Bela Fleck-BlueGrass Sessions: Tales from Acoustic Planet Vol2 (DVD-Audio) (1999) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Booklet Gallery-Photo Gallery-The Musicians Notes-About The Recording Notes-A Few Words About Some Of The Titles Discography Notes-Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	75:49
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Bela Fleck Tony Rice Sam Bush Mark Shatz Stuart Duncan Jerry Douglas Earl Scruggs Vassar Clements John Hartford Vince Gill Tim O'Brien Ricky Skaggs
Case	DVD-Audio Jewel
RPI	$32.95	Music	Bela Fleck Various

    In the early days of DVD, titles were very thin on the ground, hard to find and released at a pace we would today consider untenable. In those days (and I am only talking of 4 or so years ago) the format was not in widespread use, nor even heard of by most. History is repeating itself with DVD-Video’s offspring – DVD-Audio, with titles seemingly scurrying into dark holes in the harsh light of day. This snail’s pace of releases is a bitter pill for early adopters to swallow, and just like the grim early years of DVD-Video, many of us will grab just about any title released that comes anywhere near our liking.

    The Blue Grass Sessions from Bela Fleck’s “Tales From The Acoustic Planet Volume 2” is a good example of a style of music I would never even consider buying on CD. It’s not that I don’t like the music, it’s just that I never liked it enough to fork out good money for it. However, a paucity of titles can do wonders for broadening one’s scope, and so when I spotted this title sitting on the shelf I almost involuntarily grabbed it. I am delighted to say that this album is a treasure, and a most enjoyable one. I find it refreshing, energetic, often clever and mostly just plain fun.

    There are a large number of players on this album, spanning three generations of bluegrass musicians (including, as Bela is proud of stating, the first generation with Vassar Clements and Johh Hartford). Along for the ride are the bread-and-butter instruments of the genre, being the five-string Banjo, guitar, mandolin (a wonderful instrument), bass fiddle and dobro. There is also volka, accordion, tuba and drums used very sparingly. I defy anyone to listen to this album and not find something in it for them. Spanning 17 songs (track 16 is just speech), and running for a not-inconsiderable 75 minutes, I believe it would be impossible for anyone to listen to this album and not tap their feet, pretend-play along and even yell “yeeha” now and then. I love it!

Video

    The menus are NTSC formatted, and are of high quality. Stills are clean and detailed, and text is large and easy to read. There are no problems in this area at all.

Audio

    Sonically, this album is amongst the very best I have heard from the format, and is without fault. There is just the MLP 24/96 5.1 track available – if you need to listen to this album in 2-channel stereo you will need to rely on your player to downmix the audio. Once heard in multi-channel, however, you will not care for plain stereo. Also included is a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix for DVD-Video players.

    Recorded with instruments such as a 300 year-old fiddle, 70 year old banjos and guitars, and 100 year-old bass and being strictly bluegrass you will not find an electric amplifier within earshot. This is, as the name of the album would suggest, entirely acoustic and as such the quality of the recording bears a great responsibility in imparting a sense of realism to the listener. Given the sheer processes involved in taking the sound from the instruments being played in the studio, to that sound eventually hitting your ears at home, it is even more remarkable how good this album sounds. With closed eyes it is not difficult to imagine the musicians in your room, their instruments playing metres from your ears. There is a real and fundamental leap in fidelity here compared with acoustic instruments on CD. The rasp of the bass violin is uncanny and quite eerie at times. The guitar resonates with authenticity and warmth. Each plucked string is distinct from the other, and you hear the pick strike the string with an attack and decay entirely missing from CDs.

    That quality of the “musicians being in the room” is taken to its ultimate conclusion with the multi-channel format, and is proof-positive that with an open mind and a proper setup a remarkable degree of engagement can be achieved. Musicians are spread around the room, with banjo to the front-left, mandolin to the rear-left, guitar on the front-right, and fiddles to the rear-right. Often instruments will be along a wall, between speakers. In fact, the speakers don’t even come into the equation, since often the instruments sound further away than the distance to your speakers would suggest. This fearless approach to multi-channel presentation of music is what will drive this format, and I commend the producers of this album for not succumbing to conservative and plainly misguided ideas of “surrounds for ambience only.”

    The included Dolby Digital 5.1 track is not a patch on the MLP, and fails to impart that sense of reality so effortlessly achieved otherwise. Whilst you hear the music, you do not feel it.

    The sub is used to add weight to the bass instruments, and does so superbly. There are times when the bass drives the rhythm, and satisfyingly so.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    This disc, like all Warner DVD-Audio discs, does not require a video display to be played. Inserting the disc will automatically play the first track, though the very jarring intro is unfortunate, especially when you have your system already cranked in preparation. Thankfully, Warner have learned and no longer use intros for good reason.

Booklet

    This booklet goes above and beyond the norm, and just rounds of this album superbly. What we have is 16 pages of Bela actually treating us with immense respect, telling us of the musicians, the instruments, his wishes and his appreciation. The paper stock and printing is reminiscent of LP booklets, and has a great look and texture to it. It is often the little things like this which make all the difference.

Gallery-Photo

    Another nice touch are the photos, which are from a different selection depending on the track playing.

Notes – The Musicians

    Each musician is named, and a click will reveal a picture of them. Neat.

Notes – About This Recording

Discography

    A static image of the precursor to this album, sadly not yet available on DVD-Audio.

Notes – A Few Words About Some Of The Titles

    10 or so pages of text discussing the inspiration behind many of the songs.

    Both versions are identical.

    This is a great collection of bluegrass songs, most written by Bela Fleck, along with some standards. Presented with superb sonics on a reference quality DVD-Audio, this disc is highly recommended.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall