AMG Review of Twins Live in Japan 1982 [2 CD]

David Ross Smith
All Music Guide

Originally taped for a Japanese television broadcast, and not intended for sale, Jaco Pastorius Big Band's Twins Live in Japan 1982 bootleg video features great camera work and editing. The performances are uniformly solid, but in a big band setting, only a handful of musicians get to step up for solos. These solos, though, are superior. The featured Word of Mouth players in this 40-minute videotape include Othello Molineaux (steel pans), Bob Mintzer (reeds), Randy Brecker (trumpet), Toots Thielemans (harmonica), and David W. Bargeron (tuba). Molineaux is a standout, soloing often throughout the concert. Pastorius takes center stage on a truncated rendition of "Continuum," and performs a beautiful, languid duet with Thielemans on "Sophisticated Lady." All five compositions on this videotape are included on the recently released Twins Live double CD and its single-disc companion, Invitation. [This is the double-CD version.]