Elly Roberts reviews
Norah Jones & The Handsome Band: Live in 2004
Distributed by
Parlophone/Blue Note Records
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 5997929
- Running time: 123 minutes
- Year: 2004
- Pressing: 2004
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Widescreen: 1.78:1
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £17.99
- Rating: 6/10
- Booklet: Credits and colour photographs
- Extras: Bonus Out-take tracks, Music Videos, Mini-documentaries
Put your feet up and enjoy a relaxing evening in the presence of Norah Jones and her guests.
She’s come a long way since her debut album Come Away With Me in 2001.
Her quadruple platinum follow-up, Feels Like Home, showed greater writing
skills, and was re-released in September with a DVD showing snippets of her
performing in Teatro Nuevo Alcala, Madrid in March. This DVD builds on that,
proving she’s not only grown in confidence, but also in stature.
Filmed at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville Texas on 8th & 9th August 2004,
she dips into tracks from both best-selling albums. Demure songbird Jones is
responsible for opening the flood gates of contemporary Jazz artists having a
flourishing career like Katie Melua, and Jamie Cullum, who soon followed in
her footsteps.
Though not strictly Jazz, she blends it with a unique fusion of Country music
and lightweight ballads. Backed by her superb and multi-talented Handsome
Band, they add some real beef the studio recordings. You could say – why not
just listen to the CD’s? Then you would miss out on Miss Jones really coming
alive as a blossoming performer, from rehearsal takes, concert footage to
working with Dolly Parton.
Musical highlights include the introduction of Dolly, as she almost steals the
show on Creepin’ In - a real country blast. Friend Richard Julian joins
her in a great cover of John Prine’s That’s The Way That The World Goes Round,
then Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, both Country specialists, form a brilliant
trio with Jones on the Townes Van Zandt classic Loretta.
The bonus out-take tracks are from rehearsal sessions and concert, which I
found annoying. Why take them out and the put them in such a disjointed format?
Mini-documentaries – 24 Hours on the Handsome Bus gives us an insight
to life on the road and the logistical setting up for a gig: lights, sound etc.
Robbie and Adam’s Guitar Tour is nothing more than the two musicians
talking about their own instruments.
The full list of tracks included are :
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.
