Diana Krall: Live in Rio [Blu-ray]
Diana Krall: Live in Rio [Blu-ray]
Diana Krall has had a long time fascination with bossa nova, a type of music which perfectly suits her sophisticated yet sensual style. This culminated in her new studio album “Quiet Nights” (released by Verve in spring 2009) and in this stunning concert filmed in the home of the bossa nova, Rio de Janeiro, in November 2008. Accompanied by her band and an orchestra, Diana Krall delivers a superb set of standards in true bossa nova style but clearly bearing her unique stamp. This DVD captures Diana Krall at her scintillating best.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Excellent service
Received the DVD quickly after ordering. No problem, no hassle. The way ordering should be!
5 Stars Fantastic Quality
the quality of the blu-ray makes me feel like i’m on stage listening to her perform!
5 Stars Buy it!
Like a lot of commenters here, I’m a longtime fan of the Paris concert who has wanted to see it released on Blu-ray (although the DVD of Paris looks and sounds nice on my setup, even projected 9 1/2′ wide).
I bought this Blu-ray in part figuring that if the Paris concert was ever to make it to Blu-ray, this disk would have to be successful first - if Rio tanked commercially, forget Paris. (My apologies to Billy Crystal).
Well, I was pleasantly suprised by this disk. I’d put the quality of the playing at nearly the same level as the Paris concert and better than on the Montreal disk, particularly Anthony Wilson’s guitar work. Diana’s soloing was not as flashy as in Paris - fewer sly quotes of other tunes slipped in - but very appropriate to the material involved. The singing seems less well-crafted (she seems to chew her words here rather than sing wide-open), but the overall presentation is very good. I’ve always loved her version of “Frim Fram Sauce” and “I Don’t Know Enough About You” - both from her The Girl in the Other Room CD - but no Joni Mitchell song? ;->
It does seem as though they had only one or two HD cameras at the concert, which were focused on Diana’s face and keyboard, with everyone else, onstage or in the audience, caught on lesser-quality cameras (or just not lit as well) - but that’s balanced out by the senic shots, which are out-of-this-world beautiful, and used to lead into most of the tunes.
On the other hand, the other onstage shots are not subjected to image “enhancement” that might make them irritating - no halos or jaggies of the sort that make the first Chris Botti disk nearly unwatchable. The video of the other musicians looks about as good as it does on the Paris concert DVD, which is very good. Most shots of the audience, however, are so underexposed they’re nearly unviewable. (Do you buy a concert disk to look at the audience? I didn’t think so.)
By the way, to those who complained that this disk doesn’t have lossless audio, or sounds flat, you have to manually select the DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 track on the setup screen, changing the default from PCM Stereo, which apparently was chosen for maximum compatibility with older receivers.
Don’t miss the acoustic “rooftop session” in the extras, with Diana, Anthony Wilson on acoustic guitar, and Jeff Hamilton playing brushes on a pad, jamming in a crowded lounge on a pair of facing couches, with most of those in attendance ignoring them - apparently music-making is less of a spectator-sport and more of an everyday thing in Rio.
5 Stars Diana rocks in Rio
The only real downside to this concert is that there isn’t enough new material and it could have been longer, but I am being picky and loved seeing Diana and the way she interprets the standards. Recommended to all….
1 Stars Total disappointment!!!
Whoever shot and produced this material should be fired. Whoever approved the release of this material should be fired. Hard to believe Diana Krall herself would have approved it. Withouth even talking about the overall performance itself, the video quality of this Blu-ray is the poorest I’ve seen in recent concert releases, considering the quality of HD technology available today. Diana owes it upon herself and fans to demand a properly edited, post-processed re-issue of this Blu-ray material. No amount of high-end consumer HD component could improve the video and audio quality of this release. You have to see and hear it to believe what I’m saying. However, this is an excellent reference material for today’s film making students HOW NOT TO shoot and post-pro in HD, highly recommended.
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