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Arista: 25th Anniversary Celebration
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
Now here's something interesting. BMG has offered the complete Arista 25th Anniversary celebration on DVD. The program originally aired on NBC, and now viewers can watch an uncut version of the show. This is something that really could be used more often, possibly offering the Oscar presentations on disc. Anyways, in this concert we get to hear from many of Arista Records's biggest artists from their last 25 years. Artists include Toni Braxton, Puff Daddy, Santana, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin and more. Puff Daddy's performance is especially good, with "Mo Money Mo Problems" and an emotional "I'll Be Missing You". Patti Smith and Sarah McLachlan also combine for an excellent version of "Because The Night".
There's quite a lot of good music offered during this program, and it's nice to see that a company realizes that shows like this could make for a good DVD presentation. The show runs about 90 minutes.
Chapters:
1. Jay Leno Introduction.
2. Maria Maria – Santana
3. Smooth – Santana
4. Medley: Mandy/Can't Smile Without You/Copacabana/Even Now/Ready To Take A Chance Again/It's A Miracle/Daybreak/This One's For You/I Write The songs – Barry Manilow.
5. Arista's #1 Hits (1975-1980) – Bay City Rollers/Melissa Manchester/Eric Carmen/Dionne Warwick.
6. Why – Annie Leenox
7. My Maria – Brooks & Dunn
8. Chattahoochee – Alan Jackson
9. Arista's #1 Hits (1981-1985) – Air Supply/Thompson Twins/The Kinks/Ray Parker Jr.
10. Medley: I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)/It Hurts Like Hell/Freeway Of Love (with Boys To Men) – Aretha Franklin.
11. Arista's Greatest Hits (1986-1990) – Carly Simon/Grateful Dead/Lisa Stansfield/Snap.
12. Angel – Sarah Mclachlan
13. Arista's #1 Hits (1991-1995) – Ace of Base/Annie Lennox/Real McCoy.
14. Mo' Money Mo' Problems – Puff Daddy
15. I'll Be Missing You (with Faith Evans & 112) – Puff Daddy.
16. Swear It Again/Summer Girls/Too Close/For You I Will/Nobody's Supposed To Be Here" –Westlife/LFO/Next/Monica/Deborah Cox
17. Un-Break My Heart – Toni Braxton
18. Because The Night – Patti Smith
19. Medley: I Wanna Dance With Somebody/How Will I Know/I Believe In You And Me/I will Always Love You/My Love Is You Love – Whitney Houston
20. Tribute to Clive Davis – Kenny G
21. Finale – Dionne Warwick/Natalie Cole/Melissa Etheridge/Carole King/Barry Manilow/Kenny G/Deborah Cox/Monica/Next/Westlife/David Foster.
The DVD
VIDEO/AUDIO: The presentation is offered in 2.0 and Dolby Digital 5.1; the 5.1 audio is listenable but doesn't compare to many of the concert recordings that I've reviewed in the past. The audio has a slightly flat quality, not sounding thin or hollow, but lacking a certain warmth and range. There's not much to the surround use, with the exception of occasional crowd cheering and clapping. Both music and vocals come through clearly, with no problems at all.
The video quality of the full-frame image is quite good, and likely better than it was during the broadcast by NBC. Sharpness and detail remain good, and clarity is strong as well. Colors remain pleasant and don't show any signs of problems. All in all, definitely an enjoyable presentation.
MENUS:: Menus are not animated, but provide music from the show in the background. Images are generally related to the show, and the menus are quite easy to navigate. Not as impressive as what Image Entertainment has able to do with the menus on their concert titles(such as the recent "Frampton: Live In Detroit"), but this is adequate.
EXTRAS:: There's even a handful of nice extras, including 4 performances that were not seen on the broadcast - Santana("Da Le Yaleo"), Dionne Warwick and Barry Manilow("I'll Never Love This Music Again"), Monica("For You I Will"), Deborah Cox("Nobody's Supposed To Be Here"). There's also short clips of what went on backstage and on the red carpet as the stars went in.
Final Thoughts: Although the audio isn't quite what I'd expected, the performances offered(and there's quite a lot of them in the concert's 90 minutes) are very good and the image quality is likely better than the broadcast.
Now here's something interesting. BMG has offered the complete Arista 25th Anniversary celebration on DVD. The program originally aired on NBC, and now viewers can watch an uncut version of the show. This is something that really could be used more often, possibly offering the Oscar presentations on disc. Anyways, in this concert we get to hear from many of Arista Records's biggest artists from their last 25 years. Artists include Toni Braxton, Puff Daddy, Santana, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin and more. Puff Daddy's performance is especially good, with "Mo Money Mo Problems" and an emotional "I'll Be Missing You". Patti Smith and Sarah McLachlan also combine for an excellent version of "Because The Night".
There's quite a lot of good music offered during this program, and it's nice to see that a company realizes that shows like this could make for a good DVD presentation. The show runs about 90 minutes.
Chapters:
1. Jay Leno Introduction.
2. Maria Maria – Santana
3. Smooth – Santana
4. Medley: Mandy/Can't Smile Without You/Copacabana/Even Now/Ready To Take A Chance Again/It's A Miracle/Daybreak/This One's For You/I Write The songs – Barry Manilow.
5. Arista's #1 Hits (1975-1980) – Bay City Rollers/Melissa Manchester/Eric Carmen/Dionne Warwick.
6. Why – Annie Leenox
7. My Maria – Brooks & Dunn
8. Chattahoochee – Alan Jackson
9. Arista's #1 Hits (1981-1985) – Air Supply/Thompson Twins/The Kinks/Ray Parker Jr.
10. Medley: I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)/It Hurts Like Hell/Freeway Of Love (with Boys To Men) – Aretha Franklin.
11. Arista's Greatest Hits (1986-1990) – Carly Simon/Grateful Dead/Lisa Stansfield/Snap.
12. Angel – Sarah Mclachlan
13. Arista's #1 Hits (1991-1995) – Ace of Base/Annie Lennox/Real McCoy.
14. Mo' Money Mo' Problems – Puff Daddy
15. I'll Be Missing You (with Faith Evans & 112) – Puff Daddy.
16. Swear It Again/Summer Girls/Too Close/For You I Will/Nobody's Supposed To Be Here" –Westlife/LFO/Next/Monica/Deborah Cox
17. Un-Break My Heart – Toni Braxton
18. Because The Night – Patti Smith
19. Medley: I Wanna Dance With Somebody/How Will I Know/I Believe In You And Me/I will Always Love You/My Love Is You Love – Whitney Houston
20. Tribute to Clive Davis – Kenny G
21. Finale – Dionne Warwick/Natalie Cole/Melissa Etheridge/Carole King/Barry Manilow/Kenny G/Deborah Cox/Monica/Next/Westlife/David Foster.
The DVD
VIDEO/AUDIO: The presentation is offered in 2.0 and Dolby Digital 5.1; the 5.1 audio is listenable but doesn't compare to many of the concert recordings that I've reviewed in the past. The audio has a slightly flat quality, not sounding thin or hollow, but lacking a certain warmth and range. There's not much to the surround use, with the exception of occasional crowd cheering and clapping. Both music and vocals come through clearly, with no problems at all.
The video quality of the full-frame image is quite good, and likely better than it was during the broadcast by NBC. Sharpness and detail remain good, and clarity is strong as well. Colors remain pleasant and don't show any signs of problems. All in all, definitely an enjoyable presentation.
MENUS:: Menus are not animated, but provide music from the show in the background. Images are generally related to the show, and the menus are quite easy to navigate. Not as impressive as what Image Entertainment has able to do with the menus on their concert titles(such as the recent "Frampton: Live In Detroit"), but this is adequate.
EXTRAS:: There's even a handful of nice extras, including 4 performances that were not seen on the broadcast - Santana("Da Le Yaleo"), Dionne Warwick and Barry Manilow("I'll Never Love This Music Again"), Monica("For You I Will"), Deborah Cox("Nobody's Supposed To Be Here"). There's also short clips of what went on backstage and on the red carpet as the stars went in.
Final Thoughts: Although the audio isn't quite what I'd expected, the performances offered(and there's quite a lot of them in the concert's 90 minutes) are very good and the image quality is likely better than the broadcast.
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