B.B. King-Live at the Apollo (1991)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Discography Trailer-Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Ray Charles Trailer-Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Rating
Year Of Production	1991
Running Time	49:25 (Case: 52)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	B.B. King
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	None Given

    I have had the great pleasure during my time as a reviewer on this site to review one DVD each from the three Kings of the Blues, Freddie, Albert and now B.B. King. I have thoroughly enjoyed all three, all of which have been live performances. This one is the newest of the three and features a performance by B.B. King and the Phillip Morris Big Band at The Apollo Theatre, New York in 1991. Despite what the case says, the Apollo Theatre in question is not in Manchester and this show was not recorded in 1981.

    B.B. King is in fine form from both a voice and guitar playing perspective and the band is a star studded affair including many jazz greats such as Kenny Burrell, Urbie Green, Harry ' Sweets' Edison, Plas Johnson, Ray Brown and Australia's own James Morrison. To my mind B.B is better backed with a straight blues band rather than a full jazz orchestra but others may disagree. I felt that the band were slightly out of sync with him tempo-wise once or twice. Having said that they are certainly a group of great musicians and their playing cannot be faulted.

    The tracks included are:

1. When Love Comes To Town (4:52) - The song he did with U2, which was a major hit in the late 1980s. A fiery, bluesy version of the song.
2. All Over Again (7:41) - A lesser known B.B. King song but a great slow blues nonetheless.
3. Nightlife / Please Send me Someone to Love (4:20) - A medley of two famous numbers. Features some great guitar.
4. Since I Met You Baby (3:57) - Another B.B. King standard featuring an excellent sax solo from Plas Johnson.
5. Paying the Cost to be the Boss (2:37) - A B.B. King concert standard.
6. Ain't Nobody's Business (3:54) - Great version of this standard.
7. Sweet Sixteen (7:42) - An extended reading of another of BB's most famous songs.
8. The Thrill is Gone (5:02) - Another great tune featuring some excellent interplay between BB and Ray Brown on bass.
9. Guess Who (5:13) - B.B. King returns for an encore.
10. Peace to the World (4:02) - A rollicking tune to end the show.

    A great in concert performance from BB King, featuring a jazz backing orchestra. Recommended for blues fans and especially for fans of B.B. King.

Video

    The video quality is good but no more. The program is preceded by a warning about the video quality.

    The feature is presented in a 1.29:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is most likely the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was reasonably clear and sharp throughout, with some minor evidence of low level noise especially in backgrounds. The sharpness was affected by some colour bleeding and was obviously taken from a video master. Some very light grain was in evidence.

    The colour was nothing special. The colour was quite dull and despite only having mostly black and white to show others colours were in evidence with blacks sometimes showing as purple or green in patches. There was also some colour bleeding, especially from white shirts, and some bits and pieces of chroma noise.

    Other than the colour artefacts already mentioned, there was some minor aliasing in the form of jagged edges especially around collars and some tape tracking artefacts at 4:50, 18:27 & 36:40.

    There are no subtitles or layer change.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
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Film Artefacts
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Audio

    The audio quality is quite good.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s. It was originally recorded in Dolby Surround and has been remixed into 5.1. The sound is very front and centre focussed and B.B's singing and guitar come through strongly. The backing band is a little muddy and undefined. Considering the age and live nature of the recording, I would say that the best possible has been done with the sound.

    The surround speakers add atmosphere to the music but don't really stand out in any specific way.

    The subwoofer gives a nice layer of bass to the music without overwhelming it.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu is very simple allowing for song selection and access to the extras. The main program autoplays once the disc is inserted.

Selected Discography

    A two page text list of some of B.B. King's many albums.

Umbrella Propaganda

    Short highlights from four other Umbrella music disc, all of which I would love to review. They are Muddy Waters (2:55), Willie Dixon (1:15), Ray Charles (2:42) and Screamin' Jay Hawkins (2:07). The first two are live performances and the other two are excerpts from documentaries.

    I cannot find any evidence that this disc has been released outside of Region 4. It is coded for all regions.

    The video quality is good but nothing special.

    The audio quality is quite good.

    The disc has very little in the way of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall