I love a good argument. In fact, I argue for a living. In addition to the usual subjects that are great fodder for argument and debate is music. Do you like Jazz, Rock, hip-hop, etc.? The way I look at it, there are just two types of music. Good and bad which is always a matter of personal preference.  One of the signs you are experiencing some great music is when you lose control over one of your feet, which begins to tap seemingly on its own to the beat of the music. Once your head begins to swing from side to side, you have hit pay dirt as you are listing not only to good music but great music.

Which brings us to the B.B. King Live at Montreux from the folks at eagle Rock Entertainment. Not only does this music start your foot a tappin’ and your head a swaying, but makes you want to get up and dance.

Concert

As you can tell from the intro to this review, I loved the music on this release. B.B. King is one of the greatest Blues guitarists ever. Even though he was 68 years old when this concert performance was recorded, he was on the top of his game. This release contains of 17 songs recorded in 1993 at Montreux as well as an additional 3 at a performance at Montreux in 2006 when B.B. King was 80. Both sets are exceptional.

The tracks recorded in 1983 consist of Fanfare, Six Pack, Two I Shoot Blues, Let the Good Times Roll, When it All Comes Down (I’ll STill Be Around), Chains of Love, Caldonia, All Over Again, Since I Met You Baby, Playing With My Friends, Ain’t Nobody Home, Why I Sing the Blues, Blues Man, Rock Me Baby, Please Accept My Love and his signature piece, The Thrill is Gone. The 2006 bonus tracks include Why I Sing the Blues, When Love Comes to Town and Guess Who.

The music on this release is hard driving Blues at its best, featuring excellent musicianship, performances and songs. When it comes to the music on this release, there is nothing not to like. This is incredible stuff. I have never seen B.B. KIng Live and it was a thrill to be able to experience these performances at home in the quality they are presented here, both in terms of performance as well as sonics. If you are a fan of the Blues and B.B. KIng, you owe it to yourself to check out this release. I know I am glad I have the opportunity to do so. Great stuff.

Video

The concert footage was recorded in 1993 in high definition video. This is not a filmed performance transferred to high definition video. I can only assume that is was recorded using the Japanese analog high def format that was rolled out in the very early 1990′s. For the most part, this is a very nice looking release and looks much better than the previously reviewed Diana Krall Live in Rio release from Eagle Rock, with not even a hint of video noise present with much better stage lighting.

The video here features a nice and natural looking color palette with excellent shadow detail and stable although not exactly deep black levels. Overall detail is good but not great and falls a good bit short of the very best looking high def concerts I have seen, the best of which is the K.D. Lang Live in London release which is on the review queue. In fact, the 2006 concert footage looks appreciably better than the 1993 footage, having the detail, clarity, sharpness and inky blacks that the 1993 footage lacks and warrants  a 4.5 score in comparison to the 4 star score for the 1993 footage.

My biggest issue with the 1993 footage is that it is soft compared to more recent high def video efforts. However, overall, given the age of the concert footage, the video presentation on the 1993 footage is more than acceptable and overall exceeded my expectations. If you are a fan of the Blues and B.B. King in particular, you will be more than happy with the video presentation on this release.

Audio

Other than the three caveats noted below, this is an excellent audio presentation. All three of the audio encodes on this release are very good with the DTS HD Master Audio being the clear winner over the LCPM stereo and Dolby Digital tracks. The overall fidelity of the sound on the lossless track is very good with excellent transparency and imaging. The placement of the instruments in the sound field is spot on, with the placement of each instrument in the sound field corresponding exactly with the location of those instruments on screen.

The vocal track is placed front and center on top of the remainder of the recording. The sound of Lucille, B.B. King’s guitar sounds fantastic and is placed just under his vocals in the sound field. Soundstaging is excellent as is the sense of depth and air between the various instruments. Even when the entire band is cooking, you can follow each instrument clearly as none of the instruments get lost in the sound mix. I particularly enjoyed the sound of the Hammond B-3 here. I don’t think there is a better sounding electric instrument than the B-3 and its very organic sound is captured here beautifully as is the rhythmic drive of the band. My main quibble with the audio is that it is a tad bright, at reference levels,  having an overly hot top end. With the exception of the 2006 tracks, I would have preferred a tad more bass although I wouldn’t describe the bass response here as being weak by any means.

The bass response on the 2006 tracks is deeper and tighter than that on the 1993 tracks. I would have also preferred that the surrounds be limited to crowd noise and ambiance as the instruments bleed too much into the surround channels for my taste, although not obnoxiously so. The sound mix places you right in the front row of the crowd and really gets your foot tapping, which is the sign that you are enjoying some really great music.

Special Features

Other than the three 2006 bonus tracks, there are no extras included with this release. Even at the 80 years of age, B.B. King can still play a mean guitar, and cranks out three great tunes. I am not really sure that I would classify the three 2006 tracks as extras as we usually thinks of extras on home video releases, hence my overall score. They are three great performances and the score provided is not a verdict on the quality of those three performances, just on the lack of extras such as interviews and the history of the Montreux Jazz festival which I would have liked to have seen included.

Final Thoughts

If you love the Blues and B.B. King in particular, you will really enjoy this release. I know I sure did. Highly recommended.