Patrick Moraz
In Princeton DVD
Review by Gary Hill
The core of this DVD is a solo concert by Patrick Moraz from 1999. It is professionally filmed, although, I have to say that the film quality is somewhere on the excellent side of very good – in other words, it’s not perfect. We get multiple camera angles and the sound is great. The material is strong as Moraz is both a wonderful composer and a great musician. You can’t fault the performance at all. In fact, I’d say the only thing I have to quibble about on that particular section of the DVD is the fact that we get little “title cards” for each track rather than just flowing like it would at a concert. Of course, if that’s the biggest complaint, then it must be pretty good.
There is one bonus piece, a promo film (less than six and a half minutes in length) for Moraz’ Story of I album. Dating from 1975 the quality is surprisingly great. The visual concepts seem a bit silly and dated today, but one can see the artistic exuberance and enjoy it. Frankly, this is a great addition. I’m glad it was included here.
So, that leaves the score at two very good components of a DVD. What else do we get? Uh, nothing. That’s part of the problem. It would have been nice to have some more bonuses and at least a little booklet giving the date of the concert and some background information would have been nice. The overall result, then, is that this is a great DVD for fans of Moraz that could have been incredible had they taken a few extra steps. We’ll settle for great, though – cause that’s a lot better than most.
This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2008 Volume 1 at lulu.com/strangesound.
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