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Bryan Ferry in Concert (Live in Paris at Le Grand Rex, March 2000)

Bryan Ferry in Concert (Live in Paris at Le Grand Rex, March 2000)

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $17.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: performance art
Review: a truly wonderful performance by one of the greats, who through innovation and vision manages to constantly entertain in so many ways.

The musicians on this tour and the song selections are magical, blending modern with classic in powerful ways.

Ferry brings so much musical joy to the world.

Bravo!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Brian Ferry in Concert by Mick OD
Review: Brian Ferry ROCKS!
This is the best live performance DVD I have seen.
Absolutely beautiful music performed by top notch musicians.
Brian Ferry is the most amazing singer/writer/performer.
Thank you for making this performance available for us to see.
Mick OD

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Absolutely the BEST !!
Review: Bryan Ferry has absolutely the most incredible voice "in the world". This DVD is spectacular. You can watch it once, then, without a break, replay it over & over. His renditions of the OLDER songs literally takes you back to the time of their origin. By far, the GREATEST voice of all time!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Absolutely the BEST !!
Review: Bryan Ferry has absolutely the most incredible voice "in the world". This DVD is spectacular. You can watch it once, then, without a break, replay it over & over. His renditions of the OLDER songs literally takes you back to the time of their origin. By far, the GREATEST voice of all time!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This Concert Is On Fire!
Review: Bryan Ferry sizzles and croons while a thunderous orchestra backs him up! All renditions of classic Roxy Music and Ferry solo recordings find this man still a joy to behold. Sound quality is superb, the stage presence is felt without dropping a beat and clipping to audience participation. 60 Minutes of an old style cabaret dancehall concert Parisian Style! "More Than This" you ask, sure another hour would have been great, however, Viva Bryan Ferry Forever! You're elegance will live on long after the table candles are blown out.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I was totally blown away....
Review: I cannot believe how good this video is. The performance completely blew me away! This is one of the best perfomances I have ever seen on video. The musicians Mr. Ferry has in this performance are amazing. I absolutely love the way he uses the strings - 2 violins, viola and cello. There is one song where the strings are used to create bird-like sounds and the effect is stunning. I have always loved Mr. Ferry's voice but seeing and hearing him perform with an orchestral group is incredible.

The performance of Casanova is worth the price of the DVD. Don't wait, order this now.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Ferry, Ferry Good
Review: I had the great pleasure of catching this tour in the USA when Bryan Ferry and these musicians played the Paramount Theatre in Oakland. (...) The setting was therefore incredible, and somehow I suspect that that aspect (the stage and venue), had been a deliberate choice. That evening's performance was a magical, and dare I say an adult, sophisticated rock and soul experience. Yet, like this DVD, it rocked very hard at times, summoning the power of the early Roxy songs and performances. The ballads and the rockers were perfectly paced in the show as they are in this DVD.

(...)

This DVD captures the live show with all it's emotion and subtle themes superbly. The Parisian stage was a very close approximation of the Paramount setting. For those suggesting that his voice and stage presence was somehow lame, I beg to differ. His stage persona has always been the antithisis of rock star bravado. I found his and the band's performance in this DVD to mesh quite well, just as it had at the show I saw. This band was flawless. The "glam" in the string section is something to behold not to mention their collective musicianship.

So little is available on DVD, fans should grab a copy for themselves and view it with the perspective of time and place I referred to. There is a feature in the DVD that is very useful, a discography of all his recorded output solo and with Roxy Music. Get the CD of "As Time goes By" as well as this DVD.

Bryan Ferry is a true artist, in that he understands how to bring so many elements together and form something completely new and unique with them. This is a very special opportunity to see an artist in his element.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Great band, weak front man
Review: I never thought I'd see a show where the best parts are the ones where the headliner can be neither seen nor heard, or where he is mercifully drowned out by the band; but unfortunately, such is the case here.

Bryan Ferry is easily the weakest performer in the show. He has a good orchestra, with strong soloists and interesting -- sometimes superb -- arrangements. Several of the instrumental passages are really strong; the keyboard player is good, and there's a fellow who seems to play clarinet and soprano sax who is also very good (except for one seriously sour-note-laden passage). There are some parts that really rock, and the bopping, leather-clad string-quartet chicks are entertaining in more ways than one (though their hair-dos are a bit bizarre -- a few of them look like they have straw growing out of their heads). The very idea of using a 30's-style orchestra, with minimal standard-rock-type guitar, bass, and drums, really makes this show stand out; it works very well. (The concert veers more toward rockers near the end, which is appropriate, and the guitar, bass, and drums are more prominent there.)

Bryan brings it all down though. He just doesn't have much singing ability, and he isn't up to the level of his band. 'Let's Stick Together' and 'Chance Meeting' are tracks where the contrast between Ferry and the band is particularly obvious, but you could in fact point to almost any track in the show. 'Casanova' too has a really good, original orchestral contribution, mostly in the sax and strings, but is weakened by another poor performance from the 'star'. His decision to perform Cole Porter and other 30's and 40's standards is a bad one; his attempts are simply embarrassing, and 'You Do Something to Me' is downright laughable -- by which I mean, I laughed, literally -- especially if you've heard someone like Laura Fygi perform it. But it has a really pleasant violin part. He's more at home in his own material, though even there he never lives up to the band. I found the performance of 'Avalon' to be particularly anemic, and the singing is just painful on 'Love Is the Drug' -- not only from Ferry but from the leatherettes as well. On 'The Only Face', Bryan takes to the piano, to no great effect, but at least in this case the instrumental performance is on a par with the talent-free vocal work. The rich, black rings around Ferry's apparently unopenable eyes, and his bizarre waving and gesticulating -- is it supposed to be dancing? -- not to mention his goofy chuckling every now and then, don't really help the overall impression, and in the end you just begin to feel sorry for him. There's a moment at the end of 'Let's Stick Together' where he looks like a cross between Michael Crawford in 'Some Mothers Do Have 'Em', and Richard Nixon.

As for the selections, the show is fairly short, and the standards, as I said, are a mistake. I was disappointed that he didn't do 'Slave to Love' and especially 'More Than This', which in my view is easily his best number; but upon reflection, maybe it's for the best.

On the plus side, the parts where he disappears and lets the band rip are substantial and frequent, and despite everything they make the show worth seeing, especially if you can pick it up cheap, as I did ($14.99). The real star of the show is the arranger, and if Ferry did that work, then he's found his calling, and should quit his day job -- soon. The concert's worth a few listens, especially if you're a Ferry/Roxy Music fan. Don't expect an unmitigated masterpiece though.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent for any Roxy Fan
Review: I was very interested to get a live performance DVD from one of my favorite musicians, Bryan Ferry. I wanted to hear the standards of "When Time Goes By" mixed with his Roxy and other solo efforts.

Bryan Ferry always had a great stage presence and the DVD showed his style and elegance. Always fashion conscience, his horn and rythym section were dressed in tuxes and string section comprised of beautiful women in black leather pants and they let their hair down at the end.

While I figured the standards and some Roxy tunes ("Oh Yeah", "Jealous Guy", "Avalon") would translate well into this orchestra format, I was unsure of other tunes listed on the jacket. But two songs from Country Life, "Out of the Blue" and "Casanova", were masterfully done. "Casanova" had a blusey-jazz-calypso beat to it that I can't get out of my head.

At the end, the climaxing songs ("Avalon", "Jealous Guy", "Let's Stick Together", and "Love is the Drug") bring down the house.

All in all this is a real treat for all Roxy Music fans. Bryan Ferry is at his best and the band and audience react to his incredible performance.

I highly recommend this DVD for all Roxy fans.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent for any Roxy Fan
Review: I was very interested to get a live performance DVD from one of my favorite musicians, Bryan Ferry. I wanted to hear the standards of "When Time Goes By" mixed with his Roxy and other solo efforts.

Bryan Ferry always had a great stage presence and the DVD showed his style and elegance. Always fashion conscience, his horn and rythym section were dressed in tuxes and string section comprised of beautiful women in black leather pants and they let their hair down at the end.

While I figured the standards and some Roxy tunes ("Oh Yeah", "Jealous Guy", "Avalon") would translate well into this orchestra format, I was unsure of other tunes listed on the jacket. But two songs from Country Life, "Out of the Blue" and "Casanova", were masterfully done. "Casanova" had a blusey-jazz-calypso beat to it that I can't get out of my head.

At the end, the climaxing songs ("Avalon", "Jealous Guy", "Let's Stick Together", and "Love is the Drug") bring down the house.

All in all this is a real treat for all Roxy Music fans. Bryan Ferry is at his best and the band and audience react to his incredible performance.

I highly recommend this DVD for all Roxy fans.


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