Review of Ziggy Marley And The Melody Makers Live!

Introduction

Ziggy Marley is of course one of the many offspring of reggae legend Bob Marley, and he has been performing with The Melody Makers for over 20 years. The Melody Makers also feature more Marley offspring, in the form of Stephen Marley, Cedella Marley and Sharon Marley.

There are still a few Marleys missing, such as Julian and Damian Marley , both of whom are in the music business - in fact they were the opening acts for the 1996 Melody Makers tour.

Inevitable comparisons with the work of their father are always drawn, but they have their own identity, whilst staying true to everything that their father believed in. With eight albums and two grammy awards under their collective belts they have certainly been accepted as performers in their own right.

Video

A slight puzzler here. I was expecting a region 2 PAL disc, but the review disc turned out to be an NTSC disc, dual coded for region 1 and 4 - work that one out!

However, the image quality is still very good even though it`s your typical 4:3 TV concert broadcast. There are no artefacts on show, and colours and blacks are all well represented. A mixture of band and crowd shots - nothing groundbreaking but still a good presentation.

Audio

The important bit with any music DVD - the sound. As with previous Image/Aviva releases there`s a good choice on offer - you can pick from DD2.0, DD5.1 or dts. As usual I picked dts and wasn`t let down. The concert is very well presented and all of your speakers get meaningful tasks to keep them busy. There`s plenty of bass (essential for a reggae concert), whilst all of the instruments and vocals sound crystal clear.

The DD5.1 track is also good but just seems to lack that little something when compared to dts. The DD2.0 track also sounds good for a stereo mix but obviously it pales in comparison to the surround mixes.

Features

Extras include three clips of rehearsal footage (about 3 minutes each), a bonus track "Tomorrow People" (not sure why it wasn`t just included in the main programme) and also a discography which seemed to consist purely of very small pictures of Melody Makers album covers.

Conclusion

This one`s quite easy to sum up. The picture is good, the sound is excellent, the extras are largely insignificant. If you`re a fan of any of the Marleys then you`ll probably want to get this disc. Featuring some Wailers classics, alongside some Melody Makers classics and some reggae standards this disc is definitely recommended for reggae fans everywhere.

Summer is coming and this DVD will make great background music for your next barbecue.