Chris Botti in Boston review

[BACsader]

I ordered this Blu-ray from tower.com a couple of weeks ago and it came it yesterday, I also bought Quantum of Solace yesterday. Yesterday was a good Blu-ray watching day. Anyway back to the point. I got this Blu-ray having already seen a couple of the songs on youtube.com and had pretty high hopes. I was not disappointed.

The concert itself is one that I wish I could have been there to see. With names like Yo-Yo Ma, John Mayer, Katherine McPhee, Sting, Josh Groban, and Steven Tyler, this concert is unlike anything you have ever seen. I want to say that as a Trumpet player, I was never overly impressed with Chris. I watched his first Blu-ray, (Live with orchestra and guests) and while his tone is something unlike I have ever heard (in a good way) his ability to play the trumpet never really impressed me. That was until yesterday. He played unbelievably for this Boston Concert. There are so many things I liked about this concert. The duet between Yo-Yo Ma and Botti is very powerful and beautiful. I think the biggest shocker for me was after Steven Tyler comes out and sings Cryin', yes, a rock song with the Boston Pops, he sings Smile, what I thought was one of the most touching songs I have ever listened to in my life. He really shows something that I am not used to seeing from a star like him. Vulnerability. There is really too much about this concert that I liked to go over everything that I liked. The only thing that stuck out to me that I didn't care for was The Look of Love sung by Sy Smith who is the cousin of the guitarist. I found her voice to be immature and she was scatting along with Chris Botti. Some might like her, but I definitely didn't. Overall a great Blu-ray and definitely worth the $20 including shipping from tower.com.

Video: On the whole, this is an excellent looking Blu-ray. It is extremely crisp looking, and the colors are very vibrant. There are a few exceptions, however. Anytime the Blu-ray shows the crowd, there is a haze to the picture, which is to be expected because of the fact that there is not too much lighting in the audience during the actual concert. There are a few shots of Chris Botti up on stage that really just looked slightly out of focus, but, I only noticed this at the beginning of the Blu-ray. One thing that really annoyed me is they put way too much time into this Blu-ray for meaningless stuff. For example, there is a lot of slow motion that really just doesn't have any business being in a Concert Blu. Overall a very good looking Blu-ray with a few minor quirks.

Audio: This is the big one. Presented in DolbyTrue HD 7.1 at 96khz/24bit, this is one excellent sounding Blu-ray. I felt this Blu did an excellent job of capturing the sound of this hall. The sound is big, and it sounds as if you are sitting about halfway back in the audience. The Boston Pops are recorded extremely well and never sound overpowering to the main ensemble on the front of the stage. Some people, like with his last Blu-ray, might complain that the dynamic range is lacking. That is not the case. This Blu-ray accurately portrays what this concert hall would sound like. The sound is huge, and extremely natural sounding. At no point did I feel the need to grab the remote and lower or raise the volume. Except with a minor problem I am having with my PS3. Overall a great Blu-ray with respect to audio.

Extras: There is about 40-45 minutes of extras and it is pretty good. I won't spoil anything but there is something that after you watch the concert is pretty surprising in the behind the scenes. Definitely check it out if you get this Blu.

Overall this is now one of my new favorite Blu-rays and I can't wait to watch it many more times.