Randy Weston-Live in St Lucia (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Audio & Animation Interviews-Cast-Randy Weston TV Spots-St. Lucia
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	68:29
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Lukkee Chong
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Randy Weston T. K. Blue Benny Powell Alex Blake Neil Clarke
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Randy Weston

    Randy Weston: Live in St Lucia was filmed at the 2001 St Lucia Jazz festival, an annual event showcasing some of the finest jazz performers in the world. I had a look at another title from the same event a couple of years ago. That disc was Melba Moore - Live! A Night In St Lucia and you can take a look at that review if you wish.

    Randy Weston has been described as one of the world's foremost jazz pianists and also a true cultural ambassador and visionary. These are fairly lofty titles, but when you consider he has been performing for more than five decades as both soloist and leader of bands large and small all throughout the world including Asia, Europe, the Americas and Africa, it's hard to argue with any accolades that get heaped on him. He has in fact performed in over forty countries in his career and appeared at virtually all the major jazz festivals around the world. He is also quite passionate about his African heritage and insists on integrating many of the sounds of Africa into his works. He is a firm believer in letting his audience 'feel' the music, ensuring they do not just listen to it, as is the African way.

    For this performance at the 2001 festival, Weston is joined by Alex Blake on bass, Neil Clarke on percussion, Talib Kibwe handling the flute and alto sax, and Benny Powell on trombone. It is a really quite short set, with just six instrumental pieces played. It is all handled with the passion and aplomb though of someone who has been in the business a long time and knows his stuff. His band is completely at ease with the surroundings and they follow whatever Weston decides to do at the time.

    The following instrumental jazz pieces are performed in this 68 minute show:

Video

    The video is in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. This is the same as originally filmed. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

    This is quite a decent transfer. It is mostly sharp and detailed throughout, and really quite colourful. Shadow detail is not a problem. There is also very little grain to contend with and there is no low level noise.

    The colours were a highlight and also posed the biggest problems. Many bright shades of every colour imaginable dominate the stage and the background. There are also the obligatory bright blue and red stage lights with which to contend. It is these latter colours that tend to bleed just slightly at times.

    No MPEG artefacts are present. Other artefacts are also absent.
   
    There are no subtitles available on this disc.
   
    The disc is presented as a single layered disc, so therefore there is no layer change to navigate.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    We are spoilt for luxury in the audio department, with a total of three audio tracks, including a dts track and Dolby Digital 5.1 track. These two are also joined by a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack. I listened to both the Dolby Digital 5.1 track and the dts track. I only sampled briefly the rather nondescript Dolby Digital 2.0 track. There is really nothing to separate either of the 5.1 tracks, though I'd probably give the nod to the dts track over the Dolby Digital offering as it offers slightly clearer and brighter instrument separation.

    All the songs are instrumental jazz pieces, hence there are no lyrics. The little bit of dialogue between songs is clear with no audio sync problems.

    The surround channels receive a reasonable amount of use throughout, though it is quite understated. Not only do the audience sounds come through but a nice fill-in of instruments can also be heard.

    The subwoofer doesn't have much to do, with only a limited amount of lower range audio in the soundtracks.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio & Animation

Interviews-Cast

    Running for 12:51, Randy Weston candidly discusses his influences, his childhood, and what music means to him.

TV Spots

    A 32 second tourism ad for the Caribbean island of St Lucia.

    The Region 1 disc is exactly the same as the local product. We certainly have to favour the Region 4 title on price considerations.

    Randy Weston Live In St Lucia was filmed at the 2001 St Lucia jazz festival. The performance encompasses six instrumental pieces and runs for just over one hour.

    The video quality is excellent, with barely a fault.

    The audio is also top notch, with the dts soundtrack being the easy highlight.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall