Fourplay-An Evening of Fourplay-Volumes I and II (1994)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Audio Scene Selection Anim & Audio Biographies-Cast
Rating
Year Of Production	1994
Running Time	116:16 (Case: 120)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Stanley Dorfman
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Bob James Lee Ritenour Nathan East Harvey Mason Chaka Khan Phillip Bailey Phil Perry
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Fourplay Marvin Gaye Isley Brothers

    Contemporary jazz group Fourplay consists of four musicians each of whom has built a career in his own right as a session musician:

• Bob James - Keyboardist/Producer/Composer/Arranger
• Lee Ritenour - Guitarist/Producer/Composer/Arranger
• Nathan East - Bassist/Vocalist/Producer/Composer/Arranger
• Harvey Mason - Drummer/Producer/Composer/Arranger

    In addition, both Bob James and Lee Ritenour have recorded many successful solo albums. Since then, Lee Ritenour has left the group and has been replaced by his friend and fellow guitarist Larry Carlton.

    Their music can best be described as contemporary smooth jazz with strong pop influences. Their music sometimes dangerously skirts around the edges of the sort of muzak they play in airplanes to calm passengers during a flight (unkind critics would probably say their music defines the genre!), but there's no denying there's a lot of talent and professionalism in the group.

    This concert was recorded at the Capitol Studio in Los Angeles, CA. on 14 December 1993. Originally released as two VHS videos (hence Volume 1 & 2 in the title), they have been combined into a single DVD.

    On the first volume, the four musicians are joined on stage by two backing vocalists: Phillip Bailey and Phil Perry.

    The name of each song is burned in to the video stream as a caption at the beginning of the song. The second song, Monterey, is prefaced by a Lee Ritenour guitar solo. Similarly, Midnight Stroll starts off with a drum solo by Harvey Mason. After this, the band decide to try their hand at a Marvin Gaye song, with Nathan East bravely taking on the lead singer role. The last song on Volume 1 features a piano solo by Bob James.

    Volume 2 opens with my favourite song from the concert - Wish You Were Here. Then we get another Bob James led song called Moonjogger. A Summer Child is another nice ballad. Amoroso features an extended duet between Lee Ritenour and Harvey Mason. Between the Sheets is a vocal duet between Nathan East and guest singer Chaka Khan. Finally, Flying East has a synthesizer introduction by Bob James.

Video

    This is a full frame transfer. The feature was originally recorded using Sony Digital Betacam, which would explain why the transfer looks like a cross between analogue video and film.

    There are no composite video artefacts nor saturated highlights typical of analogue video, but at the same time the overall look is not really film like.

    The overall transfer quality is good. Detail levels are high though not really reference quality. The only artefact I noticed was occasionally shimmering, which I suspect is due to a NTSC-to-PAL conversion.

    There is a hidden English subtitle track, but it appears to be silent.

    This is a single sided single layered disc. Unfortunately the video has been encoded without chapter durations, making it hard to know how far the title has progressed.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is only one audio track on the disc: English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192kb/s).

    Contemporary smooth jazz requires a well recorded audio track, with tight bass, scintillating highs, good dynamics and a wide and deep soundstage. Unfortunately, I got none of those.

    The music is recorded at a very low volume level, and sounds rather muffled even when the volume level is cranked up.

    The audio track is only stereo, which means no surround or subwoofer activity.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    Main menu includes an intro, animation and background music.

Biographies-Cast

    This consists of a number of still pages - one providing an overview of the group, and four additional stills, one for each musician.

    The Region 1 and Region 4 versions of this disc appear identical apart from NTSC versus PAL formatting.

    This is a concert performance by contemporary smooth jazz group Fourplay, recorded in 1993 in front of a studio audience. Originally split into two video tapes, both segments of the concert have been combined into a single DVD release.

    The video transfer is good.

    The audio transfer is mediocre.

    There are no extras apart from biographical stills.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall