Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I haven't seen all the other Metheny DVDs so I can't compare this one to any of them. I do own More Travels on VHS, which is not strictly speaking a live concert, as there was no audience present for that live performance. There are distracting "arsty" moments on that video, plus they cut to interviews and other stuff that after a while take away from the video.
There are no distractions on this presentation, just an hour and a half of great music. While this DVD is not the Pat Metheny Group, it IS live in front of an enthusiastic audience, and there was reason for their jubilation. This is a sublime performance of a great collection of tunes performed by a stellar group of players. The lineup includes the late 80's PMG sans Lyle Mays. In his place are two of my favorite keyboard players, Jim Beard and Gil Golstein. Their's is a tough job, as they had to play all the orchestral and supporting parts from a very dense studio album. They perform their tasks admirably, and together with Mark lederer and David Blamires, who also have their hands full supplying all the brass parts and adding their considerable vocal and percussion talents to the many layered textures, the sound is nearly as full and detailed as the original studio recording. Rounding out the sound is an added guitarist and Armando Marcal supplying beautiful colors and percussion. What a great show! And until now I thought I'd have to rely on my memory of that ecstatic, singular night! The sound is great, the mix nearly letter perfect. The picture is grainy and not as sharp as one would hope for a DVD, but the content is so good, this can easily be overlooked. This is a straightforward no nonsense concert video, just nine great musicians reverently and joyfully laying down some of Pat's most heartful and honest music from the happy/sad but always beautiful Secret Story CD. Highly recommended.
NOTE: It is interesting to note that Pat Metheny put the kabosh on the american release of this DVD, the reason being, he apprarently felt that the performance here was not up to his high standards. While that may be true, (there are a few minor clams here and there,) the overall performance is still excellent, if not letter perfect. This is after all, the only documentation of this historic tour and as such, the imperfections can easily be overlooked. Most people won't even notices them. You can find copies of this DVD on Ebay. It is a treasure not to be missed,especially to fans of the CD.
By the way, I have to agree with the poster who mourns the lack of DTS encoding. I would even settle for Dolby Digital-anything but crappy prologic. It says its in DD but it isn't .The sound is merely passable, and it could've been great.
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