I just became aware of the Jazz Icons series of DVDs by Reelin' In The Years Productions in collaboration with Mosaic Records, and I feel like I've stumbled across a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow!

Here's a couple of quotes from the Jazz Icons website which I couldn't agree with more:

"Jazz Icons is doing for jazz what the Criterion Collection has done for classic and important films." Jazz Times

"Jazz Icons is an ongoing DVD series featuring full-length concerts and in-studio performances by the greatest legends in jazz, filmed all over the world from the 1950s through the 1970s. Beautifully transferred from the original masters, each of these DVDs features rare performances that have never been officially released on home video, and in many cases, were never broadcast."

It looks like when the Jazz Icon DVD series were first offered they were only available as box sets, with the Jazz Icons Series 1 box set with 9 DVDs, for example, selling for about $117 USD on Amazon.com. Now it appears you can get all the DVDs individually as well, and I bought the Bill Evans Live '65-'75 DVD from Amazon.com as a single DVD for $17 USD.

The Bill Evans Live '65-'75 DVD features five performances: Sweden 1964, France 1965, Denmark 1970, Sweden 1970, and Denmark 1975. The DVD also comes with a nice 24 page booklet with liner notes by Robert Doerschuk, a foreword by Bill Evans' daughter, and lots of nice photos.

I'll keep you posted as I check out more of the Jazz Icon DVDs, but so far I'm impressed - this is a wonderful series for lovers of jazz!