Cheap Chuck Mangione: Live at the Palais des Festivals Hall Cannes 1989 (DVD) (Chuck Mangione) Price

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Customer Reviews of Chuck Mangione: Live at the Palais des Festivals Hall Cannes 1989

Finally a Chuck Mangione Concert DVD!
As a long time Chuck Mangione fan I was elated to learn of this DVD concert release. As Mangione fans know, there isn't very much video/DVD available of Chuck. The only other DVD's are "The Feelings Back" (disappointing due to the fact that it isn't live, but a pantomime of his cd), a one song track of "Echano" from the "1975 Monterey Jazz Festival" and a couple of out of print videos such as "Sass And Brass" and his video "Diana D" on a compilation called "Prime Cuts Jazz And Beyond".

This video, although I'm giving it 5 stars, is rather disappointing for me. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Chuck Mangione and his music! But this DVD lacks that "Mangione Magic". It is a concert from 1989 at the Cannes Music Festival. Some of you may know that this was already released on video in Europe as "Live At Midem".

First, let me talk about the DVD itself. It lasts about an hour. You can watch the edited concert or go to the individual tracks. Two of the track names are misspelled (Hot Consuela instead of Hot Consuelo and Feel So Good instead of Feels So Good). There is a biography and discography for each band member that you can read. I noticed that there is some distortion when Chuck plays from time to time. I don't know if this was a technical issue from the original recording or from the transfer to DVD. It is rather unfortunate that the sound isn't flawless with today's technology. (I don't remember there being any distortion on the "Live At Midem" video).

Now the concert itself. The personnel are the same as on his cd "Live At The Village Gate" minus Chris. Even though Chuck performs some of his most popular songs, something is missing. It could be that he does not have either Gerry Niewood or Chris Vadala with him. It could be that he doesn't have his beard (shaved). It seems to me that this group doesn't really "gel" like some of his earlier groups. They are good musicians but somehow they don't convince me that they really "love" the music. Rob Mathes on vocals and keyboards gets into the music, albeit a little "too much", (he's almost comical at times with his over enthusiasm).

Over all, I'm glad this DVD was released. But I long for the day that some of the earlier great Mangione concerts will be released on DVD. "Friends And Love", "Together" and "Live At Wolftrap" are three incredible concerts that are sitting on the shelves in the PBS archives collecting dust.