What music DVD are you currently enjoying

[bigburner]

Bluegrass Journey

I watched this DVD on Friday night at a friend's place. It's a documentary about bluegrass, specifically the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival (upstate New York) in 2000. There are some absolutely stunning performances on this DVD, but these are frequently spoiled by voice-over interruptions in the middle of songs. I know that it's a doco, and I accept that chat between songs is expected in a doco, but during songs is unacceptable - especially really good songs. The producers of some DVD's just don't have a clue or they don't actually like music. I discovered a new guitarist - Tony Rice - who was unbelievably good, so I am going to look for more material by him. It was also interesting to see Rhonda Vincent before she had her blonde makeover - just as talented but not the sexy siren she's evolved into.

Paul Simon - "Graceland (The African Concert)"

I watched this DVD late Saturday afternoon before going out. The music didn't make much impact on me but this concert is an important piece of music history, being held in Zimbabwe in 1987 when South Africa was still an apartheid state, meaning that the concert couldn't be held there. How things have changed since then. South Africa is now free and Zimbabwe is a basket case...

[bigburner]

Blind Boys of Alabama - "Go Tell it on the Mountain - Live in New York"

Late Sunday afternoon. Finished making a green chicken curry for the family. What better way to work up a good appetite than a bit of gospel music and a few glasses of pinot gris? This DVD is a lot of fun, notwithstanding the unnecessary little lessons in religion in between tracks. Well it is gospel I suppose... I'll watch this one again.

Dixie Dregs - "Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1978"

Monday evening. Home from work. Kissed my wife and daughter. What better way to forget my working day than watching a band I've never seen or heard of before? This DVD is a little gem - bluegrass meets jazz meets rock. I'll definitely play this one again for my muso friends. One criticism though - the guitar and keyboards aren't loud enough in the mix. Good SQ and PQ for 1978 though.

Herbie Hancock - ''Future2Future Live"

Still Monday evening. As the Dixie Dregs DVD was so short I decided to progress my Sunday morning jazz theme by watching this DVD which I've had for a while now. Sadly it was well outside my comfort zone - thoroughly boring in fact - so it only lasted about half an hour before I took it off. I loved the Miles Davis jazz on Sunday morning but this jazz is just too silly for me. Maybe I'll like it when I grow up?

[bigburner]

The Allman Brothers Band - "Live at the Beacon Theatre (2003)"

I have to agree with Thelonious Funk. This is a superb concert.

Derek Trucks plays beautifully. He was about 23 when this concert was filmed and even at that tender age he’s better than most other guitarists out there.

Warren Haynes plays exceptionally well too. He and Derek complement each other superbly. The guitar duals between them are great. The two guitars always have quite different tones which is very effective.

The bass player – Oteil Burbridge – is faaaantastic. I loved his playing. He alternates between a standard 4-string bass and a lovely looking 6-string. He could play a 20 minute solo and I’d still be listening.

Butch Trucks is still a good drummer. He and Jaimoe (also drums) and Marc Quinones (congas) lay down a great rhythm.

The three man brass section – which plays on about a third of the songs – is very effective and adds variety.

The sound quality on this DVD is very good but not exceptional.

The only negative is Greg Allman’s voice. He can’t sing these days which is a shame. If I was him I’d go to the gym, get fit, and get some singing lessons to improve my vocal strength. I’m sure that with a bit of effort he could improve a lot. Fortunately there’s far more instrumental material on this DVD than vocals, otherwise it would have been a real problem. When he sang Melissa I was wishing that the couch would swallow me up – he was so out of tune. That’s unacceptable when the quality of the other musicians is so high.

The picture quality could be better, even though that’s not a big deal for me. It was hazy. I initially had trouble counting the strings on Oteil Burbridge’s bass. On the Alison Krauss DVD I can count every hair on her lovely head.

In conclusion, this is a very good DVD that I will play for my muso friends. I’m already working out the date and time.

Amen.

[chinets]

WOW!!! :E Bigburner! Now, you have been quite a busy bee, writing up all these great reviews :T
And all the little Info. on family stuff and daily work etc..!! I really feel already part of your family!! I love this forum family guy thing going on here!!
Keep up these fantastic reviews ;x(
Thanks!

[bigburner]

Thanks chinets.

I wish more members would write reviews, even if it's just the title of the DVD. There must be a lot more people out there who watch music DVDs. This is a hi-fi forum after all! What are all those fabulous systems being used for? Is music too personal for most people to talk about? What am I missing here? I'm hungry for ideas. More please.

Nigel.

[Chris D]

Yes, we do lots of DVD reviews in the DVD Director section of HTGuide here. Just hardly any music DVD's!

[bigburner]

Pink Floyd - Pulse (2006)

I bought this DVD 7 or 8 months ago, watched it once I think, and then put it away for a "big occasion". Well, sitting alone in my big room tonight, after an absolutely glorious autumn day, the big occasion arrived, and wow!!

chinets, I hope you own this one, because with your surround system and dual 855 subwoofers you'll be bouncing off the walls.

For those of you with sophisticated systems this DVD offers DD 5.1 448kbps and 640kbps audio bitstreams.

[Chris D]

Autumn? What are you talking about? It's spring?

Sorry, couldn't resist. Perhaps it's an effect of this time of the year, as today was a very nice spring day "up here", and I enjoyed a couple DVD-A's today.

[JudyLou]

Pink Floyd - Pulse (2006)

For those of you with sophisticated systems this DVD offers DD 5.1 448kbps and 640kbps audio bitstreams.

Hi

Yes to me this is a serious album if your into mindblowing sound and quality.

Lourens

[JudyLou]

Just bought the latest Celtic Woman DVD.

Having moved and my systems are only connected in stereo and not 5.1 and 7.1 – I couldn’t try it in DTS – but even in stereo the sound is very good, as is the picture quality.

I thought I would just put it on and skip through the tracks – but the music, songs, sound, performance & entertainment factor was so good I sat through the whole 1h30m of the dvd.

Good on the ears, eyes & eyes.

Lourens

[chinets]

Dear Bigburner,
Thanks, YES, I do own that Album, and I bought it when it just came out. I think the Quality was Good ,not excellent, and I could not play it in 640 kbps ONLY the 440kbps ,although I have the Marantz DV-9600 and should be able to play it in 640 Kbps ,especially that I have the lates Krell PRE/Pro, but it just can't seem to play it in 640?? :M
Yes, In 5.1 at my house it is a Multichannel pleasure. However I have way better recordings of Pink Floyd albums than this one. Even the live Aid album that features Pink Floyd ,which I believe was done in 2000 ,is WAY better in SQ and PQ than this album. But to make a long story short, YES, I have it Bigburner. Thanks as always for keeping me in mind. ;x(
Anything in 5.1 ,shoot it my way. :W Thanks and appreciation in advance!!! :T
Keep up your great work Bigburner ,and I am going to give a review on a DVD tomorrow!! :T
Cheers Bigburner and hope you have a wonderful week end with your dear family,
Chinets

[bigburner]

Eric Clapton – "Sessions For Robert J"

If you like the blues then this is an essential DVD for your collection. I watched it on Friday night and again on Saturday afternoon, and it has immediately shot into my top 5 music DVDs of all time. Eric’s playing is as good as I’ve ever heard it, and all the songs are excellent.

This DVD is Eric Clapton’s tribute to blues legend Robert Johnson, whom Eric has described as "the most important blues musician who ever lived”. It’s a film of the rehearsals for the making of a CD, which you get when you buy the DVD (but no steak knives I’m afraid).

The DVD was filmed in 2004 over 4 separate sessions at studios in London and Dallas, in a Los Angeles hotel room, and in the Dallas warehouse where Johnson made some of his recordings. Each of the 4 sessions is quite different. The first two sessions are Eric playing with his band, the third session is Eric playing acoustic with guitarist Doyle Bramhall II, and the fourth set is Eric playing acoustic solo.

This isn’t a concert DVD. It’s a “performance/documentary” which means we get a bit of talking too, but the DVD is mainly music and all the talking is in the right place – at the end of each session where there’s a natural break. I wish that other music DVD producers would do DVDs as well as this one.

Whilst all 4 sets are excellent, the acoustic sets (3 and 4) are special. This is Eric concentrating hard to play very difficult songs, which is quite different to the Eric we see in autopilot on other DVDs. The acoustic sessions also capture the essence of Robert Johnson much better than the full band sessions.

Robert Johnson is probably the most famous Delta Blues musician, and is credited by many people as the father of the blues. He is also a man of mystery. He died in 1938 at the young age of 27 in mysterious circumstances (poisoning is the most popular theory) and it is not known for sure where he is buried. The only thing we really know about Robert Johnson is his music. He wrote 29 songs and there are 46 known recordings of those compositions. Legend has it that Robert Johnson made a pact with the devil at the crossroads, and in return the devil gave Robert his prodigious talent.

Below are the only two known photographs of Robert Johnson.

The sound quality of this DVD is as good as it gets. It should be good because all of the material is essentially recorded in a studio. The mix is perfect. The picture quality is just as good too. My only criticism of this DVD, and it’s a very small criticism, is that the camera doesn’t spend enough time on band members like bass player Nathan East.

If you buy this DVD and it raises your interest in Robert Johnson then you might like to buy a documentary DVD about him called “The Search for Robert Johnson”. It’s not an exceptional documentary, but it’s still worth watching.

“Sessions for Robert J” cost me $20 at Amazon. For that $20 investment I now own a work of art.

Nigel.

[Briz vegas]

Hmmmmm. Thanks for the "Eric Clapton" review BB. Don't mind a bit of the blues and I have a Robert Johnson CD. I will have to get that one myself me thinks.

[chinets]

Concert For Bangladesh: George Harrison

Concert For Bangladesh [2005] with George Harrison is a sensational DVD on all aspects.
It sounds amazing and beautiful. It has beautiful sound quality which I for one thought never existed in the original recording. Remastering has become an artform and sometimes adds little or nothing to the original, but here it is nothing less than dynamite. You can hear Klaus Voorman’s inventive bass playing on ’Wah Wah’.

DVD 1. is The Concert itself - and the sound and picture quality is superb.

The sound quality remastered by George before his passing is in 5.1 and I can hear instruments that previously blended into the mix. The balance is good and Klaus Voorman's bass can be heard underpinning the rock beat of classics like Wah Wah.

DVD 2. Once again the picture quality of the concert clips and the sound is stunning, awesome and any number of superlatives you may choose to describe it.

I would recommend this DVD strongly!!

If you haven't already ordered it I would suggest you do so now. You will be helping to support a worthwhile cause, all proceeds will be donated to the George Harrison fund for UNICEF and of course you get a beautiful box set that does George Harrison and his acheivement proud into the bargain.

Loved this album and a MUST buy!!

[bigburner]

chinets, I love "Concert For Bangladesh" too. I think my favourite song is "That's the Way God Planned It" where Billy Preston is so excited that he gets up from his piano and dances across the stage. Billy plays Hammond organ in the "Sessions For Robert J" DVD that I reviewed above, but he's so much older there and clearly unwell from kidney disease brought on by a lifetime of alcohol and drug abuse.

It's also interesting to observe Eric Clapton playing in "Concert For Bangladesh". His performance is pretty pathetic really, due to being strung out on heroin. His playing is a million light years away from "Sessions For Robert J" where he plays beautifully and looks great, due no doubt to him giving up the drugs and alcohol years ago.

It's been a while since I watched the Bangladesh concert. Thank you for the reminder. I'll pull it out again soon!

Nigel.

[chinets]

You are most welcome Big Burner.
Yes, " That is the way God Planned it" is Superb!!!
Yup, Eric looked sick and strung on something!
Glad you liked this Album.
I'll review another Album this week ,as It is unfair for Bigburner to do all the work around here. Right Nigel??
Cheers M8!!

[bigburner]

Muddy Waters - Classic Concerts

This DVD covers 3 concerts:
* 1960 Newport Jazz Festival (USA)
* 1968 Copenhagen Jazz Festival (Denmark)
* 1977 Molde Jazz Festival (Norway)

The pick of the bunch is the Newport Jazz Festival, which must be one of the first concerts where black musicians played to a mostly white audience. The music is superb, which is why the mostly white audience loved it!

The HTGuide Forum is all about high quality audio and video. Well the best track on the whole DVD is probably "Mean Mistreater" at the Newport concert, which has a mono soundtrack (they lost the stereo track) and a grainy black and white film. However the music is so good and the musicians are so enthusiastic that the SQ and PQ don't matter. Now that's real music. There's about a dozen musicians on stage and half of them are dancing. Muddy even dances cheek to cheek (almost) with James Cotton. Hell, I was dancing around the room with them.

It was interesting to see Muddy Waters age over the duration of this DVD. It was also interesting to see Jerry Portnoy play in the Molde concert. He's the blues harp player in the 1998 Eric Clapton Hyde Park DVD, for those of you who are familiar with that classic concert.

Nigel.

[Alloroc]

I watched/listened to one of the wiered DVDs ever on Saturday night - a couple of the boys were over and the wife was away. Plenty wine was consumed and to close off the night I stuck on Sun Ra's 'Space Is The Place'!

Considered by many to be a Sci-Fi psychedelic, Afro-centric, free jazz classic, it certainly lived up to that by genuinly appearing as if it was 'not of this world'.

I quite like 'free jazz', have plenty of vinyl and I purchased this DVD for a bit of fun. It's more 'avant garde art movie' than music DVD but there are some amazing musical moments. Sound was pretty good for such a low budget production and some of the extras are great too.

It's fair to say that it's underlying messege was racially motivated but that should not stop anyone from checking out a wonderful piece of kitsch wierdness from a very interesting character with a wierd stroy to tell.

Watch it with an open mind!

[bigburner]

See what happens when you get into cricket Vincent. B-grade sci-fi movies turn into "2001 - A Space Odyssey". Life becomes one long acid trip.

Just joking!

Nigel.

[Alloroc]

See what happens when you get into cricket Vincent. B-grade sci-fi movies turn into "2001 - A Space Odyssey". Life becomes one long acid trip.

Just joking!

Nigel.

Acid? No, New Zealand Pinot Noir! Felton Road - one of my absolute favourite wines.

With that, I wonder what Cricket would be like on an acid trip?

V

[Thelonious Funk]

Acid? No, New Zealand Pinot Noir! Felton Road - one of my absolute favourite wines.

With that, I wonder what Cricket would be like on an acid trip?

V

If it can go on for four days... terrifying.

[bigburner]

Jack Bruce - "Live at the Canterbury Fayre" (2003)

This is an interesting DVD. I found it at my place and I honestly don't know how it got there.

The concert was filmed in 2002, three years before Jack Bruce played with Cream at the Royal Albert Hall Reunion concert. He looks quite a lot younger in this concert.

Jack plays bass guitar (a 4-string fretless Warwick on this occasion) but for the first time tonight I saw him play keyboards too (Roland electric piano) and sing slow ballads. Mixed in with this was plenty of excellent jazz/rock bass, plus a few Cream songs.

Unfortunately the mix was below par, with the guitar in particular too quiet, which was a bit of a shame because the guitarist (Vernon Reid) was pretty interesting too - about as different from Eric Clapton as you could imagine.

The guy playing organ (Bernie Worrell) was excellent I thought.

Nigel.

[bigburner]

The Soul of a Man (2003)

The latest step in my voyage of discovery is this DVD by director Wim Wenders in which he explores the work of his three favourite blues artists – J. B. Lenoir, Skip James, and Blind Willie Johnson.

This film is a very personal project for Wim Wenders. He uses a combination of fictional recreations, archival footage, and song covers by contemporary musicians to tell the story of these three men.

The J. B. Lenoir footage is rare and a real treat. Most of the footage was filmed by two amateur Swedish film makers. I never realised what a lovely voice Skip had and what a fine looking man he was. He died in 1967 at the age of 38 from injuries received in a car accident.

Skip James wrote some wonderful songs. He dropped out of music in 1931 and wasn’t heard of again until 30 years later when he was discovered in a hospital being treated for cancer. He was invited to perform at the 1964 Newport Jazz Festival and apparently stole the show. His best known song is probably “I’m So Glad” which was a hit for supergroup Cream. Ironically the royalties that Skip received from Cream’s work paid for cancer surgery that kept him alive for the last three years of his life.

Blind Willie Johnson lived from 1897 to 1945 and was best known for his spiritual songs and fine slide guitar. His best known song is probably "The Soul of a Man" which incidently I heard played at the Byron Bay Music Festival 10 days ago by Eric Burdon and the Animals (it’s also the title of Eric Burdon’s latest CD).

This is what Wim Wenders had to say about the work of these three artists:

"These songs meant the world to me. I felt there was more truth in them than in any book I had read about America, or in any movie I had ever seen. I've tried to describe, more like a poem than in a 'documentary', what moved me so much in their songs and voices."

Good work Wim.

Nigel.

[Briz vegas]

Bigburner, re The Soul of a Man. I have the box set, this is an excellent series to get.

[bigburner]

Acid? No, New Zealand Pinot Noir! Felton Road - one of my absolute favourite wines.

Vincent, last night I had a bottle of the Felton Road Block 3 2002 Pinot Noir. It was quite the best wine I've drunk in a long time.

We followed that up with a bottle of Cloudy Bay 'Te Koko' 2002 Sauvignon Blanc, which is quite the most unusual sav blanc I've drunk in a long time - made like a chardonnay and fermented in oak barrels.

I don't usually get to drink this quality of wines. Last night was a special occasion.

Nigel.

[bigburner]

John Hiatt - "Live from Austin Texas"

Mr T Funk, I hope you've got this one because you're missing out on a great concert if you haven't.

[Alloroc]

Vincent, last night I had a bottle of the Felton Road Block 3 2002 Pinot Noir. It was quite the best wine I've drunk in a long time.

We followed that up with a bottle of Cloudy Bay 'Te Koko' 2002 Sauvignon Blanc, which is quite the most unusual sav blanc I've drunk in a long time - made like a chardonnay and fermented in oak barrels.

I don't usually get to drink this quality of wines. Last night was a special occasion.

Nigel.

You lucky man! My wife bought me a bottle of the Block 3 for my birthday last month. I still have a couple of bottle of their regular Pinot. They're so expensive up here (we have huge import duties on booze), one has to be frugal when drinking them. I've read about the 'Te Koko' but never tasted - Cloudy Bay is sold in very limited quantities up here let alone their more special wines. In Ireland, one is talking €60 for a bottle of Te Koko. That said their Pelorous sparkling wine is easy to get and it is really, really lovely.

[Thelonious Funk]

John Hiatt - "Live from Austin Texas"

Mr T Funk, I hope you've got this one because you're missing out on a great concert if you haven't.

I don't but on your suggestion I will soon!

[bigburner]

Taj Mahal - Live at Ronnie Scott's 1988

I saw Taj in concert a couple of weeks ago and he's just as good now as he was 19 years ago in this DVD. One of my favourite artists for sure.

[bigburner]

I don't but on your suggestion I will soon!

Lest ye waste $14.99 I checked it out again after watching Taj and we're safe.

[gimpy]

I just bought the "Steely Dan, Gaucho" DVD-A this afternoon. Only got to listen to a little of it as company came over.

Earlier this week, I received "the Brand New Opry" DVD-A featuring Jonathan Mceuen, Phil Salazar and a couple of others. I really like it. A little blue grass sound to it (I think McEuen is the son of one of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band player's. The audio is tremendous, as is the video on the video side. Both done in high res. I really like "Lowlands" on it.

Frank

[bigburner]

Otis Redding - "Remembering Otis"

This DVD features Otis Redding performing on tour in Europe and at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. Most people remember Otis for his biggest hit "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" which was written after Monterey and recorded three days before he died in a plane crash.

Guest artists at the European concert include Booker T and the MG's who do their hit song "Green Onions", and Sam and Dave who do three songs including their hit "Hold On, I'm Coming".

As you'd expect for a 1967 recording the SQ and PQ on this DVD are a bit crappy, but this is really a piece of history for the collection.

[bigburner]

The White Stripes - "Under Blackpool Lights" (2004)

The White Stripes are Jack White (guitar, vocals and occasional keyboards) and his sister Meg White (drums and backing vocals).

Jack sings like Robert Plant (from Led Zeppelin) and plays guitar like Jimi Hendrix, but does neither nearly as well as those two musicians. You may know Jack from The Raconteurs who put out a CD called “Broken Boy Soldiers” quite recently.

Meg plays drums like a beginner. My 17 year old son, who messes around in a band a bit, reckoned that I could play drums as well as her. Between them they play fairly heavy rock with a high level of distortion on the guitar. You just know their live performances are loud.

This concert was filmed in Blackpool, England in 2004 using 8mm cameras. The PQ is therefore grainy and poor. This must be deliberate because there’s no excuse for PQ as crappy as this in 2004. I couldn’t even read the maker’s name on Jack's guitar. The SQ is OK.

All in all I should really have hated this DVD but I didn’t. The White Stripes have a raw energy and commitment to their music that’s infectious. By the end of the DVD I understood why their large army of fans love them so much. I had even forgiven Meg for her simple drumming.

So will I play this DVD again? Yes, but next time I’ll have a couple of beers on board instead of being stone cold sober. I just know I’ll enjoy it more.

[Chris D]

Now, what's the real story with those two? I've heard that they are brother and sister, but I've also heard that they were fooling around. Could both be true?

Meg's got a nice rack.

[bigburner]

John Lee Hooker - Come and See About Me: The Definitive DVD (2004)

This DVD is definitely worth a wee look. It covers John Lee Hooker's career through a series of live performances.

Baby Please Don't Go - 1992 - with Van Morrison
Maudie - 1960
Hobo Blues - 1965
It Serves Me Right To Suffer - 1969
Crawlin' Kingsnake - 1978 - with Foghat
The Boogie - 1980
Never Get Out Of These Blues Alive - 1981
Worried Life Blues - 1981
Too Many Women - 1984
Boom Boom - 1984
I'm Bad Like Jesse James - 1986
I'm In the Mood - 1990 - with Bonnie Raitt
Bottle Up And Go - 1991 - with John Hammond
Tupelo Blues - 1993
Hobo Blues - 1990 - with Ry Cooder
The Healer - 1990 - with Carlos Santana
Boogie Chillen' - 1989 - with Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones
I Need Love So Bad - 1994

[bigburner]

Now, what's the real story with those two? I've heard that they are brother and sister, but I've also heard that they were fooling around. Could both be true?

In March 2001 a writer for the Detroit Free Press exposed the pair as a once-married couple. County records show that John (Jack) Gillis and Megan White were married in 1996, and divorced in 2000. ~ RollingStone

[bigburner]

Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris - Real Live Roadrunning (2006)

A very nice DVD - suitable for a wide range of people. The songs are lovely.

It's really the Mark Knopfler show but Emmylou makes a great contribution. All the musicians in the band are good.

The song "This Is Us" was the highlight for me. The full set list is:

1 Right Now
2 Red Staggerwing
3 Red Dirt Girl
4 I Dug Up a Diamond
5 Born to Run
6 Done with Bonaparte
7 Romeo and Juliet
8 Song for Sonny Liston
9 Belle Starr
10 This Is Us
11 All the Roadrunning
12 Boulder to Birmingham
13 Speedway at Nazareth
14 So Far Away
15 Our Shangri-La
16 If This Is Goodbye
17 Why Worry

[ShadowZA]

Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris - Real Live Roadrunning (2006)

A very nice DVD - suitable for a wide range of people. The songs are lovely.

It's really the Mark Knopfler show but Emmylou makes a great contribution. All the musicians in the band are good.

The song "This Is Us" was the highlight for me. The full set list is:

1 Right Now
2 Red Staggerwing
3 Red Dirt Girl
4 I Dug Up a Diamond
5 Born to Run
6 Done with Bonaparte
7 Romeo and Juliet
8 Song for Sonny Liston
9 Belle Starr
10 This Is Us
11 All the Roadrunning
12 Boulder to Birmingham
13 Speedway at Nazareth
14 So Far Away
15 Our Shangri-La
16 If This Is Goodbye
17 Why Worry

Totally love this dvd. Played it to death & still continuing to do so. Awesome DTS track.
:T

[Thelonious Funk]

Got the Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama Live at the Apollo DVD.

It's worth the investment.

I'd write more but it's just been too long of a week. Anyone ever have to bail somone out of jail? It's not fun. I was also stuck on the interstate for 3 hours because they shut down north bound traffic due to a fire.

Needless to say this DVD helped lift my spirits.

[bigburner]

Got the Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama Live at the Apollo DVD.

It's worth the investment.

I'm glad to hear that Eric because I bought it about a month ago and I've been waiting for an opportunity to play it.

Nigel.

[bigburner]

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Piano Blues (2003)

This is a good documentary presented by Clint Eastwood. Hands up who can remember Clint playing Rowdy Yates in the 1960s TV western "Rawhide"? No-one? OK let's move on then...

This DVD includes a good selection of fabulous piano players, both in the studio with Clint and on film clips (some quite old). It was fascinating watching tough guy Clint treating his guests with such respect. Clint is a bit of a piano man himself, which explains his high regard for his guests. Many of the old film clips were only shown in part which was a shame because some of the footage was so good I wanted to see more. [If you've never seen Otis Spann performing "Ain't Nobody's Business" then you've missed one of the great musical treats. Fortunately I have it in full on another DVD. By the way, that's Otis on the cover of the DVD.] However this documentary would have been three times as long if they had played everything in full.

My wife watched this DVD with me so there were inevitable interruptions for important discussion, so I will definitely have to watch this one again.

Nigel.

[bigburner]

Little Feat - High Wire Act Live in St. Louis 2003 (2003)

What a fantastic DVD! Thelonious Funk, put the John Hiatt one on hold and get this one first.

Last time I reviewed this DVD I slagged female vocalist Shaun Murphy for being irrelevant. Shaun, if you're reading this, I apologise. Your performance is great.

Nigel.

[bigburner]

Paul McCartney - The Space Within US (2006)

The good thing about being Paul McCartney is that you've got the most fabulous selection of songs to choose from when you put on a concert. His selection of songs is what makes this latest DVD well worth watching.

Check out the set list below. If you're not a Beatles fan this won't mean much to you. If you're a Beatles fan you'll notice that some of the songs are from way back and they're ones that you wouldn't normally expect to hear on a Macca DVD. There are also four songs from the "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard" CD which I rated as my top CD for 2006. That was a pleasant surprise given the material that Paul had to choose from.

01. Magical Mystery Tour
02. Flaming Pie
03. Let Me Roll It
04. Drive My Car
05. Till There Was You
06. I'll Get You
07. Eleanor Rigby
08. Maybe I'm Amazed
09. Got to Get You Into My Life
10. Fine Line
11. I Will
12. I'll Follow The Sun
13. Good Day Sunshine
14. For No One
15. Hey Jude
16. Fixing a Hole
17. Penny Lane
18. Too Many People
19. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
20. Let It Be
21. English Tea
22. I've Got a Feeling
23. Follow Me
24. Jenny Wren
25. Helter Skelter
26. Yesterday
27. Get Back
28. Please Please Me

The bad thing about being Paul McCartney is that you're in love with yourself and we, the viewing public, have to be in love with Paul too. The DVD starts with Paul walking down a beach ALONE. Yes, single again, and well... that's a wee bit sad. I was sad. God save me.

The director of this DVD is a complete idiot from the MTV school of music DVDs where no shot is longer than 2 seconds, we get to see endless scenes of the adoring crowd, and we hear occasional comments from Paul's adoring fans reminding us how wonderful Paul is. The adoring fans include luminaries like Bill Clinton. God save me again.

I must finish on a positive note because the music on this DVD is fantastic. Paul still sings in the same key as he did when he was a Beatle. The same key!! How many of you 64 year olds out there can do that? How many of you 44 year olds out there can do that? I can't. Paul still sings like a bird. Eat your heart out Rod Stewart.

Nigel.

[bigburner]

Norah Jones - Live in New Orleans (2003)

On Friday evening my wife and I kicked off with this mellow, laidback concert by the lovely Norah Jones.

If you've got the CD "Come Away with Me" by Norah then most of this DVD will sound familiar to you.

Then we moved onto this one:

Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama: Live at the Apollo (2005)

You don't need to believe in God to enjoy a bit of gospel, especially when it's as good as this concert. Creamy vocals and deep rich electric bass guitar. Lovely.

If you've got the CD "There Will Be a Light" by Ben and the Blind Boys then much of this DVD will sound familiar to you.

Nigel.

[Thelonious Funk]

So yeah... Been watching the same DVD for a few weeks now every chance I get.

Ben Folds and WASO (Western Australian Symphony Orchestra)

It's beautiful.

All the songs were arranged by musicians living in Perth and Mr. Folds takes great care to stress this fact and encourage the auidence to continue it's support of the Orchestra. Highlights include almost every song.

Nigel, you're going to like this one if you haven't already seen it.

Peace in the middle east, word to your mother, and to all a good night.