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This two disc, five hour, DVD pack features over 50 artists that have performed at the festival from 1997 up to 2006. Many performances have previously not been available on DVD and performances have been digitally remastered. The DVDs cover the festival in 1997, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005 and 2006 covering clips from Airto, Charlie Benante, Jack DeJohnette, Jeff Hamilton, Will Kennedy and many more artists that I had not seen before. There is also the much sought after, and very young looking, Jojo Mayer’s first Modern Drummer performance, Steve Gadd and Giovanni Hidalgo’s performance, and Steve Ferrone as well as some of the more recent Modern Drummer festival performance including one of my all time favorite performances from the funky cat Shawn Pelton

There is very rare footage of Modern Drummers late founder Ron Spagnardi opening the Disc 1, somebody who, I must admit, as a player I didn’t know much about but really had the swing and chops to open for such a prestige DVD pack.

This is a must have DVD for your collection even if it’s just for the old performances that have never been available before. This is also a limited edition DVD so make sure you get it soon before they all sell out.

Mike Dolbear

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