DVD Review: Sara K and Chris Jones: Live in Concert 2002, B&W Nautilus Tour (DVD PAL)

Recorded in 2002 towards the end of the Sara K and Chris Jones Nautilus Tour, aptly named as it was sponsored by Bowers and Wilkins to promote the Nautilus series of loudspeakers, this is a music DVD with a difference. No flash lights, lasers, smoke and other pyrotechnics that often mask poor performances by artists. There are two artists: the well known Sara with her four stringed guitar, tuned to an open A, and guitarist Chris Jones. Sara does the talking and singing. Jones plays with total passion. And what a guitar player he is!

The concert focuses on the material found on the Water Falls album but also includes some stunning material - Stop those Bells features Jones on dobro and Sara plays the four stringed guitar with gutso; and at the end of the show a beautiful rendition of Don McLean's Vincent. The cameras focus on the performers and there are great shots of Jones' fingerwork as well as the handwork of Sara, sans two strings.

Soundwise this DVD is also different. While it has a DD 5.1 multi channel and 48 khz linear PCM stereo soundtrack, there is no DTS and no gimmicks, except for a headphone-surround option that I did not try out. The appreciate audience was no doubt briefed before the time as they are dead quiet during plays and hands out appreciative applause between songs. The sound quality is excellent though and while the songs may differ slightly from the released album, this is no problem. In fact, Jones plays a beautiful introduction to Anymore, the song that ends the album, but fortunately not the performance. Running away from you sounds a lot different though, but most enjoyable.

He got you, What matters and Vincent are the other songs not contained on Water Falls. The show ends with the Don McLean song, beautifully played by Jones and sung by Sara. The real Van Gogh would have been honoured to hear his life shared with people in this way.

Extras on the DVD are limited to two inserts, one of the B&W Nautilus range of loudspeakers and the other of the headphone surround system. While no problem in countries that use PAL TV systems, I have read of quite a few complaints by American and Canadian enthusiasts whose players will not read a PAL encoded disk and neither can their NTSC TV sets decode the PAL signal. At the time of writing there is still no word on an NTSC version.

This DVD, although highly recommended, may appeal more to those who enjoy this artist's music. And while I am definitely a Sara K fan, not everyone may enjoy the folk / blues / jazz meted out in voluptuous portions here. But if you like her music it will be a jewel in your collection. That a loudspeaker company like Bowers and Wilkins, along with its amplification sister, Classé, puts in a lot of money to sponsor and promote Stockfisch Records is testimony to the fact that some hardware manufacturers at least know what their products sound like!

Cost: R300.00 (ZAR). [ Order form... ]