Ernest Ranglin: Order of Distinction [Blu-ray]

The performance is lacking energy, music and picture quality is good. The Blu-ray has an extra that gives you great insite and history of Jamaican music, but not Blu-ray quality.

High Quality of video and sound....good songs, but no the classic of Ernest Ranglin... but it still being nice !!!

Great listening experience.

The order came as requested!

For those that don't know, Jamaican-born self-taught guitarist Ernest Ranglin's core style is a modern fusion of Jazz and Reggae, and this Blu-Ray is no exception with the title coming from Ernest's Jamaican "Order of Distinction" (being the equivalent of a British Knighthood or OBE) for his contribution to music. This blu-ray is recorded in what appears to be a small, audience-free club/restaurant/bar, with the musicians arranged in a circular fashion, facing each other in the middle of the cleared floor.The core band comprises Ernest Ranglin on his favoured custom Gibson Electric Guitar together with long-standing collaborator Monty Alexander on Piano & Melodica (Jamaican Jazz pianist having recorded extensively under his own name but also collaborating with musicians as diverse as Milt Jackson and Sly & Robbie), the infamous Phil Chen on Bass (Chinese/Jamaican session bassist with the Rod Stewart & Jeff Beck bands, Eric Clapton, Pete Townsend etc) and Richard Bailey on Drums. The set comprises many tracks which have some significance in Ernests past career, and feature guest artists as follows:1. 3 Pope (with Joey Altruda on Guitar)2. Satta Massagana (with Joey Altruda on Guitar)3. Grandfather Clock (Core Band only)4. Spur Tree (with Jeff Lorber on Organ, some would say the Grandfather of Smooth Jazz)5. Pimento Walk (Core Band only)6. Ranchin' (with Laurence Juber on Acoustic Guitar, lead guitarist with Wings from 1979-81)7. Many Rivers to Cross (Elliot Easton on Guitar, lead guitarist with The Cars)8. My Boy Lollipop (with Vocalist Alana Davis, 3 albums under her own name)9. Mandeville (again with Laurence Juber on Acoustic Guitar)10. Hurts to be Alone (with Joey Altruda on Guitar and Vocalist Elan Atias from Bob Marleys backing band The Wailers)11. Ball of Fire (with Adrian Young, rock drummer with the band No Doubt)12. Straight Flush (with Robbie Krieger, perhaps most famous as Guitarist of the Doors)13. Pocomania (Ernest/Bass, Monty/Melodica, Phil/Banjo, Richard/Percussion)With Ernests advancing years (and despite there being quite a lot of pretty-fast, mostly fumble-free finger work from Ernest), the whole set comes across very much as a relaxed, one-take, warts-and-all, fun jam with fellow respected musicians rather than an energy-fuelled performance. Most tracks are naturally underpinned with Ernests usual reggae/scar-flavoured beat, but none are driven particularly hard or fast, and overall you get a pretty mixed bag of mid-tempo tracks each leaning towards the strengths of the guest musicians being featured. If you like that variety, it's all good.The disc also features a "Rehearsal" video, a "Roots of Reggae" tribute-style video, and 9 short face-to-face interviews from Ernest as well as many of the invited guests - giving (it says) a 58 minute performance time and 30 minutes of good-quality but not-necessarily-high-definition bonus video - 88 minutes in total.Technical:AIX Records are a no-compromise, small specialist producer with a passion for purist quality. This release is no exception, with no artificial audio processing, Eq or reverb. The disc features sound in a 5.1 "Stage" mix and 5.1 "Audience" mix (both 96khz/24-bit Dolby True HD), and an ordinary high-quality Stereo mix (96khz/24-bit PCM) - all excellent as usual. Video is 1920x1080, 2D/3D - again excellent. As with all AIX recordings, a very high-quality Home Cinema set-up is mandatory if you want to extract the very last ounce of perfection from this disc.For those who like Ernest's style of music, it's a worthwhile buy.