World Music

Celtic Thunder: The Show

For Celtic Thunder, Sharon Browne has teamed up with Grammy-nominated Irish songwriting and composing veteran Phil Coulter to produce a show that includes an eclectic mix of songs ranging from the traditional "Mountains of Mourne" and "Come By the Hills" to international hits such as "Brothers in Arms" and "Desperado," as well as original compositions by Coulter, who has written hits for Elvis Presley ("My Boy") and the Bay City Rollers, and performed with Van Morrison, Tom Jones, and the Rolling Stones. The ensemble numbers in Celtic Thunder reflect the power of the vocalists, who range in age from 14 to 40, and feature songs that celebrate a common Celtic heritage.

Celtic Woman - A New Journey: Live at Slane Castle, Ireland

Live concert performance featuring Celtic Woman.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: CELTIC WOMAN
Title: NEW JOURNEY
Street Release Date: 01/30/2007
Domestic
Genre: CELTIC

Celtic Woman, the PBS sensation, returns for 2007 in A New Journey: Live at Slane Castle, Ireland. Most of the elements return as well: vocalists Chloe, Meav, Lisa, and Orla; fiery fiddler Mairead; music director David Downes; chorus and orchestra; and the New Age-y Celtic and traditional music. New for this show is New Zealand vocalist Hayley Westenra, a picturesque outdoor location, and an almost entirely new song list. Chloe sings "The Prayer" (made famous by Josh Groban) and "Panis Angelicus"; Lisa covers "Caledonia," "The Blessing," and "The Voice"; Orla sings "Newgrange" and accompanies herself on harp for "Carrickfergus"; Meav sings "Dulaman"; Mairead plays "Granuaile's Dance" and "Shenandoah: The Pacific Slope"; and Hayley sings "Scarborough Fair" by herself and duets with Mairead (Handel's "Lascia Ch'io Pianga") and Meav ("The Last Rose of Summer"). Then of course the group performs together ("The Sky and the Dawn and the Sun," "Over the Rainbow," "Beyond the Sea," "At the Ceili," "Sing Out!", "Spanish Lady," "Mo Ghile Mear"). Encore performances from the original show are Enya's "Orinoco Flow," "Danny Boy," "Somewhere," and "You Raise Me Up." Hayley proves to be an excellent fit among the beautiful voices, and Lisa seems to emerge as the talent most deserving of attention, but overall the show lacks some of the fresh sparkle of the original. The song list isn't quite as strong, and some of the "primp and pose" choreography is just silly. But Celtic Woman is never less than charming, and at its best can be quite stirring. --David Horiuchi

The High Kings

FROM THE CREATORS AND PRODUCERS OF THE IRISH PHENOMENON CELTIC WOMAN COMES THE NEXT GENERATION IN IRISH BALLAD MUSIC, THE HIGH KINGS. Finbarr Clancy, Martin Furey, Brian Dunphy and Darren Holden - renowned vocalists and musicians - have come together to form the hottest Irish folk and ballad group to emerge since The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem electrified the worldwide folk revival of the 1960s. The musical producer is the highly acclaimed David Downes, who is the musical genius behind Celtic Woman and formerly the musical director of Riverdance. He brings intricate harmonies and driving rhythms to The High Kings songbook, giving them a freshness and sparkle that is infectious. A rousing TV special was filmed in Dublin and is available on DVD (The High Kings: Live in Dublin).

Buena Vista Social Club

In 1996, composer, producer, and guitar legend Ry Cooder entered Egrem Studios in Havana with the forgotten greats of Cuban music, many of them in their 60s and 70s, some of them long since retired. The resulting album, Buena Vista Social Club, became a Grammy-winning international bestseller. When Cooder returned to Havana in 1998 to record a solo album by 72-year-old vocalist Ibrahim Ferrer, filmmaker Wim Wenders was on hand to document the occasion. Wenders splits the film between portraits of the performers, who tell their stories directly to the camera as they wander the streets and neighborhoods of Havana, and a celebration of the music heard in performance scenes in the studio, in their first concert in Amsterdam, and in their second and final concert at Carnegie Hall. The songs are too often cut short in this fashion, but Buena Vista Social Club is not a concert film. Wenders weaves the artist biographies with a glimpse of modern Cuba remembering its past, capturing a lost culture in music that is suddenly, unexpectedly revived for audiences in Havana and around the world. Wenders makes his presence practically invisible, as if his directorial flourishes or off-screen narration might deflect attention from the artists, who do a fine job of telling their own stories through interviews and music. It's a loving portrait of a master class in Cuban music, with a vital cast of aging performers whose energy and passion belie their years. --Sean Axmaker

"The Buena Vista Social Club" guitarist Ry Cooder s celebrated album featuring the recently re-discovered talents of Cuba s foremost folk musicians sold millions of copies and earned a Grammy Award. Now Cooder teams up with acclaimed director Wim Wenders (Paris Texas) to reveal the astonishing life stories vibrant personalities and unforgettable music of the brilliantly talented but long-overlooked performers who collaborated on this now-legendary recording. Form the crumbling barrios of their native Havana to their triumphant sold-out concerts in Amsterdam and New York s Carnegie Hall it s an unforgettable deeply emotional journey into the passion pride and humanity of the artists whose music sparked a worldwide musical phenomenon!System Requirements:Starring: Ry Cooder Ibrahim Ferrer Rueben Gonzalez Eliades Ochoa Omara Portuondo and Compay Segundo. Directed By: Wim Wenders. Running Time: 105 mins color. This film is presented in "Standard" format. Copyright: 1999 Artisan Live Entertainment.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating:  UPC: 012236101765 Manufacturer No: 10176

Celtic Woman

Gorgeous to listen to and gorgeous to look at, Celtic Woman is perfect PBS fare, sort of a Riverdance without the dancing. Drawing on the same New Age-y sound and propulsive energy as that show's solo-voice and choral numbers, the live concert features four attractive young women in strapless evening gowns with soaring voices backed by an orchestra, an Anuna-like chorus, and a large percussion section. The more traditional fare includes Méav Ni Mhaolchatha's "Danny Boy" and "She Moved Through the Fair," and Chloë Agnew's "Ave Maria" (the Bach-Gounod version). Movie and TV selections range from Agnew's "Walking in the Air" (The Snowman) and "Someday" (Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame) to Lisa Kelly's "May It Be" (the Enya song from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the King) and Órla Fallon's voice and harp rendition of "Harry's Game." A fifth woman, Máiréad Nesbitt, adds some variety by fiddling "The Butterfly" and "Ashokan Farewell" (best known as the theme from Ken Burns's The Civil War). Occasionally the singers join together, as in Enya's "Orinoco Flow," an a cappella rendition of West Side Story's "Somewhere," music director David Downes's composition "One World," and a stately version of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring." Celtic Woman was created by Downes (like many of the other performers, a Riverdance veteran) along with Sharon Browne and Dave Kavanagh of the Celtic Collections record label. --David Horiuchi

No Description Available.
Genre: Music Video - Pop/Rock
Rating: NR
Release Date: 1-MAR-2005
Media Type: DVD

The Best of Riverdance

The DVD debut of Michael Flatley's performance in Riverdance (or at least part of it) is one of the highlights of The Best of Riverdance, a generous survey of the Irish hard-shoe sensation that has riveted live audiences and PBS viewers for a decade. Beginning with the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest performance that led to the full-length stage show, the program compiles a number of highlights from the show's history, taken mostly from three sources. There's the original 1995 televised show starring the flamboyant, record-setting tapper Flatley and his partner, Jean Butler. There's the 1997 New York City concert, with Colin Dunne opposite Butler. And finally there's the 2003 performance from Geneva headlined by Brendán de Gallaí and Joanne Doyle. Because elements of the show and numerous performers have changed over the years, each performance has its own character, and The Best of Riverdance even takes the unusual step of blending segments of various shows into a single number. For example, "Riverdance" switches back and forth among the three shows and the three sets of leads. "Lift the Wings" begins with two verses of the solo voice of Áine Uí Cheallaigh, then segues into segments from the ensemble-sung version from New York and Geneva. Because the solo rendition was one of the biggest losses of later generations of the show, it's nice to have at least part of it on DVD. Likewise, because Flatley's complete Riverdance performance is not yet available on DVD, fans will be glad to have at least a few numbers here. Other later-generation numbers included are "American Wake" and "Trading Taps," and the DVD menu screens very clear note which performer or combination of performers is performing.

Brand new in this nearly two-hour program are occasional introductions by Jean Butler, which help explain some of the ambiguous stage action. Bonus features are a new one-hour documentary about the history of the show, 16 minutes of high-speed backstage footage, and an eight-minute performance from the 2003 Special Olympics. Some viewers may find the introductions or the performance switches jarring to the flow, and The Best of Riverdance is surely not a substitute for the complete performances of the show, but it is a nice compilation, and offers some footage that you can't see anywhere else. --David Horiuchi

Includes 18 of the all-time best performances of Riverdance from its extraordinary beginnings at the Point Theatre, Dublin, with original stars Michael Flatley and Jean Butler, through its phenomenal success in Radio City Music Hall, New York to its latest live recording in Geneva. Riverdance boasts an international cast featuring the remarkable Riverdance Irish Dance Troupe, the cream of Irish musicians in the Riverdance Band and a spectacular array of talent from Spain, Russia and America, performing to the magic of Bill Whelan's music. More electrifying than ever, this DVD is a treasure for Riverdance fans worldwide! SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE: RIVERDANCE- The Ten Years. An all New 65 Minute Documentary, celebrating the Riverdance phenomenon over the first 10 years. Featuring all the passion, power and intrigue of the show backstage. Introduced by Gabriel Byrne. RIVERDANCE - Behind the Scenes: Never seen before footage of the Riverdance backstage crew in action. RIVERDANCE- Performance at the Special Olympics Opening Ceremony.

Legend - The Best of Bob Marley and the Wailers

If you are expecting just the videos for the tracks on Bob Marley's extremely successful greatest hits CD, you are going to be pleasantly surprised with this DVD. Legend is much more than a simple, video anthology. It is a historical telling of the music of Bob Marley presented in 23 videos, most of which are performances, and a 90-minute documentary. The documentary is a collage of images and video clips put to a running dialogue by Marley. Unless you are very familiar with the Jamaican dialect, it is recommended to watch this with the subtitles turned on. Interesting, but there are better documentaries out there (e.g., The Bob Marley Story: Caribbean Nights). It is the live performances, however, that make this DVD worth its weight in gold. Every person remotely interested in his music owes it to himself to witness Bob Marley perform on stage. Musically, Marley is as close to perfection as any artist can hope to achieve. But as a performer, he transcends beyond the secular pop star status to the mythic leader of a movement. Notable performances include eight tracks from the famous Live at the Rainbow recording (June 1977) and the early Wailer footage from The Old Grey Whistle Test recorded for the BBC in 1973 ("Stir It Up" and "Concrete Jungle"). They are simply hypnotic. The sound on the DVD, for the most part, is clear, crisp, and flawless ("Could You Be Loved" could have been touched up a little bit). A nice feature is the "playlist," allowing the viewer to play the videos in any order desired. All in all, a great package for a true legend. --Rob Bracco

Marc Anthony - The Concert from Madison Square Garden

Marc Anthony brings his elegant passions to the Big Apple in this exciting 2001 concert performance. The dazzled audience erupts at the singer's knockout, Spanish-language openers, "Y Hubo Alguien" and "Contra la Corriente," swoons to his exultant "You Sang to Me," and hangs on every marvelous syllable in the exquisitely phrased "When I Dream at Night." Anthony's material occasionally slides into bathos ("That's Okay"), but at his best he can go from big band salsa ("Nadie Como Ella") to Burt Bacharach-flavored pop-soul ("My Baby You") to gorgeous, breathless ballads ("Da la Vuelta") without breaking a sweat. But when he needs all engines firing at once, such as on his hot-hot-hot big hit, "I Need to Know," the tension and power are delicious. Watching Anthony work a stadium crowd--gliding, dancing, playing to every corner--reminds one of Mick Jagger's playbook. --Tom Keogh

Pulse: a Stomp Odyssey

Pulse: a STOMP Odyssey is a celebration of the global beat an exploration of the sights and sounds of continents and cultures guided by the internationally acclaimed performers of the sensational stage show STOMP. The globe-trotting IMAX journey is billed as "a tribute to world of rhythm that has inspired us". Pulse showcases the cast of STOMP as well as 10 extremely diverse musical groups from around the world.Format: DVD AUDIO Genre: MUSIC DVD/CONCERTS Rating: N/A UPC: 181582000555 Manufacturer No: WD-173

Calle 54

"Calle 54" invites everyone to experience the passion of Latin Jazz. It is a musical journey that captures the heart and soul of an entire culture. It features sounds that pulsate in hot backstreet clubs and recording studios from Miami to Havana the Bronx to Andalusia. A series of performances that reveal how these great Latin heroes use their extraordinary musical talent as a vehicle for storytelling protest sexuality and above all the celebration of life. It is an innovative tapestry of sound and imagery styles and rhythms from samba to pambiche to flamenco.System Requirements:Starring: Cachao Michel Camilo Paquito D'Rivera Eliane Elias Tito Puente and Chucho Valdes. Directed By: Fernando Trueba. Running Time: 105 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2001 Buena Vista.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating: G UPC: 786936153675 Manufacturer No: 02259700

In Calle 54, Madrid-based filmmaker Fernando Trueba explores the wide and wonderful world of Latin jazz: a hybrid genre that fuses the clave, samba, flamenco, merengue, and other rhythms from Africa, the Iberian peninsula, and the Americas. The film's Spanish title takes its name from Sony Music Studios located on 54th Street in Manhattan, where a who's who of musicians were filmed and recorded. They range from Brazilian bombshell keyboardist Eliane Elias and enigmatic Argentine tenor saxophonist Gato Barbieri, to the fiery rumba group Puntilla y Nueva Generacion. The music and musicians of Cuba and Puerto Rico dominate this documentary, and the most touching scene is the emotional father-and-son reunion of Cuban pianists Bebo and Chucho Valdés, who were separated by Fidel Castro's revolution. Sadly, the film features the last onscreen appearances by the late composer-arranger Chico O'Farrill and the legendary timbales master Tito Puente. Simply put, Calle 54 is a documentary that dances. --Eugene Holley Jr.