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CDs and DVDs of the week
Evening Standard 07.12.07
Amy Winehouse: Live in London
Justin Timberlake: Futuresex/Loveshow
Mika: Live in Cartoon Motion
Fela Kuti: Anthology 1
Petrucciani: Non-stop travel and Live in Stuttgart
Pop
Amy Winehouse
I told you I was trouble (Island)
****
This is a more useful DVD than most because it guarantees that the artiste featured will actually appear at the specified time and sing some songs. Evidently, the audience at the Shepherds Bush Empire had been kept waiting because Amy apologises after the first number. Thereafter, the set proceeds in good order, with all the favourites plus a cover of The Zutons' Valerie performed by a singer on good form backed by a snappy band. Of equal interest is the additional material setting out the story of her life and charting the onwards-andupwards growth of her hair. We learn that young Amy had a crush on Philip Schofield and has a pool fetish. Her dad is also good value - you wouldn't mind him in the front of your cab.
Pete Clark
Justin Timberlake
Futuresex/Loveshow (Sony/BMG)
****
Boy band escapee Timberlake planned to leave the teens behind with his second solo album, Futuresex/ Lovesounds, but despite its edgy R&B and novel take on punctuation, not to mention the heart-throb's swearing, still the screams deafen on this concert DVD. It sees him and his extensive troupe of musicians and dancers performing in the round at Madison Square Garden, New York, with black-and-white interview footage shifting Wizard of Oz-style into the full-colour spectacle of a large-scale show high on visual and sonic thrills. A second disc of interview footage, making-of material and "provocative under the stage camera angles" provides detail but hits such as My Love and Cry Me a River being given the arena treatment make this show worth the admission.
David Smyth
Mika
Live in Cartoon Motion (Casablanca/Universal)
****
GRACE Kelly, Mica "Mika" Penniman's unspeakably annoying calling card, suggested a novelty hitmaker had arrived to titillate us for a while before shuffling off to a job in telesales. Apparently not. His album is second only to Amy Winehouse's in 2007's sales chart, while Big Girl (You Are Beautiful), Love Today and the fantastic Relax (Take It Easy) were patently the work of a superior songwriter. This DVD will do him no harm. There's a joyful Paris concert from June, a slew of videos and some acoustic fare. More revealing still is A Long Way from Home, a tour documentary which reveals our hero as a hypochondrical, whiny young queen: ie ideal pop-star fodder. Irresistible.
John Aizlewood
World
Fela Kuti
Anthology 1 (Wrasse)
****
Nigeria's Fela Kuti, who died in 1997, was one of Africa's greatest musicians and one of the world's most uncompromising artists. He railed against various Nigerian governments for corruption and police brutality. The BBC documentary Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense in this DVD and 2CD package dates from 1984 and includes an impressive live show (filmed at Glastonbury).
Addressing the camera directly at the start, he says: "My name is Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Fela means he who emulates greatness." Fela's sense of his importance is never in doubt, and with few resources by today's standards, the documentary gives a vivid picture of him in the political context of his time. The CDs feature tracks from the Sixties and Seventies.
Simon Broughton
Jazz
Michel Petrucciani
Non-Stop Travels & Live in Stuttgart (Dreyfus Jazz)
*****
IT WASN'T just Michel Petrucciani's keyboard talent that touched listeners but also his courage. The tiny Frenchman, who died in 1999, stood knee-high to normal adults and needed struts to reach the piano pedals. He also endured a brittle-bone syndrome that forced him into leg callipers throughout his 37 years. Yet he married, lived life to the full and worked with the world's finest jazz musicians. This fascinating two-film video, complete with full discography, follows his travelling entourage, including British actress Charlotte Rampling, and captures a triumphant concert in Germany with bassist Anthony Jackson and drummer Steve Gadd. An illuminating and inspiring experience.
Jack Massarik