I'll admit it: I have in fact repeatedly berated Yanni, stooping so low as to spell his name Yawni and lumping him in with
a number of other "new age" and/or "smooth jazz" supposed artists that I frankly have found to be largely mediocre,
churning out disposable market ready fare that may be easily accessible but is also instantly forgettable. Think John
Tesh, only with a thicker accent. So color me surprised when I actually discovered a couple of Yanni tunes that
positively caught my fancy a few years ago. However, here's the rub: if you asked me to tell you what they were
today, I'd be at a complete and total loss. I think they might have come from Yanni at the Acropolis, but that
would be the sum total of my recollection. Yanni's music has been incredibly successful (as evidenced by the fact that
the CD of this concert rested comfortably at the top of the Billboard charts shortly after it was released), so
curmudgeonly critical
commentary is probably neither here nor there, but they strike me at least as the musical equivalent of fast food: they
go down easily enough, are appropriately tasty, but provide little if any actual nutrition. Yanni has crafted his career
not just from the sonic side of things, however, putting on relatively large scale stage shows that are often set in
colorful locales (like the Acropolis, for instance), and which obviously appeal to a certain demographic who may not
exactly be the most demanding listeners, but who know what they like and know that Yanni is it. This Puerto Rico
concert falls resolutely into that category. Filmed at the medieval looking El Morro castle (which is in fact from the 16th
century) in a gathering storm that some cynics
would say was a divinity's attempt to get the music to stop, Yanni, hair wind blown behind him like he's flying an
airplane, plays his pleasant tunes to the rapturous adoration of an audience that doesn't just applaud at the end of
songs, but seems to actually single out individual notes for laudatory "oohs" and "aahs".
Yanni's music is of course extremely well produced and usually features some nice coloristic elements that are often
culled from world cultures, but it's also very derivative at times. Take the opening piece "Truth of Touch", for example.
If that opening descending riff sounds more than a little familiar, it's because it's the exact same melodic trope that
opens John Barry's theme to Midnight Cowboy (a song that ironically provided one of the last big hits for two
other middle of the road pianists, Ferrante and Teicher). Luckily, Yanni's follow up tune "Vertigo" has no relation to
Bernard Herrmann's Hitchcock score, unless Yanni is a more skilled camouflage artist than I'm giving him credit for being.
There are some nice displays of musicianship on the part of Yanni's backup band. Vocalist Lauren Jelencovich has a
Sarah Brightman-esque tour de force wafting her way through the vocalese of "Nightingale", and, later, Victor
Espinola on harp and Yoel del Sol on percussion bring some virtuosity to the proceedings, combining cultures effortlessly
and lending the evening some much needed authenticity. Jelencovich and Lisa Lavie return for a chant based song
called "Niki Nana" that comes off as second rate Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66, replete with two gorgeous women
swaying to a hypnotic beat on stage.
Yanni talks in one of the featurettes about having been drawn to Puerto Rico and El Morro for years, perhaps decades,
but the elements were not in that same zone of bliss. The entire concert was precariously close to being canceled due
to nonstop rain and winds, which are completely in evidence in some of the footage here (the first night of the initially
planned two night event was cut short due to the storm, which some feared posed a safety hazard for both the players
and the audience). The ironic thing about all of this is that Yanni, try as he may to whip up some excitement, comes off
almost genetically as a placid character, one who crafts perfectly acceptable if undemanding music. The real
fireworks were being handled by some other, distant power.
Yanni Live at El Morro, Puerto Rico is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Music (along with an actually funny
coalition of corporate sponsors, including Lexus, AT&T, Jet Blue, Visa and FirstBank) with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in
1.78:1. This is a middling to okay looking high definition presentation that was perhaps hobbled by the inclement weather
that is obviously confronting the cast and crew on at least one of the evenings captured here on video. The image is pretty
soft looking, with milky blacks, inconsistent contrast and a complete lack of shadow detail, something exacerbated by the
fact that most in the band are wearing black. Some of the shots of El Morro look at least somewhat better, relatively
speaking, but this is far from a pristine presentation.
Is it only unintentional irony that Yanni Live at El Morro, Puerto Rico features only lossy Dolby audio options? This
seems to invite outright derisive commentary, but I shall resist the temptation, stating only the facts: there are only Dolby
Digital 5.1 and 2.0 mixes available on this Blu-ray. The 2.0 mix is just flat out anemic, with poor amplitude and a somewhat
shocking lack of dynamic range. The 5.1 mix is at least a little better, offering a better recreation of the vast soundstage,
and offering some good ambient reverb, if also too much audience noise (this is one adulatory audience, as noted
above in the main body of the review). Fidelity is okay, not spectacular, but one really has to wonder why Yanni would
venture into Blu-ray waters and not offer his fans lossless audio.
I'm sure there is a cadre of Yanni fans who will suck up every last drop of Yanni Live at El Morro, Puerto Rico and
care not one whit about what some pretentious critic has to say about the proceedings. And to those people I simply say,
have at it. But for those who want something more lasting than a transitory moment of affability, this Blu-ray has little to
offer other than the suspense of wondering if some ruthless God will actually strike Yanni down with a well aimed bolt of
lightning. Joking aside, this Blu-ray offers pretty shoddy image quality and less than stellar lossy audio, so it may be hard
for even Yanni fans to justify picking it up, especially since it will no doubt be playing ad infinitum (and/or ad
nauseam) on your local PBS station for years to come.
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