James Brown

Live From The House Of Blues Las Vegas

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Music Video	Menu Animation and Audio Crew Interview (11:07) Featurette - *Opening Act: Tomi Rae*
Rating
Year Released	2000
Running Time	80:27 Minutes (Including support act)
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region	2,4	Director	Mike Hartt Gary Rosen
Studio Distributor	Aviva Entertainment Warner Vision	Starring	James Brown
Case	Transparent Amaray	Starring	James Brown
RPI	$39.95	Music	James Brown

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English (Dolby Digital 2.0, 256 Kb/s) English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 448 Kb/s) English (DTS 5.1, 754 Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	Yes	Smoking	No
Subtitles	Danish Dutch Finnish French German Italian Norwegian Portuguese Spanish Swedish	Annoying Product Placement	No
Subtitles		Action In or After Credits	Yes, during credits

Plot Synopsis

I have to tell you right away that within ninety seconds of the programme start, I had repeated the words "what on earth is he saying?" at least six times. James Brown, the incomprehensible Godfather of Soul, produces that reaction from just about everyone, I'm told, but even I wasn't prepared for the first few sentences to come out of his mouth. Why am I telling you this, I hear you ask? Well, those of you who paid attention to the technical description of the disc's contents will notice that of all the subtitles you could ask for on this disc, one is conspicuously absent: English. At the very least, they could have provided us with an English for Those Of Us Who Don't Speak James Brown subtitle track. Anyway, since there is a lot more to music than just a voice, I'll forget about the obvious difficulty with understanding the vocals and tell you about the other instruments. Obviously, since Brown is considered to be the greatest performer on the Soul and Blues circuit in existence, he can pick and choose his session musicians as he pleases, and this shows in the quality of Live At The House Of Blues. People obviously went to this show expecting to see a performance, and they were given just that. It's hard to imagine how the band could be so animated and full of life after performing this material day in and day out, but you can tell they are enjoying themselves at least as much as the audience.

For those who were curious, the track listing is as follows:

James Brown Introduction
Get Up Offa That Thing
Gonna Have A Funky Good Time
Living In America
Popcorn
Soul Power
Soul Man
I Got The Feeling
Hot Pants
Try Me
Prisoner Of Love
Georgia On My Mind
If I Ruled The World
Why Don't You Do Right
Papa's Got A Brand New Bag
Funk On A Roll
Payback
I Feel Good
Papa Don't Take No Mess
Sex Machine; End Credits

When I reviewed the Woodstock '99 DVD, one of the things I forgot to include in my comments was the recommendation that one wait until separate DVDs of the better performers become available. This is definitely one of the better performers, and this is certainly a much better DVD.

Transfer Quality

Video

One of the first things you will notice during the introduction is a truck with the words "High Definition" inscribed upon it, which gives the real impression that this concert video was created with the aspect ratio and resolution of the future in mind. This transfer definitely does not disappoint, being presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, complete with 16x9 Enhancement. Another thing that you will notice about the video transfer is its amazing sharpness and clarity, with small details all but leaping out of the screen at the viewer. The shadow detail is very good when required, but there was a minor problem with noise in parts of the introduction that thankfully remained there and didn't reduce the quality of the rest of the presentation. The worst example of this noise problem was at 1:00, a shot of James Brown sitting down behind a mixing desk, which appears to have been shot differently to the actual concert. Apart from this one minor instance of noise, this is an amazingly clean video transfer that demonstrates the fact that DVD is the indisputable future of music video.

The colour saturation is bright and vivid, with superb definition and separation that also reflects the high-definition heritage of this concert video. Most concert videos are lit in such a manner as to completely throw the colour saturation out and create a smeared look with long streaks of red or blue. Not so with this one, as even the reflections of the stage lighting and curtains in the cymbals had excellent clarity and definition.

MPEG artefacts were not noticed in the main feature, in spite of the incredible stress that the performers' movements place upon the compression, which is all over the place in order to accommodate the soundtracks. Some motion blur is apparent in a shot of James Brown's legs as he walks across the stage at 46:11, if you freeze the picture and go through it frame-by-frame, but this is obviously not how we watch this type of programme. Film-to-video artefacts were not noticed in the main presentation, and the shining in Brown's costume that appears in long shots certainly doesn't count because this is inherent in the costume's design. Film artefacts were not found in the main presentation.

Audio

There are three soundtracks presented on this disc, two of them in Dolby Digital, and one in the much-loved DTS format. The first soundtrack is a Dolby Digital 2.0 mix, the second is a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, and the last is the DTS 5.1 mix. I listened to both of the 5.1 soundtracks from start to finish, while sampling the Dolby Digital 2.0 mix for the sake of completism.

The music is well-mixed in all three soundtracks, with the instruments having plenty of space to breathe, although the definition of the instruments is noticeably better on the DTS mix. The vocals by James Brown, of course, were completely incomprehensible no matter what mix I listened to. There is a brief pop in the DTS soundtrack at 3:58, which is not present in the Dolby Digital 2.0 or 5.1 mixes. There were no problems with audio sync, although I did get the impression that something wasn't quite right during part of the introduction. This was more than likely inherent in the source material, and is easily forgotten because it is the only time I noticed a problem in the main feature.

The music by James Brown and his band is basically a high-energy version of gospel music, much like anything in this basic style. To be perfectly honest, I found the music to be too simplistic and repetitive for my tastes, although I am sure that others may differ. Obviously, the showmanship counters this to some extent, but I didn't find that that worked for me. Still, the musicians in the band do a great job of countering the overall simplicity of the songs by playing the songs exceptionally well, especially when one of them is lucky enough to get a solo.

The surround presence on this DVD varies according to the soundtrack, with the worst of the three having no surround presence whatsoever, and the best having a surround presence that gives one the feeling of really being there. The surround presence in the Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is non-existent, and the soundtrack overall is very ordinary. The surround presence in the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is very simple and restrained, with the instruments being neatly separated into their own channels, with the overall level of the rears being somewhat subdued. The DTS 5.1 soundtrack, on the other hand, keeps the overall volume level of the surround channels consistent, making for a much more immersive performance. However, tempering this is the fact that I really find it hard to believe enough effort was made with the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. The DTS soundtrack uses the rears to support all of the ambient sounds in the concert, from the cymbals and the guitars through to the higher vocal registers. The subwoofer also had a whale of a time supporting the lower end of the sound spectrum, which was constantly active, much like the performers.

Extras

The menu is lightly animated, and accompanied by Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. It is 16x9 Enhanced. When the option to view the support act featuring Tomi Rae is selected, the same introduction from the main feature is repeated, which can give the impression that the option simply points back to James Brown's performance. This is not the case, but I will elaborate on this further in a moment.

Crew Interview

Clocking in at eleven minutes and seven seconds, this is a fascinating interview with the directors, in which they explain why they wished to capture James Brown in concert on high definition media. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, without 16x9 Enhancement. The only sound option is Dolby Digital 2.0, but this sounds much more lively than the Dolby Digital 2.0 mix in the main feature.

Featurette - Opening Act: Tomi Rae

When this option is selected from the main menu, the main feature plays back with this performance edited back into the overall programme. While this might seem like an unnecessary amount of effort, those who aren't that impressed with Tomi Rae will appreciate the opportunity to play back the performance without her input.

R4 vs R1

I was unable to find any reviews of this title, but Amazon's product description states no significant difference between the two versions of the disc. There is no compelling reason to import the Region 1 version.

Summary

James Brown is a highly influential performer in spite of the fact that nobody can understand a word that he says. Live At The House Of Blues is a brilliant presentation of his music that makes me glad the man is still alive today in order to take advantage of such recording technology. I am truly amazed at what can be done with a high-definition video camera and some digital recording equipment.

The video quality is truly superb, and a great tool to convert the unconvinced with.

The audio quality is superb, but the Dolby Digital mixes are rather ordinary.

The extras are satisfactory.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio	(DTS) (DD)
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment

DVD	Toshiba SD-2109, using S-video output
Display	Samsung CS-823AMF (80 cm), 16:9 mode/4:3 mode, using composite and S-video inputs
Audio Decoder	Built In (Amplifier)
Amplification	Sony STR-DE835
Speakers	Panasonic S-J1500D Front Speakers, Philips PH931SSS Rear Speakers, Philips FB206WC Centre Speaker, JBL Digital 10 Subwoofer