Gil Scott-Heron and his Amnesia Express-Tales of Gil (1990)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Menu Animation & Audio Audio Commentary Featurette-Review
Rating
Year Of Production	1990
Running Time	59:58 (Case: 62)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Nick Bigsby
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Gil Scott Heron Ed Brady Vernon James Kim Jordan Larry McDonald Rodney Youngs
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Gil Scott Heron

    Having not heard of Gil Scott Heron prior to receiving this review disc, I found the concert enjoyable - a good concert from a group of very talented musicians - even if it is a little short. After doing some reading on Scott Heron however, it seems that this concert is not really what his fans are looking for. Not only does it not include any of his spoken-word work, or poetry, but it lacks his most well-known song The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. An indication of how important this song is in Scott Heron's body of work is that the short video conversation with music journalist Kevin Le Gendre about the concert spends almost half its running time discussing how important the song is, and its various influences - before acknowledging its absence from the concert.

    Whether or not the song was originally part of the concert is now known only to those who attended the gig in 1990, as this presentation has obviously been culled from a longer concert. What was left is quite short, containing only six songs, and really isn't going to be attractive to any but die-hard fans, although even they should be aware that this is very much a blues performance that doesn't contain The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.

Video

    Presented at 1.33:1, almost certainly the correct aspect ratio, this transfer is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is not sharp, although it is not bad enough to be blurry. The detail is generally sufficient, although it is never good enough to make out fine aspects (for example, hairs). There is no grain as such, owing to the video source, although there is quite a bit of video noise (such as at 29:19) that is present in almost every shot. Shadow detail is acceptable, and the high lighting levels reduce its importance anyway. There is plenty of low-level noise (such as at 3:47), again pointing to a video source.

    Colours are a little faded, lending the entire concert a slightly "bland" look, as even the stage lights lack any real depth of colour.

    There is little in the way of pixelization in this transfer, although at times when the noise becomes very obvious there is some small amount in the background. There is quite a bit of chroma noise in the image (as at 23:19), not helped by the tendency to use blue hues in the lighting. There is also some colour bleeding (the mike stand at 6:05), and at times the overall brightness level of the transfer will pulsate quite noticeably (such as between 26:55 and 27:15). Aliasing is still quite common for a transfer that is not at all sharp, although most instances are quite minor. The worst occur on the guitar strings at 14:31, and the mike at 40:28, but there are a number of minor instances. There are no film artefacts present, as would be expected for video-sourced material.

    There are no subtitles on this disc.

    This is a single layered disc, and as such does not contain a layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two audio tracks present on this disc, being the concert audio in Dolby Digital 5.1 (at 448 Kbps), and the concert audio with track-by-track commentary also in Dolby Digital 5.1 (at 448 Kbps).

    Vocals and dialogue are always clear and easy to understand. The instruments are well represented, and while not crystal clear are generally well separated. There is some hiss that enters the recording from time-to-time, but it is only noticeable during track introductions when there is no music, such as from 35:38 until the song starts. The only real problem is the sound of the crowd. They don't so much sound like a canned audience as an audience in a can, with some terrible distortion on the crowd noise that makes them sound almost metallic. Audio sync is spot on throughout the transfer and is never a problem.

    While the front soundstage is nice and wide, and used to full extent, the rear speakers stay close to silent for the entirety of the concert. They do not even come to life during applause and the like.

    The subwoofer is used effectively to back up the bass and kick-drum, although this is not a very bass-heavy mix.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

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Review (6:23)

Audio Commentary - Kevin Le Gendre (Music Journalist)

    The video quality is quite poor, looking very much like it comes from a ten year old video tape.

    The audio quality is better, although the total lack of surround use is a little disappointing.

    The extras, while they last, are very interesting - it's a pity that they are so short (quality over quantity doesn't apply when the quantity is close to zero).

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall