The Jazz Channel Presents Lou Rawls (BET on Jazz)

Rating:
Summary: "Lou Rawls great... sound balance average"
Review: Anyone who loves Lou Rawls - well it's all here. I bought this DVD from amazon from Australia as a real Lou Rawls fan having owned some of his top recordings for years. I am a great fan of his "VOICE" but I sadly feel his voice is not forward enough in the sound balance. The back up group are all there in detail but Lou's voice gets drowned at times and seems to have been recorded from a remote mike... However still a good atmosphere etc and a close glimpse of the man..

Rating:
Summary: A Very Smooth Performance...
Review: Now I know why Lou Rawls was once the highest paid black performers of all time and was so in demand .Check out his voice it is so true to his recodings,faultless.How many of todays performers sound this good Live.You really don't want this Dvd to end there is a lot more he could have performed and I hope this will not be his last show on DVD. His rendition of Wonderful World alone is worth the price of the disk. Lou is assisted by some great musicians and a Big Band and is quite jazzy in parts. I consider this Dvd is an essential buy.Keep up the good work BET for Jazz.

Rating:
Summary: Lou Rawls a true great!
Review: Sam Graham writing the editorial review gives his reasons for why Lou Rawls isn't his first choice when defining what a great singer is, I think this review says more about the critic than it does about Lou Rawls! Versatility Rawls has in abundance and far from being the hindrance that Sam Graham thinks I would argue that apart from his wonderful & distintive voice, it is his versatility that makes him unique.
Try to think of another singer past or present who like Rawls could if he so wished perform a Blues night, a R&B, Soul, Disco night, a Jazz night be it fronting a swinging big band or with just a small combo or his first love Gospel. Rawls can do all of these genres with total authenticity & authority.
The ridiculous lounge lizard statement only confirms the critics shortcomings. The easiest musical route for Rawls to have taken & one which both Capital & MGM records both tried to push him into was that of a popular crooner. All his career, especially recording wise, has been a balance of new & old but always done with sophistictation & style. Would the critic I wonder have ever described Frank Sinatra in such derogatory terms & yet Frank always sang his hits as well as his classics. Strangers in the Night or the ultimate lounge song My Way, are we talking schlocky fare or what?
What Rawls shares with the truly great singers besides the most distinctive & arguebly best voice of the past 40 years or so is swing & class, add sophistication & this is what you get in abundance in this DVD.
You get a glimpse of Rawls in all his guise's, Gospel as his congregation, 'audience' join him in the call & response of Sam Cook's 'Bring it on home'. Blues with 'Stormy Monday', 'Room with a view', 'Tobacco Road'. R&B with 'Your good thing', 'Let me be good to you', 'Love is a hurting thing'. Soul/Disco hits 'Natural Man', 'Lady Love', 'See you when I get there' & of course 'You'll never find'. The jazz theme runs throughout the show with a truly magnificent band with some great solo's & with which Rawls acknowledges his heritage with 'Since I met you baby' & a version of 'Wonderfull World' that would have Mr Armstrong reaching for his horn & beaming in appreciation!
Buy, see & enjoy a truly great singer in his consummate prime.