Ray Charles-In Concert (1999)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Music	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	82:28
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Michael Giacalone
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Ray Charles Diane Schuur
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Ray Charles

    Chances are, if you asked anyone to name a blind musical artist, most would answer with either Stevie Wonder, or the man featured on this concert disc - Ray Charles. Ray Charles Robinson was born on September 23, 1930 in Georgia USA. He really is ranked as a genius in the music business with a massive catalogue of recordings and his work as a singer, composer, arranger and of course pianist. He was born in extreme poverty, and was slowly blinded by glaucoma until, by the age of seven, he had lost his sight completely. A gifted pianist, he began recording in 1949 and was best known for a gospel-based passion and unrestrained singing voice. His first big hit was I Got A Woman in 1954, followed up by This Little Girl Of Mine in 1955, Talkin' 'Bout You in 1957 and the evocative Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying in 1959. One of his best known and covered works was also released in 1959, in What'd I Say. As an artist he blended blues, country, soul, R&B, jazz, classical and gospel together into an art form that is uniquely his, and has collaborated with many other acclaimed artists around the world. Charles has been awarded an amazing 15 Grammy awards while performing for more than fifty years, the legacy of an amazing career.

    This concert was filmed in 1999 at the James L. Knight Centre in Miami, Florida and was in aid of the Miami Lighthouse For The Blind charity. Charles is joined on stage by a large band, and by Grammy award winning jazz vocalist Diane Schuur for one song. The performance is solid without being spectacular. Charles plays his piano and even belts out a tune on the saxophone, all while larking around a little with Dianne Schuur. The audience is appreciative, but are in attendance for a charity event and most do appear a little restrained.

    The following songs are featured in the 82 minute concert.

Video

    The transfer is presented full screen in an aspect of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

    This is certainly not a top shelf video transfer by any means, but it is also not that bad either when comparing it to some that I have seen. The close-up shots of Ray Charles are quite sharp and detailed, but the image softens dramatically whenever a wider angle shot is used. This is probably a result of the incredibly low light levels inside the theatre during the performance. There is only a little grain, and it is not overly annoying. Shadow detail is only average. Again, the wider shots are where this is let down. There is no low level noise.

    Colours are a bit mixed, which is as usual only natural for a concert. There are some minor posterization problems whenever the intense blue light appears, with the most troublesome area being around Ray Charles' face.

    I noticed no other MPEG artefacts. A reasonable amount of aliasing is evident throughout, most notable on the piano strings and microphone stands. The most obvious examples of this occur at 4:37-4:39. There are also several instances of moiré effect on many of the microphone heads and again on the piano strings. The worst cases of the latter are at 5:44 and 6:08.

    There are no subtitles available.

    This is a single layered disc only. As a result, there is no layer change to navigate.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio is the reason I usual take a look at these discs for review and I will say outright I was a little disappointed with this one. There is only one audio track on this disc, being a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track encoded at 224 Kb/s and there isn't a whole lot to get excited about with this soundtrack. Something a little more adventurous would have been nice. This one does the job required of it without being overly exciting. There is ample stereo separation across the left and right channels, but the whole thing just lacks the punch of a truly good PCM or dts soundtrack that we have become so accustomed to.

    Dialogue and lyrics are clear and concise with few problems evident. There are no audio sync problems.

    There is no surround or LFE channel use.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    Nope - there are no extras on this disc.

    The Region 1 disc is identical to this one.

    Ray Charles in Concert is an excellent disc to sample the delights of a man who has been in the business longer than most of you reading this will have been alive. A true legend of the industry with a career spanning more than 50 years.

    The video is only average, let down by some fuzzy camera shots, intense coloured lighting, and some minor aliasing.

    The audio is without flaw, but is just a little too conservative for my liking.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall