Cheap Kodo: Live at the Acropolis (DVD) Price

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Customer Reviews of Kodo: Live at the Acropolis

Excellent for the ear and the eye
This is a fantastic video of one of the most impressive Japanese arts that mixes music and stage. The men and woman that perform here spend years training and the rhythmic and physical drive of this performance is amazing. The video is well edited and the comments useful despite the fact that the interviewer (from the Grateful Dead) lacks any kind neutrality and that the questions he asks are rhetoric. But, fortunately he is not the one on stage, and the music and tradition of Japan survive!
Watch it in a big screen and with speakers.

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Good semi-documentary, but not a concert film
Like the two reviewers before me wrote, Kodo is/are great and their energy is very evident. I won't repeat the same flaws in the dvd as did the other reviewers, but I will add an additional let down of the dvd.

Obviously the cinematographer and editors didn't know the taiko pieces or the concept of Kodo and taiko playing. There are wonderful close-ups of the various members only, there are an excess of them. I am also an aspiring taiko player and part of the essence of taiko is the beautiful flow of the players and their form. Anyone who has ever seen Kodo or any accomplished taiko group will marvel at the unison of the players' movements. They should be harmonious. In this dvd, there too few wide angle shots of the "whole ensemble". Especially in Zoku and Miyake (which is only about 10 second worth of filming), the essence is the view of all of the performers together. Taiko is not just auditory, but visual as well.

On the plus side, the documentary portions were great. It's always good to see an insight to the performers and their craft. But if you are expecting a live Kodo performance from beginning to end, you will be disappointed. It's geat to see Kodo on film and to have them in your home, but... a little better marketing and honesty go a long way. If you see "live" in a title, it's okay to insert documentary portions, but don't cut short the performances. If memory serves, there's only a couple of songs that are filmed in their entirety. The rest are only excerpts.

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Great performance by the best taiko group
I'm a taiko player and I think this DVD is excellent. The picture and sound
quality of this DVD are good enough for me. I'm not an audio geek. I care more
about the performances on this DVD than about the technical inadequacies.
In particular, I enjoyed seeing different Kodo members playing different
parts than what was recorded in the 1992 video titled Kodo. This 1995 Acropolis concert
was recorded after Leonard Eto left Kodo and in it, Ryutaro Kaneko is the
leading taiko player of the Eto's song Zoku. Kaneko's performance has a different
flavor than Eto's but is just as great. (If you want to know more about Kodo,
you should also watch the 1992 video "Kodo" and the 1983 video "Heartbeat
Drummers of Japan.")
The performances of Monochrome, Yataibayashi, and Miyake are masterpieces.
No taiko group can play better than Kodo. You can feel their positive spirit
in this DVD.
I like Mickey Hart's interview segments between songs. He covers great
material in those segments for Kodo fans. For example, he asks Kodo members about
how taiko drums are made. He also talks about the different "flavor" that women
bring to drumming. This was really great for me, as a taiko player, to hear
and realize. His interviews make this DVD even more valuable.
The only reason I don't give this DVD 5 stars is that three of the songs are
cut short. It's especially sad that such a beautiful song as Miyake, with such
beautiful form, isn't shown in its entirety. I wish I could see the whole
thing.