The Big Chris Barber Band ‘As We Like It’ (DVD/CDs/MVD)
Picture:
D Sound: C+/D Extras: D Feature: C-
Raise
your hand if you know who Chris Barber is. Anyone? Yea, me neither. But I do know that I like classic jazz and
blues, in which fields Chris Barber is an icon, according to the back cover of
the new DVD As We Like It. And judging by the quality of the music he and
his eleven-piece band put out on this disc, I’m inclined to believe it. Granted, he hit his stride in his career in
the 1950s and is now in his late seventies, and the music does reflect his age.
It is perhaps not as energetic or crisp
as it should be; the result of aging fingers and old lungs. But nonetheless, even just listening to him
now, there is no denying that he used to be great, and we can still see the
shadow of that in this performance.
As for
watching the concert, after about ten minutes one starts to suspect that this
release might have been better off as a CD. The picture quality is about on par with what
you would expect from a bootleg VHS of a concert from the 80s. Not only is the picture noticeably soft, but
there are oversaturated color bleeds that in extreme cases can almost make it
look like a band member’s face is leaking onto his tux. I suspect that this is due to a poor job in
shooting rather than in authoring the actual DVD because the camera crew’s
stiff repetitive camera movements and occasionally giving each other cameos
contrast starkly with the crisp, well-designed and animated menus.
In light
of the disc’s visual shortcomings, it seems almost a godsend that the audio is
so good, because obviously that’s what’s really important here. Available in your choice of DTS 5.1 Surround
or Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround or Stereo, the music sounds like a studio
recording and is better than most other live recordings I’ve ever heard. Really, the only shortcoming is that between
songs, Chris Barber has a tendency to stop and talk. And talk. And he talks so quickly without bothering to
annunciate that unless you really concentrate, you’ll miss about half of what
he’s saying.
And for
all of you who would rather just buy a CD than just listen to a DVD, as a
parallel release, Chris Barber put out three volumes of The Blues Legacy Lost
& Found series. Each of these CDs
features two groups or artists in live recordings introduced and occasionally
joined by The Chris Barber Band. And
these are artists that blues fans should recognize like Sonny Boy Williamson,
Muddy Waters, and Howlin’ Wolf among others. Unfortunately, the sound quality here is
significantly lower than on the DVD. Each performance is very apparently live, and
are even low quality for live recordings. But, like the poor picture on the DVD, that
does not negate the fact that the music is really good. To be honest, unless you are real Chris Barber
aficionado, you’re better off just getting the CDs. The music is better, and you won’t have to go
to the trouble of hanging a blanket over the TV screen when you want to listen
to them.
- Matthew Carrick