Customer Reviews

Roy Orbison - A Black & White Night (DTS)

5 star:		(304)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

When Springsteen wrote and created his Born To Run album he explained to critics that he wanted "to have an album with lyrics like Dylan, singing like Roy Orbison, and a sound like Phil Spector." If you're 25 or older and you can only give your children one snapshot of popular music, circa '60- '90, buy them a copy of this tape. Bonnie Raitt, Jennifer Warnes, k.d. lang, John David Souther, Jackson Brown and Steven Soules sing backing vocals. Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen and T-Bone Burnett, among others,play instrumental second fiddles. And they all do it for The Man. Roy Orbison. The architect of the symphonic, Ravel-like love song. The singer of singers. Just weeks before he died he played a concert in Boston and the local critic said, (I paraphrase) "he repeated that last line, in his falsetto voice, over and over and over as if to say, 'I'm still here and can do it...anytime.'" The videotape is revelatory. Stephen Burton (gtr) shows, over and over again, why he is to studio musicians and especially to guitar players, an icon non-pareil. He is Chet Atkins, Django Reinhardt, Bucky Pizzarelli, all in one. The tape does a tidy review of Orbison's hits. More remarkable than the performance of those hits is the reverential looks and obvious excitment of Springsteen, Costello, lang, Raitt, Browne, etc. as they accompany him on his tour of transistor radio hits. Forget the Wilbury's. This is Roy's night. Deservedly. Roy knew how to constrain all that emotion behind his words until he was ready to release it. In the last moments of the tape Roy sings "Pretty Woman" and it opens up into a jam-for-all. Noteworthy is how Springsteen acquits himself in a mano a' mano guitar trade with Burton. First they trade twelve bar solos, then they raise the stakes and trade four bar exchanges. Springsteen shows that all those hours spent in his bedroom paid off, ("..well I got me a guitar and I learned how to make it talk...") not topping Burton but filing a tasty, even nasty, testament of his own licks and sources. Perhaps most easily, and unjustly, overlooked in a star studded vid like this is Elvis Costello who plays, no, contributes in a huge way, turns as a harp (harmonica) player, guitar player, singer and pianist. But instrumentally, Burton, Springsteen and Alex Tutt (long-time Orbison drummer) truly set themselves apart. And...It's a real hoot to see k.d. lang and Bonnie Raitt and Jennifer Warnes doing "steps" and singing "sha la la la" and "doo wah doo wah doo wah" and obviously loving it. It is a video to love. And that doesn't even begin to address Orbison's lyrics: "A candy colored clown they call the sandman; tiptoes to my room every night; just to sprinkle star dust and to whisper: "go to sleep, everything is alright." Dylan, Springsteen, Orbison, ..... Quick. Name three more lyricists of that stratum. Buy the tape. Re-learn what was good and true (men "do" cry") about popular music in the sixties and the seventies.

The DVD release of this one *IS* the legacy of Roy Orbison.

A number of reviewers comment on the absolutely spectacular 5.1 and DTS mixes for this release and I couldn't agree more....this is not only arguably the best DVD yet released, the remix was done from 1987 tapes and really shows why it is worth considering re-buying your favorite music when remixes are released.

Regarding the black and white format.....it is sharp and clear with excellent video mixes.....you are usually on the right person at the right time throughout and the fact that it was shot at LA's Coconut Grove makes it even better.

And now the music....ah, the music....of coure it has Pretty Woman, Cryin', Dream Baby. But what is spectacular is Roy's delivery of Blue Bayou, the sailing lyric in It's Over, the rhythm section on Candy Man, the fun in redoing his 1st hit from Sun Studios...Ooby Dooby...there isn't a track on this one that won't find a special place in your heart.

It simply cannot be said any other way.....this is what Roy was always all about....and you've got Springsteen, Lang, Souther, Riatt, T-Bone, Costello, Browne......all to vouch for it!

On September 30th, 1987, the stars were in alignment, and an incredible concert took place. Thankfully, they filmed and recorded it. This DVD features not only an amazingly warm and relaxed performance by Roy, but also includes a remixed SACD soundtrack of the film. If you already have the "Black & White Night" CD (first issue) you may want to pick this up anyway. The sound mix is crystal clear. I think there were at least three acoustic guitars being played that night, and on this reissue, they positively shimmer! The other differences from past issues of this concert on disc or video are the inclusion of "Claudette", restored to its proper place in the running order, and on the SACD, "Blue Angel" is added on as a bonus track.
This package is really worth the price. I paid no more than I would for an average new DVD, so the SACD is really a bonus. If you're a fan of the great Mr. Orbison, I think you'll watch this one over and over.

Others have already done justice to the incredible ensemble of talented musicians who jammed with Roy for this "exclusive" (Cinemax) concert performance, before a celebrity/VIP audience in "Black & White Night" in September, 1987.

So I will make my comments more technical in nature. First the video is 4:3 full-screen, even though the concert was shot on film, it was for exclusive presentation on Cinemax cable. If you have a home theater system with a comprehensive audio setup, you will be extremely pleased with the quality of this production. The B&W film transfer and DVD mastering is excellent with a perfect balance of digital detail and B&W grain.

The audio mix and digital mastering is also exceptional. I tested the DS5.1 on a few tracks and it was certainly okay. But what really stands out is the DTS6.1 which is fabulous!! They did a great job.

If you enjoy really good concert DVDs (there aren't that many), and have a system to do them justice, then Roy Orbison B&W Night will knock your socks off. You can watch/listen over and over and over. With the classic songs and the all-star ensemble, it's difficult to imagine anyone who wouldn't enjoy this concert.

(System is a Yamaha RX-V3000 with a 10 speaker configuration, an Epson EMP-7600 2200 lumens front projection setup with a 162" screen. It's a pretty amazing system ... if something isn't really good enough, it will basically be unwatchable and unlistenable. On the other hand, with the B&W Night concert DVD with its high resolution and super DTS mix, you can "fall into" this concert, just as if you were in the audience).

What fun! This is a great DVD sure to be a favorite in your collection. Enjoy!!

(After nearly two days of CNN etc, tonight I watched this DVD twice, with Roy and his pals having fun and making great music ... a strong and much needed dose of American inspiration, creativity and musical talent in this very somber week of September 11, 2001).

I have the DVD and also the Blu-ray version of this show.

I like the show, is a legacy beauty to keep forever, however:

a) The DVD version has bonus materials with the bios of all the participant musicians, why the Blu-ray version, with much larger capacity that the DVD format, did not include such material?

b) There was at least one camera used for the takes for the left angle of the stage that produced defective takes consistently throughout the show. The edges of all faces and bodies were surrounded by a halo and even appeared out of focus. I must say that I am using quality equipment on a 135-inch projection screen, which made the problem very noticeable.

The other cameras seemed accurate, but the takes of the camera in question were about 25% of the entire show so it made the Blu-ray disc disappointing in regard to image quality.

The above is my personal opinion.

Rodolfo La Maestra
Senior Technical Director
www.HDTVmagazine.com

Taking aside that this concert is a tribute to a rock'n'roll legend and that the ensemble that plays with him is a dream team of pop and rock stars, I should also praise the outstanding B&W video quality, which gives this disc a timeless look. Moreover, this gem has superb audio quality and includes the lyrics, if you press the subtitle function. The band (B. Springsteen, Elvis Costello, James Burton, Alex Acuna, Jackson Brown, Ronnie Tutt, T-Bone Burnett, Tom Waits et al. Nuff said?), the back up singers (Bonnie Raitt, K.D.Lang and Jennifer Warnes) and the director are having a lot of fun sharing the stage with this unique singer/composer who can whisper, in an almost operatic way his heart- breaking songs and still make us feel his delivery as strong as any modern day rocker. A great contributing factor for the beauty of this concert is that all the musicians and singers involved in this tribute let Orbison be the star and act as if they were a professional band hired for the ocassion, although it's inevitable to feel the worship attitude that everybody has here and that adds very well to the result. Buy this!

I first saw this special on Cinemax in 1988 and loved it then. A few years ago I finally purchased the compact disc and love it as much as I remembered it. Finally, I couldn't resist any longer and purchased the DVD which has one additional song (Claudette), which is unfortunately not on the CD.

I could easily recommend this DVD and/or CD to anyone who loves music. The backbone of the stage personnel features Elvis Presley's incomparable TCB Band, James Burton, Jerry Scheff, Ronnie Tutt and Glenn D. Hardin. Roy's other backup musicians include an all-star cast including Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and others. One thing I love is that everyone on stage is clearly having a GREAT time. Roy's vocals are studio quality, every song sounds great.

The DVD extras include bio's of all the musicians, a scrapbook of photos taken during rehearsals and the show, and the audio can be listened to in DTS Digital Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround or Dolby Digital Stereo.

If you are pondering rather or not to get this DVD or CD, I suggest you do so, I'm certain you will love it.

I am a member of that star-crossed generation that was 15 years-old when they saw "A Hard Day's Night." The raw power of the Beatles and their music defined "cool" for me and started me on the bumpy road to being a bar band musician. Little did I know at the time that ground zero for 'cool' was a wonderful artist who was already up and running with a voice from God and beautiful, almost cinematic songs. Roy Orbison simply strapped on a guitar, stood there in front of a microphone and....sang. That was all he had to do to bring down the house, and I did not realize that fact until the first time I watched the "Black and White" concert filmed at the Coconut Grove. Goosebumps and tears flowed freely for me, for I had never seen or heard a more shatteringly emotional body of music. I grinned alot, too, as master Telecaster jockey James Burton traded licks with a surprisingly good Bruce Springsteen, and even Roy himself bent the strings of his Gibson with the essence of 'twang'. The gals singing backup were simply the very best singers in the business--the killer crew of Ms. Raitt, Warner and Lang...If I could have been up there playing with Roy on that stage, in that company of artists, 30 years of bar band gigs would finally have some meaning. I feel that God granted Roy this performance for all of us to see and hear him for what he truly was--a legend and an icon for an era when music was still really good, and 'cool' did not require on-stage histronics, so-called alternate life-styles and stupid clothes.

We saw part of this dvd at a party at friends house last week and bought it from Amazon. We just watched it all at home tonight. Fantastic! I was never 'into' Orbison in my youth when he was first popular, but after watching this cd I have to recognize him as one of the greatest. What an amazing, unusual, voice. You feel as if it is going to 'crack' at any moment from those long, high notes, but never does--it's always perfectly controlled. As if Orbison doing Orbison's great repertoire wasn't enough, the "Friends" doing backup for Orbison doing all his great songs are, among others: a young Bruce Springsteen [looking star struck the whole night b/c he was playing with Orbison], Jackson Brown, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, with Bonnie Raitt, k.d. Laing, and Jennifer Warnes doing the female backup vocals. The Orbison/Springseen duo on "Sweet Dreams" alone would be worth the price of the album but all the songs are great. Play it in SurroundSound if you have it--can't beat it.

Simply put, a perfect concert DVD. I could blabber on and on about each title on the disc and how expertly crafted Roy Orbison's classic music is, but if you are considering this DVD for purchase you no doubt already know about the songs. What stands out next would be the live re-interpretation of Roy's music featuring an all-star supporting band and vocalists. The song arrangements and musical scoring are perfect. Perfect with the exception of one of the concerts lighter moments; an inpromtu keyboard "solo" by Tom Waits in the song "Ooby Dooby" that goes a little of base, which is followed by the amused glances of the other members of the ensemble. Technically the DVD is a total hit. The DTS 5.1 surround is awesome. The mix is top notch and as a listener you are missing nothing. The classic black and white film in which the concert was shot is a very nice touch, and I can't imagine the show presented any other way. But it is Roy Orbison's Vocal performance that will lead you to near tears...and I mean that. I get chills every time I listen to and watch this DVD. I shake my head at the range he displays and wonder in amazement how this man did it. We should all feel grateful that we were left with this testament of Roy Orbison's legacy. The world lost Roy Orbison not long after this performance, and it is a performance that defines Roy Orbison.