Etta James & The Roots Band - Burnin’ Down The House
Picture: D
Sound: B Extras: D Main Concert: B
Among the great female vocalists of the 20th
Century, Etta James stands tall. While
many women in music either were stuck in one genre, or only known for their
work for a brief time, James conquered both Soul and Contemporary music. “At Last” is a standard masterpiece
that keeps resurfacing, including in films like Rain Man and Pleasantville,
while her Tell Mama album is one of the great deep R&B masterworks
of the 1960s. “I Just Want To Make
Love To You” is another song that keeps coming back, most amusingly showing
up in a detergent ad on TV.
This is all the more reason a new concert DVD of James
would be of such interest. How would
that work? How would it play? Well, many later works by great artists
usually disappoint, but this concert is not bad. James may not be able to hit the highs she used to, but the
richness of her voice remains. Her
phrasing and stylizing shows masterful skill, while being emotionally informed
with wisdom, and experience. That alone
is reason enough anyone who loves great music needs to check out this concert
DVD.
When “At Last” surfaces on the playlist here, its
unmistakably her, yet it is much more Bluesy. The happy dream and happy ending the song evokes is supplanted by
a sense of light dread that actually brings out realism in the song the classic
version seems to overshadow. The “I
Just Want To Make Love To You” here is less pop oriented, proving its not
just pop fluff. “My Funny Valentine”
especially benefits from the Blues approach here. There are 15 songs in all, done by a real singer of substance,
unlike most of the shallow female vocalists littering Pop and Soul music today.
Unfortunately, there are no extras whatsoever. Furthermore, the picture is listed as
full-screen, but Eagle Eye has made the unwise decision to anamorphically
reprocess the film for a 16 x 9 widescreen TV ratio. The problem with the 1.78 X 1 image is that whatever was good about
the colorful, clear picture has been marred by digital processing problems,
making future viewings less desirable.
In the future, it would probably be wise not to make last minute changes
like this, as the rush to do so compromises the DVD.
The sound is available in two Dolby Digital
configurations: 5.1 and 2.0 stereo, with the 5.1 preferred. It is pretty good, but I can also see why
Eagle Eye skipped DTS here. This as not
recorded for 5.1 to begin with and DTS would have emphasized those limits, so
Dolby will do here. So if you can
overcome the picture, or can skip it because you want to hear some good music,
check out Burnin’ Down the House.
- Nicholas Sheffo
