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Category:    Home > Reviews > Jazz > Vocal > Soul > Rockumentary > Concert > Britain > Documentary > Pop > Music > Industry > Blues > Angela Bofill: Angie (1978)/Angel Of The Night (1989/Sony/Vocalion Hybrid Stereo Super Audio CD/SACD/SA-CD)/Glastonbury Fayre (1971/*Blu-ray)/Now More Than Ever: The History Of Chicago (2017/*Filmrise

Angela Bofill: Angie (1978)/Angel Of The Night (1989/Sony/Vocalion Hybrid Stereo Super Audio CD/SACD/SA-CD)/Glastonbury Fayre (1971/*Blu-ray)/Now More Than Ever: The History Of Chicago (2017/*Filmrise DVD)/Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet (1968/ABKCO Hybrid Stereo Super Audio CD/SACD/SA-CD Set)/Sheryl Crow: Live At The Capitol Theater 2017 (CD Set/*all MVD Visual)



Picture: X/B-/C+/X/B Sound: B & B-/C+/C+/B & B-/C+ & B- Extras: C-/B-/D/B/C+ Main Programs: B/B-/B/B/B-



PLEASE NOTE: The Angela Bofill Super Audio CD import is now only available from our friends at Vocalion Records, will play on all CD players and can be ordered from the links below.



Up next is classic music of all kinds, in more forms than you would usually get, , but more than worth your time if you love music.



We start with a double album release from one of the most underrated vocalists of the last 50 years. Angela Bofill: Angie (1978)/Angel Of The Night (1989) are remarkable, underrated solo albums from the singer later known for


The great Vocalion label has licensed both albums and put them on a single Hybrid Stereo Super Audio CD disc and I have never heard her sound better. These are the tracks from each release....


Angie

LP GRP 5000 (1978) STEREO


1: UNDER THE MOON AND OVER THE SKY (Bofill)

2: THIS TIME I'LL BE SWEETER (Guthrie; Grant)

3: BABY, I NEED YOUR LOVE (Bofill)

4: ROUGH TIMES (Ashford; Simpson)

5: THE ONLY THING I WOULD WISH FOR (Bofill)

6: SUMMER DAYS (Timothy)

7: SHARE YOUR LOVE (Hoitsma)

8: CHILDREN OF THE WORLD UNITED (Bofill)


Angel of the Night

LP GRP 5501 (1979) STEREO


9: I TRY (Bofill)

10: PEOPLE MAKE THE WORLD GO ROUND (Creed; Bell)

11: ANGEL OF THE NIGHT (Hull; Devlin)

12: RAINBOW CHILD (LITTLE PAS) (Bofill)

13: WHAT I WOULDN'T DO (FOR THE LOVE OF YOU) (Perricone; Utt)

14: THE FEELIN'S LOVE (Bofill)

15: LOVE TO LAST (Madden)

16: THE VOYAGE (Bofill)


These are impressive, co-produced by Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen, they are Jazz, Soul, Pop and even Dance offering something different and lasting. Many will recognize Track 10 as a hit by The Stylistics, but Bofill's version (which got radio play) speeds it up and the uptempo spin actually works. These are her two big GRP Records releases before she moved over to distributor Arista Records via Clive Davis and joined their amazing line-up of female vocalists including Aretha Franklin, Melissa Manchester, Dionne Warwick and the up and coming Whitney Houston.


Both of these albums were a major success, but many more will remember her R&B 1980s Arista releases. They and everyone else should go out of their ay to get these albums, especially if you can play them back in the ultra high-definition audio this disc offers. More female vocalists of the past deserve this audiophile treatment.


Excellent liner notes are the only extra here in the illustrated booklet included, but tell the rest of the main Bofill story to date



Nicolas Roeg's Glastonbury Fayre (1971) is an unusual break from the challenging narrative films he was making at the time, yet even making this Rockumentary about the first of several counterculture Rock concerts (as this one was so successful), he decided to focus on the attendees as much as any of the music performers, who included Melanie, Traffic and Fairport Convention.


This key show form the U.K. gets lost in the shuffle of Woodstock and Monterey Pop, but it shows that the counterculture phenomenon was not just in the U.S., but in the U.K. and reaching the free world all the way to Australia and New Zealand. Running 91 minutes, it has its music moments as well as others of people acting wild, but is worth a look and is a priceless historical document. It shows the U.K. had more than one Rock Music event under it belt.


Extras include a feature length audio commentary track by Roeg and a Making Of featurette.



Peter Pardini's Now More Than Ever: The History Of Chicago (2017) finally tells the story of one of the most successful bands of all time. Touring and recoding now for over a half-century, their origins are amazing, their work hugely successful on the charts and tour and even with critics, they built a huge fan base and then found out their producer had been ripping them off for eons! We also learn about the individual members, those who have come and gone, one who died too early and how the falling out with Peter Cetera happened.


We also learn about many of the classic hits and all through stills, great vintage clips, audio clips and new HD-Shot interviews. I always knew there had to be a bog story about them and it had never really been written. You could not even find much in newspaper and magazine articles, so they did manage to keep much of this to themselves, so here, they finally open up like never before.


The result is so good, even non-fans will find it hard to stop watching.


There are no extras.



Next up is a 50th Anniversary reissue of The Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet, their major 1968 album in a new special Limited Edition from ABKCO that includes two Hybrid Stereo Super Audio CD/SACD/SA-CDs (the second of extra material) and more extras. This is an upgrade after the same disc of the album was released as part of a huge event of all band's early albums restored and in the then-new, still-going ultra high definition audio format. We were not able to cover all those releases, but this album happened to be among them and you can read more about ti, as well as see a picture of the new set, at this link...


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/403/Rolling+Stones+ABKCO+SACDs+(1963+-+71)


For your reference, the album (SACD Disc One) includes the tracks: 1. Sympathy For the Devil 2. No Expectations 3. Dear Doctor 4. Parachute Woman 5. Jigsaw Puzzle 6. Street Fighting Man 7. Prodigal Son 8. Stray Cat Blues 9. Factory Girl and 10. Salt of the Earth.


Extras (paraphrasing the press release) include the hybrid SACD package designed to look like a miniaturized replica of the 12-inch gatefold double-vinyl edition, sized to be a convenient 7-inch gatefold, and contain the 2 hybrid SACDs on their own holder cards, a flexi disc (plays on a turntable record machine) and expanded packaging elements exclusive to this edition. Special elements of the package include: replica packshots of two Japanese 7-inch single picture sleeves (''Jumpin' Jack Flash'' and ''Street Fighting Man'') and both versions of the Beggars Banquet sleeve art are included. Track Listing for Disc: 2: 1. Sympathy For the Devil (mono) 2. Hello, This is Mick Jagger! LONDON to TOKYO April 17, 1968 (interview) Disc: 3 1. Hello, This is Mick Jagger! LONDON to TOKYO April 17, 1968 (interview) (flexi disc).


I liked this and thought it was a smart idea, one ABKCO should do with all the albums they have of the band. Hope this catches on.



Finally we have Sheryl Crow: Live At The Capitol Theater 2017, the second full length concert from the enduring solo singer/songwriter, following this show on Blu-ray we covered a few years ago at this link...


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10971/The+Boomtown+Rats+Live+At+Hammersmith+Od


Far from a legacy artist (one who nearly became part of Fleetwood Mac a few years ago), she can still deliver the hits, connect with the audience and come up with new material that is not bad, but I did not find this much better or lesser than the other concert, though I liked the playback performance of the older one a little better. Crow is far from finished as a formidable music force and I hope she had a comeback hit soon, but if not, her loyal following will support her for years to come as this audience demonstrated making her one of Rock Music's key survivors. This show is worth a look.


Outside of the CDs, extras include an illustrated booklet with some text.



The 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Fayre can show the age of the materials used, but this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film transferred nicely from the original 16mm color elements. Unfortunately, some more restoration work cold be used down the line for a potential 4K disc release, but it looks as good as Rockumentaries of the time should otherwise and be just fine.


The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on the Sheryl Crow concert, recently shot on HD video, just passes it for overall playback quality, though it has some flaws of its own.


The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the Chicago documentary also has its newer footage shot on HD, but also has plenty of stills, vintage film and vintage video clips. I bet this could look better on Blu-ray, but this is fine for now.


As for sound, we have two Hybrid Super Audio CD releases that sound good and are all in Stereo. The two Bofill albums are very impressive in lossless DSD (Direct Stream Digital) 2.0 Stereo, with the later album maybe a bit clearer, but her voice rules throughout and impresses all the way. The musicians sound great too. The Rolling Stones Banquet album sound like the same SA-CD we reviewed 14 years ago, but that's a good thing. I just wish all the stereo tracks on both releases were multi-channel as well. Perhaps in the Stones case, ABKCO deemed the original master tapes (4 to 8 track, we gather) might not translate well into 4.0 or 5.1, but we'll see if that changes down the line. It is impressive the work they did on all the Stones early albums hold up so well all these years later.


I expected DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless sound of some type on the Blu-rays here, but Fayre is only here in PCM 2.0 Mono and Crow in lossy Dolby Digital 5.1, the latter a bit of a disappointment, especially when the CDs have a little more warmth in their old PCM 2.0 16/44.1 Stereo offerings. That makes it a sonic step backwards from the previous Blu-ray release linked above.


That leaves the Chicago DVD with lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, but some parts are monophonic, so you know what to expect.


You can order the Angela Bofill Super Audio CD from Vocalion Records among other great exclusives at:


https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDSML8542



- Nicholas Sheffo


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