B.B. King: Live Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

B.B. King: Live Blu-ray Movie Review

Is the thrill still there?

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater July 20, 2011

Living blues guitar legend B.B. King has given over 15,000 performances in a career that stretches way back to 1949, and I think it’s safe to say that the show documented here in B.B. King Live—at Chicago’s Grainger Studio in 2009—is not one of his best. Between health issues and the simple fact that the semi-retired octogenarian bluesman is seriously getting up there in years, King’s playing and singing aren’t quite as electric as they used to be. But that’s okay. At nearly ninety, most people are lucky if they can get out of bed in the morning unassisted. King? He’s out playing raucous blues tunes for crowds of adoring fans. The man just won’t stop, and though his playing has gotten a bit looser in recent years, he’s a true musical presence who commands admiration and respect. What comes through most in this rather short 12 song set, however, is just how happy he seems to be alive and on stage. “I’ll keep playing until I feel like I can’t,” King told The Sunday Times around the time this concert was recorded. “All I want is for people to hear what I do.”

Backed by a tight if somewhat generic-sounding band, King makes his way through a short set list that includes a mix of his own hits, songs he turned into classics, and several immortal blues standards. As has been the case for some time now, he remains seated throughout the entire concert—cradling his beloved guitar “Lucille” against his ample stomach—but he’s still spry enough to do a kind of stationary boogie-woogie, rocking back and forth on his chair whenever the musical spirit takes hold of him. “I just like to move a little bit,” he says while launching into Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean,” and this draws massive applause from the packed crowd. One of the show’s early highlights is King’s 1964 song “How Blue Can You Get?,” which has since been retitled “Downhearted.” You may remember the chorus—“I’ve been downhearted baby, ever since the day we met”—from being sampled in “Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand,” the lone hit by one-hit-wonder 1990’s alt-rock act Primitive Radio Gods.

Right after “Downhearted,” B.B. King introduces the first of three special guest stars for the night, Hustle & Flow actor Terrence Howard. The two banter for a bit—B.B. tells the immaculate Howard, “You might have showered tonight, young man”—and eventually they jump into an improvised slow jam that doesn’t really work as well as it could’ve. Much better is “I Got Some Help I Don’t Need,” on which Howard takes over lead vocals, perhaps a wink-and-a-nod toward the fact that King does need some help to get through the show.

For “The Thrill Is Gone,” King brings out Beyonce’s kid sister, R&B singer Solange Knowles, and the notorious admitted ladies man—who has fathered fifteen children by fifteen different women, not a-one of them a wife—nearly falls out of his seat when he sees the slinky short dress Knowles is wearing. (He also forgets how to pronounce her name.) Later, Bon Jovi’s Richie Sambora emerges onstage to lay down some crunchy, overdriven guitar solos on “Let the Good Times Roll.” “Play me some git-tar,” King commands, and Sambora delivers. As if at a loss for what to do next, King then suggests they play “The Thrill Is Gone” again, but basically louder this time. The night closes with all three guest stars joining in for a foot-stomping rendition of “When the Saints Go Marching In."

All in all, the set is repetitive and far from representative of King’s best work, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be worthwhile for fans, who will probably be happy just to see B.B. on stage doing his thing, undeterred by age or ailments. While he’s not quite as fast on the frets as he once was, and though his voice is a bit weaker, King’s guitar tones are as velvety as ever and his strained bellows full of broken, bluesy passion. I like to think he’ll still be at it at 95 and beyond.

Track List:
Everyday I Have the Blues
See That My Grave is Kept Clean
How Many More Years
Downhearted
I Need You So
I Got Some Help I Don’t Need
The Thrill is Gone
Nobody Loves Me But My Mother
Let the Good Time Roll
The Thrill is Gone
When the Saints Go Marching In
Bonus Song: Key to the Highway

B.B. King: Live Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Like most concert films nowadays, B.B. King Live was shot on high definition video and is presented on Blu-ray with a 1080i/AVC encode. This certainly isn't one of the flashier concert titles on the market—it was originally aired on PBS—but the image is clear and colorful, with no real distractions by way of compression mishaps or encode issues. The Grainger Studio stage is bathed in rich blue and purple lights for most of the show—I didn't spot any banding in the fine color gradients—and skin tones are warm and consistent. Black levels are solid and balanced too. Clarity is not as immediately impressive—the image seems a hair soft in longer shots—but close-ups reveal ample fine detail, especially in the glitzy textures of B.B. King's signature sequined coat. A slight layer of noise often shows up in the picture, and there are a few scattered incidents of aliasing and moiré shimmer, but nothing major. Overall, the better-than-broadcast-quality image is pretty typical for these kinds of productions—it may not be particularly striking, but it's certainly serviceable.

Note that because it was nearly impossible to capture screenshots of the film in 1080i—thanks to a near-constantly moving camera and combing artifacts—all the screenshots in this review were captured in 720p and do not reflect the full quality of the image.

B.B. King: Live Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

B.B. King Live defaults to a strong DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track that gives a good representation of what the show must've sounded like for those in the audience, albeit cleaner and clearly sourced from the mixing board. As I mentioned above, B.B.'s backing band is somewhat generic— they're a bit too polished and professional—but they at least sound good, with bright horns, hard hitting but never overpowering drums, and bass that's deep and defined, carving out those age-old 12-bar blues progressions. Of course, we're really here to hear King, and his guitar tones sound wonderful—creamy and expressive—and his raw-throat singing is balanced perfectly in the mix. The rear channels are used mostly for crowd ambience, but you will hear some musical bleed, most prominently the drummer' ride cymbal. The disc also includes an uncompressed 2.0 stereo track, which is a solid option too if you don't have a surround sound system. The mix is very similar to the 5.1 track but—as you'd expect—it sounds slightly more compressed, with less room for the individual instruments to breathe. Either way, the audio presentation here is great, and sounds fantastic when turned up loud.

B.B. King: Live Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unfortunately, there are no bonus features at all on the disc.

B.B. King: Live Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's only fair that we tend extend grace to our pop culture icons as they get into old age. (See the goodwill extended toward the mediocre recent efforts of, say, Bob Dylan.) B.B. King may not be the performer he once was, but he still puts on a crowd-pleasing concert, as evidenced by the enthusiastic reception he gets from the audience in B.B. King Live. This is the third—and least—of the B.B. King live shows that have been released on Blu- ray so far, but since it may be one of the last, fans will certainly want to check it out. For blues hounds only.