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Curtis Ensler's Collection

Jeff Beck Group   06/24/2004

Royal Albert Hall, London, England
Media DVD   1 disc
J-Card Comment Artist: Jeff Beck
Title: Jeff Beck Royal Albert Hall June 24 2004
Media: 1 DVD
Time: 110 mins. approx.
Catalog:
Source: Audience 2-CAM video and original audio, paired with 2nd audio source; 3rd source to fill in gaps in the second.
Quality: A
Date: 06_24_2004
Location: Royal Albert hall, London
Lineage: DVD-R > Re-Mastered audio matrix from multiple sources.
Process: DVD Audio Extractor to rip original audio from dvd >
Cubase SX to multitrack and edit original and 2nd audio sources;3rd audio source used sparingly where 2nd was missing. Various Waves filters (3 band paragraphic EQ, X-Click, X-Hum, X-Noise) > Ffmpeggui to convert final wav file to ac3 file > TMPGEnc DVD Author to create DVD.

Musicians:

Jeff Beck - Guitar
Jan Hammer - Keyboards
Michael Mondesir - Bass Guitar
Mark Mondesir - Drums

Guests:

Nancy Sorell, Imogen Heap - Vocals
Ron Wood - Guitar

Setlist:

1) Resolution
2) Star Cycle
3) Freeway Jam
4) Roy's Toys
5) Big Block
6) Cry Me A River
7) Stratus
8) Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
9) Angel (Footsteps)
10) Even Odds
11) Brush With The Blues
12) Nadia
13) Nothing But Love
14) Loose Cannon
15) Blanket
16) Rollin and Tumblin
17) Blue Wind
18) Voyage Home
19) Cissy Strut
20) Led Boots
21) A Day In The Life
22) Where Were You
23) You Never Know
24) People Get Ready

Performance Notes:

This is a 2 camera production of Jeff's 60th Birthday show. Alot of people have this but it will be worth getting again as the audio is greatly improved.

Another mesmerizing performance by Jeff. Tone is up front and warm throughout. A beautifully executed close-to-the-album-in-spirit version or Pork Pie. Fusion heads will love the killer version of Stratus. Star Cycle just rocks, and Blue Wind has some fiery lick trading between Jeff and Jan. You get the picture.

I like this band better than the 2005 touring band. Jan Hammer can't be beat on this night, and although Jeff calls him a geezer, his playing is very focused, and he still has the great chops. Who better to play Jan's stuff than Jan himself? Mark Mondesir has the feel for Jeff's material that I think Vinnie Colaiuta didn't have. Brother Mike holds down a solid bass, way more up front than Pino Palladino. Some will argue that Jeff was really on fire on a couple of the 2005 shows; the last Osaka show in particualr Jeff was insane, but the band wasn't always keeping up. Keys were another weak spot. Jeff is a little more restrained here, probably because of the high profile venue, but the overall band performance is better.

Unfortunately the momentum is broken a couple of times. I could have lived without Cry Me A River and Blanket (?)

Production Notes:

Thanks to the 2 documenters that filmed this and whoever put the video together. The filming is rock steady and the 2-cam work is nice. I wasn't too crazy about the audio, though. It didn't have any bottom end, and there was a fair bit of noise. Those that have the original can hear alot of crackle on Cry Me A River, for example. Anyway, I had been playing the video with another audio source and it was much more enjoyable. So I figured I would take a crack at re-mixing the audio and re-authoring the dvd. I got some tips on combining multiple sources, tried it out and I got a good result. This type of matrixing was done on the "Jeff plays Jimi Hendrix" show I was given and subsequently uploaded. The important thing here was the original dvd source was pretty bright with good ambience, although somewhat compressed, and the second was fairly flat with a tight bottom end; they worked well together. Just some eq-ing of both sources, and hum removal where it was bad, crackle, noise and hiss filtering where required, and manual cleanup of various pops and glitches on the original. Some muffling is still there, but only during applause, and not all the noise and hum has been removed, like the beginning of Brush With The Blues. The final result though is a better balance across the spectrum, and a richer guitar sound. Speaking of sound, it's interesting to compare Jeff's Strat tone versus Eric Clapton's on the recent Cream New York shows. Some great technical achievements in audience recording at MSG...but I digress.

Note: The video editing cut out lots of very small (microseconds) time segments (about 40 locations) in the original audio; if you try to sync this up with another audio source the new audio will start falling behind (yes, it is the cuts in the audio, not a speed issue). The process of alignment was time consuming, but it worked out in the end.

Artwork and DVD menu included. Excuse the repetition of the intro clips, but the authoring software wasn't too flexible.

Once again, I recommend turning it up for maximum enjoyment!
Trades Allowed Yes
Owned by Curtis Ensler · Last Updated May 23, 2023