DVD

DVD

Average Customer Review: ( 21 customer reviews )
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I've played this for people who've never heard of Djavan, and they all love this DVD. They can't believe that just because this guy sings in Portuguese, that we Americans would miss out on his music.

You can play the DVD with the captions of the Portuguese lyrics so that you can sing along.

There are a couple of MTV/VH1 style videos. The Acelerou video is very sexy. A beautiful scene with some very interesting light.

7 of 7 found the following review helpful:

Very SatisfyingAug 02, 2000
By Tom "tomintoronto"
Djavan is perhaps the most underrated of all the great Brazilian musicians to emerge in the past thirty years. He has been making superb albums for over twenty years, with a mix of samba, jazz and rock that no other Brazilian musician has been able to emulate. He is hard to categorize and that may have had something to do with limiting his North American success.

This CD is a live performance of some of his best songs (though he is in this respect a little like the Beatles--he doesn't have very many clunkers). Though I could have done without the audience participation in a couple of cuts, this is a good introduction to his music. As a composer, he is a master of melody and rhythm and his touches of electric guitar, though used sparingly, are the best in Brazilian music. His songs reveal their intricacies slowly and reward careful listening. As a singer, he possesses one of the most distinctive voices in pop music anywhere, jazzy and pliant, equally at home with ballads and uptempo numbers.

If you like the music of Milton Nascimento, Gilberto Gil and/or Bebel Gilberto, or you just like Brazilian music in general, you owe it to yourself to give Djavan a listen.

6 of 6 found the following review helpful:

GREAT DVD!Mar 03, 2005
By Richard Diaz
I had the opportunity to see Djavan in the North Sea Jazz festival a couple of years ago and his performance was excellent.

This DVD captures another great performance by one of the greatest Brazilian musicians of his time. The sound quality of this DVD is great and the added bonus videos are a great feature. I recommend this DVD to any one who appreciates great music.

6 of 6 found the following review helpful:

Scrumptious performanceJul 07, 2000
By Leandro D. Silva
Beautiful work by Djavan. Many people have no idea who he is (outside Brazil), but let me introduce him to you: he's one of the best pop/samba musicians in Brazil, he has been with many famous american Jazz stars (who by the way love brazilian samba) and now he's got this wonderful album going on. The entire album (it's a double) is pretty much in the good 'ol unplugged style, but it's all plugged though (we all know it's impossible to do it entirely unplugged) which is one of the things that are really surprising about this album. He grabbed his Sadowsky half acoustic half eletric guitar, gathered his band up and just played his songs (and I'm talking about the old and good ones). If you're not brazilian but always heard about our culture and our tradition in music, this is the right album for you.

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:

Wish more folks could hear this guyApr 13, 2001
By Robert H. Sayers
A nostaglic purchase a few years ago--the CD version of the great Getz/Gilberto bossa nova collaboration--has subsequently led me deeper and deeper into the rich world of Brazilian pop music. Last fall, while raptly watching the Latin Emmys show on TV, I heard this artist singing a haunting ballad ("Faltando um Pedaco") which eventually I was able to identify by listening to samples on the Amazon.com website. And that in turn led me to "Ao Vivo."

There are times when I wish I knew more Portuguese (it would have helped had English translations been included in the insert), but little matter: Djavan's got a great pop voice and his highly melodic compositions--whether "unplugged" ballads, jazzy/funky uptempo numbers, or straightahead rock--contain some of the best "hooks" in the business. Add to this a really cookin' band and a clearly worshipful audience that occasionally, and appropriately, sings along (listen, for instance, to the anthem-like "Se") and you've got a really terrific concert album.

Buried in the paper a few weeks ago was a small notice that Djavan would be performing in the Washington, D.C. area. Predictably, the audience seemed to be drawn almost entirely from the local Brazilian community. Too bad, because a lot of local pop and world music afficianados missed an absolutely scintillating concert--a virtual recreation of this album. With any luck, Djavan's American tour will bring him the larger exposure he clearly deserves. Meanwhile, "Ao Vivo" is a good start for those adventuresome individuals who've already "discovered" Bebel Gilberto and who wish to explore more of the best of contemporary Brazilian music.

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