Herbie Mann: Hold On, I'm Comin' Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		0.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Herbie Mann: Hold On, I'm Comin' Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 17, 2026

Note: August's batch of Quadio releases from Rhino offers four artists who haven't had previous Quadio releases, at least under their own name, with Bread's David Gates being that particular outlier, along with newcomers Herbie Mann, James Taylor and James Gang.

Herbie Mann was one of relatively few "mainstream" jazz artists who managed to not just have a Top 20 album (Memphis Underground), but several singles that were successful enough to make (admittedly mostly the lower echelons of) the Hot 100 chart ( Hi Jack made it to Number 14, though, and actually claimed the top spot on the Dance Chart for several weeks). It might also be added that Mann, given the album title Push Push (adorned with a nude picture of Mann) and this album's title might be a tad on the provocative side. But these two live performances by Mann and his group offer some fun grooves and really fantastically fluid flute playing from Mann. This includes live versions of both the title song from Memphis Underground and a couple of other tunes that may not have charted but which became associated with Mann through the years.

The album's track list can be seen in the screenshots of the disc menu I've uploaded to accompany this review. More information about navigating the menu can be found in the video section, below.

Herbie Mann: Hold On, I'm Comin' Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

This is another Quadio release with a static menu. As usual, the track listing changes font (if not color, given the black and white nature of this particular menu) depending on whether you scroll, chapter skip (which amounts to next track) or actually individually select tracks, and I've offered some examples of the different changes on tap. Unfortunately this is another audio Blu-ray from Rhino where you have to navigate through the tracks to get to the audio codecs to change those, and also unfortunately this is another case where the song starts over once a different codec is chosen. It seems that every Quadio batch recently has two discs with this authoring, and two with the preferred authoring of being able to toggle with the Audio button on the remote. Consistency would be much appreciated at this point.

Herbie Mann: Hold On, I'm Comin' Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Herbie Mann: Hold On, I'm Comin' features DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 options. This is an invitingly immersive listening experience from the first surrounding rush of audience clamor, something that continues interstitially throughout the rest of both of the live performances. Interestingly (at least to this listener), Mann's flute is anchored in the rear left channel for several songs, though it's more centrally placed courtesy of multichannel dispersion in some of the Montreux material in particular. There is a noticeable if minor buzz / hum in quieter moments like the opening of Never Can Say Goodbye. That tune in particular also has a somewhat curious background noise that might be either slightly muffled audience noise or some kind of ambient background oddity (I'd say it was rain, but this was an indoor venue).

Herbie Mann: Hold On, I'm Comin' Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As usual with the Quadio releases, there are no on disc supplements. An insert leaflet reproduces the album's credits but may be the first Quadio release I've reviewed without any pictures of the master tape boxes (I admittedly may not be remembering some earlier release that didn't have them).

Herbie Mann: Hold On, I'm Comin' Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Some readers of my reviews may recall I am an unabashed and unapologetic Sergio Mendes obsessive, and in that regard fans of Mann who don't already know about his 1963 collaboration with Sergio Do the Bossa Nova should definitely check it out, as it features Sergio with his early group Bossa Rio (not the later vocal aggregation he produced). This album doesn't have any real Brasilian beats, but it still cooks incessantly. There are some minor quibbles with audio this time out, but my hunch is they're baked in anomalies related to the live recording scenario. With caveats noted, Recommended.