Customer Reviews

Ray Charles Celebrates: A Gospel Christmas w/Voices of Jubilation - Deluxe Edition (DVD/CD)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This was beyond belief from the forced commercial at the beginning to the lousy production values and poor Ray looks and acts ill.
Avoid.

This DVD is horrible right from the beginning. When you first pop the disc in it FORCES you to watch a 2 minute commercial for the cheap-o company that produced this disc. You can't skip it or even fast forward through it.
Finally, when you can play the concert, you have to put up with the Voices of Jubilation singing some gospel songs -- w/ no Ray in sight -- for about 15 minutes. Then Ray FINALLY comes out, sings a few songs, stands up and bounces a few times, and then is led off stage. Now we get to put up with the VOJ again for another 15 minutes.
By then, I turned the DVD off and sold it to a record store that buys used discs. I should have been tipped off when the accompanying CD that comes with this only has 10 songs on it -- all by Ray. On the DVD, there are over 20 songs listed. So more than half the songs are NOT even sung by Ray Charles. Look, Ray Charles SOUNDS great but this concert is definitely not worth the price.
The one thing that kept me watching longer than I should have, though, was -- with the entire choir, all African American, decked out in their tribal African garb -- when the camera showed crowd shots it was all a bunch of country bumpkin looking middle aged white folks clapping and dancing (out of rhythm!) to the music.
Now THAT was entertaining.
The rest of the concert/DVD? Not so much.
Don't waste your money on this and, instead, get "O Genio".

I thought this two-disc set was just great. I would've paid the same price for either disc alone, but I especially like the cd. The Voices of Jubilation are excellent, a multi-racial gospel choir with talent to burn. I wish they hadn't done "From a Distance" (bad memories of Bette Midler), but otherwise they tear it up. As for Brother Ray, well, he delivers great versions of "Little Drummer Boy", "Silent Night", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" among others.

All in all, unbeatable holiday-season entertainment. Crank it up and clap and sing along.

I was at this concert, and it was the most amazing one I had and have ever been to. I was in the 8th row almost in the middle. If you are looking for a great concert to watch, this is definately the one!!

It's true that about half of the 90 minute concert is the Voices of Jubilation choir on their own, the other half is led by Ray Charles. I would've liked more Ray, but to hear the other review tell it you'd think he only made a cameo appearance!

The Voices of Jubilation choir is very good, I only wish their numbers had been more traditional Christmas songs (there are a number of non-holiday gospel tunes). The packaging states this was Ray Charles' final video-recorded performance, if that's true that makes it even more worth seeing.

For the price, this is a very worthy Christmas set. You get an hour and a half concert, with excellent picture quality and 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. And on top of it, a CD that consists of all of Ray Charles numbers from the concert. Very generous if you ask me. This will be a part of my yearly Christmas tradition (along with Ray Charles' excellent 1985 "Spirit of Christmas" cd).

This deluxe set includes the audio cd in addition to the DVD.

I really respect and enjoy the music of Ray Charles so I hate to give this a somewhat low rating, but the overall quality of the DVD production is disappointing. If you don't dig the gospel roots from which Ray Charles sprouted, then you may not like this DVD at all. In addition, the "forced" commercials in the beginning are so annoying that the frustration with this DVD begins even before the actual concert starts.

Much of the beginning of this concert is primarily the Voices of Jubilation performing spirit filled selections of praise and worship. If you enjoy Ray Charles AND gospel music (which I do), then there is some redeeming grace(no pun intended). If Ray Charles wasn't such a musical legend and I didn't like gospel music, I might've rated this DVD with only 1 star.

Once the concert begins, the Voices of Jubilation play for quite some time before Ray Charles finally comes out to perform. After singing a few Christmas songs he then takes another long break before returning again, this time thankfully, for a longer set and ultimately, a heartwarming encore of "America the Beautiful". Despite his obvious ailing, his strong spirit seems to allows him to smile and jam on his piano throughout.

In this performance, Ray brings his own personal jazzy, blues interpretations to some popular Christmas songs and adds a few inspirational songs of praise and worship. Don't expect to hear "Hit the Road Jack" or ""Georgia" or many of the others which made him famous. The Voices of Jubilation, however, do a good job of keeping the spirit moving in between Ray's sets and throughout the duration of the DVD.

I had the incredible honor of being a part of this show. It was held at the Resch Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin on December 8th, 2002.

The producers of the show wanted to include members of the local community, as well as the Green Bay Boys and Girls choirs as part of the show. I was selected to be a member of the local community choir, and it was an AWESOME experience!

The Voices of Jubilation Choir is an amazing group of musicians, and of course, Ray Charles was just incredible.

It was an incredible honor to be on stage with Ray Charles. You will be glad you purchased this DVD.

I really respect and enjoy the music of Ray Charles so I hate to give this a somewhat low rating, but the overall quality of the production is disappointing. If you don't dig the gospel roots from which Ray Charles sprouted, then you may not like this DVD at all. In addition, the "forced" commercials in the beginning are so annoying that the frustration with this DVD begins even before the actual concert starts.

Much of the beginning of this concert is primarily the Voices of Jubilation performing spirit filled selections of praise and worship. If you enjoy Ray Charles AND gospel music (which I do), then there is some redeeming grace(no pun intended). If Ray Charles wasn't such a musical legend and I didn't like gospel music, I might've rated this DVD with only 1 star.

Once the concert begins, the Voices of Jubilation play for quite some time before Ray Charles finally comes out to perform. After singing a few Christmas songs he then takes another long break before returning again, this time thankfully, for a longer set and ultimately, a heartwarming encore of "America the Beautiful". Despite his obvious ailing, his strong spirit seems to allows him to smile and jam on his piano throughout.

In this performance, Ray brings his own personal jazzy, blues interpretations to some popular Christmas songs and adds a few inspirational songs of praise and worship. Don't expect to hear "Hit the Road Jack" or ""Georgia" or many of the others which made him famous. The Voices of Jubilation, however, do a good job of keeping the spirit moving in between Ray's sets and throughout the duration of the DVD.

1. All their standard songs were changed to what THEY thought the ALL WHITE AUDIENCE would want. If they sang their normal songs, they would have been great- but they had to be RACISTS. To be RACISTS they held their notes until their voices cracked. They sang louder until they were yelling- yelling to be yelling, not praising. For this reason they were lying- pretending to be praising but were realing singing to suit their own racist minds to please the all-white audience.
2. Ray Charles kept on forgeting his lines. At one point he was taken off the stage unexpectingly. Ray Charles should have paid everybody in there to have put up with him. He demanded top money when he was good- now he should give back when he is terrible. Fair is Fair.

THIS DVD FEATURES SOME FANTASTIC SONGS AND SOME FANTASTIC MUSICIANS AND SINGERS.
IT IS VERY TOUCHING AND IT PUTS YOU IN THE MOOD FOR THE SEASON.
THE SOUND IS FORMATTED IN 5.1 AND IT SOUNDS VERY GOOD.
IT IS BOTH ENTERTAINING AND MOVING AS WELL, REMINDING US WHAT THE "TRUE" MEANING OF CHRISTMAS REALLY IS.
RAY CHARLES RETURNS TO HIS GOSPEL ROOTS IN GRAND STYLE.
ENJOY!!!