Bireli Lagréne & Friends – Live Jazz A Vienne
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Concert: B
In an upbeat, laidback Jazz set, Bireli Lagréne goes back
to classic from the early 20th Century for the very long Live
Jazz A Vienne concert taped July 9th 2002 with his small band
The Gipsy Project. In two parts, first
on their own, then joined by other musicians, we get the following standards
and other fun tunes:
1st Part:
1)
Coquette
2)
Blues Clair
3)
Embraceable You
4)
Troublant Bolero
5)
What Is This Thing Called Love
6)
When Day Is Gone
7)
Diangology
8)
Si Tu Savias
9)
Festival 48
10)
Flori
11)
Sweet
Georgia Brown
12)
Viper’s
Dream
13)
Belleville
2nd Part
14)
My One
& Only Love
15)
Dinah
16)
I’ll See
You In My Dreams
17)
Made In
France
18)
Nuages
19)
Tears
20)
Waltz For
Nicky
21)
J’Attendrai
22)
Them There Eyes
23)
There Will
Never Be Another You
24)
Les Yeux
Noirs
25)
I Can’t
Give You Anything But Love
26)
Vienne Song
27)
I’ve Found
A New Baby
28)
Night &
Day
29)
Swing Gitan
30)
Daphné
31)
Donna Lee
32)
Minor Swing
If you are younger, you will recognize many of these
songs, even if you cannot name them, including their use in TV commercials
trying to feign an “old fashioned” feel.
For being material that is so tried and true, the musicians play it with
great energy and it never seems stale.
There are no vocal performances, either, but if anything, it is
entertaining and a revival of how much fun these pieces can be. That is the reason they became standards in
the first place. The audience is also
into it, which is a plus. Live Jazz
A Vienne is fun if you are looking for something different.
The image is certainly different. Non-anamorphic, the 1.33 X 1 frame of the
concert performance has been centered into the center of a 1.78 X 1 aspect
ratio, which qualifies it as windowboxing.
It is not bad, though this still could have been anamorphic and would
have looked better. All seems to be
shot in the PAL or even SECAM analog format, but it fares well enough. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is fine but
does not have any Pro Logic surrounds, unfortunately. This music would have worked just fine that way, but that will
have to be proven on another release. I
also liked how the menu designers used freeze frames to mark the transitions
between each selection one makes form the menu. That works very nicely for this set and is something we should
have seen sooner in this format.
Extras include three interview segments, including before
the concert, a private interview with Lagréne and in-studio performances. That is pretty good for material that has
been abandoned and trivialized, but should not. What usually would have been a basic DVD is more well rounded as
a result.
- Nicholas Sheffo
