicing some classical music on the soprano, rehearsing with his quartet, and misc backstage tour footage.  Neat, but not essential.     Amazingly, you get all this for the price of a CD.  And the package includes an audio CD of the concert performance as a bonus!
Output: POS