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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Jeff Osbornerey-The Jazz Channel Presents (2000)

Jeff Osbornerey-The Jazz Channel Presents (2000)

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Released 19-Mar-2001

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Music Biographies-Cast
Discography
Featurette-Meet The Artist
Rating Rated G
Year Of Production 2000
Running Time 83:32
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (57:35) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Waymer Johnson
Studio
Distributor

Warner Vision
Starring Jeffrey Osborne
Case Amaray-Transparent
RPI $39.95 Music Jeffrey Osborne


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English Dolby Digital 2.0 (256Kb/s)
English dts 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles Spanish
Danish
Finnish
Dutch
German
French
Italian
Swedish
Norwegian
Portuguese
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits Yes, titles over last song

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    The Jazz Channel Presents: Jeffrey Osborne is another in a series of TV specials featuring concerts by black musicians produced by BET on Jazz.

    Despite what the title may suggest, this is not really a jazz concert - instead, it is heart thumpin' funky music with groovy synth sounds, screaming electric guitars, deep rhythmic electric bass, silky sweet female backup singers and a solid drum track that brings back memories of the good ol' late 70s and early 80s. To illustrate what I mean, let me just quote from the first song on this concert (We Party Hearty):

When we party, we party high.
When we boogie, we boogie woogie.
    I am not ashamed to admit that I enjoyed every minute of it.

    Jeffrey Osborne (born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1948, the youngest of 12 siblings) began his professional singing career in 1969 with a popular funk and soul group called Love Men Ltd, which eventually became LTD. Jeffrey then went on to pursue a solo career that resulted in five gold and platinum albums as well as Top 40 hits such as "Don't You Get So Mad," "Stay With Me Tonight" and "Love Power," which he performed with Dionne Warwick.

    In this concert, Jeffrey is backed by a five piece band and two backup singers.

    My favourite song in this concert is the beautiful romantic ballad On the Wings of Love, which starts off with Jeffrey accompanied by only the acoustic guitar, and as the song progresses the rest of the band joins in one at a time. It's a beautifully touching performance, although I did think the ending (with Jeffrey doing some microphone tricks with the reverb turned up to the max) was a bit over-the-top.

    Jeffrey has an electric stage presence and I love the way he engages with the audience and makes them a part of the show, from the chorus of "oohs" in Stay With Me Tonight to the sing-a-long session in That's For Sure and finally getting selected members of the audience to help him sing the Woo Woo Song. The audience look like they really really enjoyed the concert. So did I. I got so wrapped up I started singing along with the rest of the audience! (Aren't you glad you weren't in my living room then!)

    The end titles are superimposed towards the end of You Should Be Mine (The Woo Woo Song). Although I would ordinarily object to this, in this case it's acceptable as he's clearly wrapping up the end of the Woo Woo Song.

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Track Listing

1. We Party Hearty
2. Second Time Around
3. On The Wings Of Love
4. Stay With Me Tonight
5. Da Butt
6. Kreepin'
7. Holding On (When Love Is Gone)
8. Concentrate On You
9. Don't You Get So Mad
10. I Really Don't Need No Light
11. That's For Sure
12. (Every Time I Turn Around) Back...
13. Love Ballad
14. You Should Be Mine (The Woo Woo...

Transfer Quality

Video

    Given that this originated as a TV special, the transfer is presented in a full frame aspect ratio.

    In general, the transfer seems reasonably clean, with good sharpness, detail and colour saturation. There are slight signs of chroma smearing in 20:39. Shadow detail is probably about typical for a video source.

    In terms of MPEG artefacts, I can detect occasional aliasing and slight ringing, but nothing that would cause annoyance..

    Surprisingly, this DVD actually comes with several subtitle tracks. I was hoping that one of the subtitle tracks would be in English and that the song lyrics would be transcribed onto the track. But alas, no such luck! The subtitle tracks here contain translations of Jeffrey's stage banter into various foreign languages but do not include translations of the lyrics to the songs. Just for fun, I turned on the Italian subtitle track for a brief period. The translation was pretty comprehensive and accurate - they even translated brief interjections in the middle of songs. In the last track, they even got the audience names right (let me remember, there was Chiki, Lois, A.J., Steve, ...)

    This disc is labelled DVD9 indicating that it is a single sided dual layer disc (RSDL). The layer change occurs at 57:35 minutes into the concert. It did disrupt the concert, but at least it was between songs (near the transition between Chapters 9 and 10). Given that there were no real periods of silence during the concert, I can't really think of a more optimal spot for the layer change.

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

Audio

    This DVD has three audio tracks: Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448Kb/s, DTS 5.1 (unknown bitrate) and Dolby Digital 2.0 at 224Kb/s. I listened to the DTS 5.1 soundtrack in its entirety, and in addition listened to a fair proportion (say about half an hour's worth) of the Dolby Digital 5.1 track.

    The DTS track is actually more like a 4.0 track since the centre channel was not engaged during the entire concert. The soundstage is very front-focused, with the rear surround speakers mainly carrying ambience information. The original audio source must have been in stereo and then remixed into 5.1, but the remix was done well - the "oohs" from the audience in Stay With Me Tonight came appropriately from the rear speakers as opposed to the music coming from the front.

    I loved the DTS track - it sounded very "live" and made me feel like I was physically present at the concert. Every subtle detail in the mix seems to have been captured, right down to the slight FM-like "buzz" I can hear in the background in some tracks. When Jeff switches from the stage microphone to a wireless one for the audience participation section of the Woo Woo Song, I can detect a slight change in the timbre due to the different microphone characteristics.

    In comparison, the Dolby Digital track also sounds excellent, but does not have the "live" feel. I felt like I was listening to a recording rather than being there. I listened briefly to the Dolby Digital 2.0 track; it is similar to the Dolby Digital track except it has a collapsed soundstage and has been mastered at a much lower level.

    I did not detect any audio glitches or synchronization issues.

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

Extras

    Given that most music DVDs don't come with any extras, the presence of an "interview" featurette, biographical stills, and the unusual inclusion of foreign language subtitles makes this DVD a cut above the average.

Menu

    The menus are reasonably pleasing and seems to be relatively free of MPEG artefacts, unlike some DVDs I've seen. They are in full frame format and are static.

Biography - Jeffrey Osborne

    This is a single still providing a brief biography of Jeffrey Osborne.

Discography - Jeffrey Osborne

    This is a single still providing a list of Jeff's solo albums.

Featurette - "Meet the Artist"

    This is a brief (26:44 minutes) interview with Jeffrey Osborne. Jeffrey is presented in a small "window" over a background consisting of excerpts from the concert footage. Jeffrey talks about his childhood, how his father encouraged him to play the trumpet but he wanted to sing instead, his association with LTD, and comparing the music scene of his generation to the music scene today. He laments the fact that musicians today tend to go straight from obscurity to a recording contract without the experience of playing live. Given his incredible stage presence I can only but agree. There are quite lengthy periods (for example, the entire last 5 minutes) in which he doesn't talk (and the little "window" disappears), I suspect this is a short 10-15 minute interview that has been stretched to 25 minutes.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    There appears to be no significant differences between the R1 and R4 versions of this disc.

Summary

    The Jazz Channel Presents: Jeffrey Osborne is a great concert presented on a DVD with a superb video and audio transfer. The extras are nothing special, but welcomed anyway.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Christine Tham (read my biography)
Saturday, January 27, 2001
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-626D, using Component output
DisplaySony VPL-VW10HT LCD Projector, ScreenTechnics 16x9 matte white screen (203cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum.
AmplificationDenon AVR-3300
SpeakersFront left/right: B&W DM603; centre: B&W CC6S2, rear left/right: B&W DM601

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