Review of Celia Cruz And The Fania All Stars In Africa

Introduction

This live salsa concert, filmed in Zaire, was part of a 3-day music festival going hand-in-hand with the boxing match of Ali and Foreman. There are two tracks with Celia Cruz, and the rest feature the Fania Allstars.

Even before I pressed play on the DVD player I dreaded looking at this disc. Going by past performance, I reviewed another of Direct Video`s DVDs, The Pointer Sisters: All Night Long, and that was a poor disc. I`m faced the same style of packaging here and all I can say is that Direct Video is nothing if not consistent.

Video

This fullframe transfer looks barely better than good VHS. It`s soft and looks lifeless; there`s no live `razzmatazz` (i.e. performance) here that can be seen on other live DVDs. The directing and editing is choppy and uninspiring too. It`s enough to turn off a home audience.

Audio

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack here sounds very thin and without any real power of a live concert performance. I couldn`t work out if the music or the lack of quality on the audio gave me a throbbing headache. It was remixed from the original 2-channel stereo and sounds tinny and dull.

Features

Nada.

Conclusion

The Celia Cruz in Africa DVD has the kind of artwork reserved for titles that you find in the bargain bin at the end of the shop counter, you know the one, the dark corner where nobody ventures. Unfortunately the problems of this DVD run to the content as well.

This concert is not interesting in the slightest and it`s nothing to do with the music. I have no problem with Ms Cruz`s brand of Grammy Award winning salsa/Latino sounds but this concert is dull. The music just drones on and never engages you in the slightest. Salsa is more something to dance to than to just sit and listen to so passively. I didn`t feel like dancing while this was on.

With that in mind, watching Celia Cruz with the Fania Allstars is akin to watching paint dry. Out of eight songs, just two feature Celia Cruz herself and the rest are the `Allstars. There`s some fancy guitar-picking going on, but it can`t make up for a lacklustre event. The audience looked like they had a good time as there`s plenty of applause but I think they`re being polite.

If you enjoy salsa music, there are far more interesting CDs to listen to. Failing that, if you have a Nando`s near you, go get something to eat and listen to the music in there. I`ve looked at this disc so you don`t have to. Avoid.