Search - Ray Charles Celebrates: A Gospel Christmas w/Voices of Jubilation - Deluxe Edition (DVD/CD) on DVD

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 10/31/2018...

This was actually a whole lot better than expected compared to other Ray Charles flop music dvds in the past. Worth a watch if you like his music and popular Christmas songs sung by him and other very good gospel singers.

Note: This one also comes with a music CD of the songs.

Cr@ptacular!!

Heybub1 | Northern NJ - USA | 12/10/2004

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This DVD is horrible right from the beginning. When you first pop the disc in it FORCES you to watch a 2 minute commercial for the cheap-o company that produced this disc. You can't skip it or even fast forward through it.
Finally, when you can play the concert, you have to put up with the Voices of Jubilation singing some gospel songs -- w/ no Ray in sight -- for about 15 minutes. Then Ray FINALLY comes out, sings a few songs, stands up and bounces a few times, and then is led off stage. Now we get to put up with the VOJ again for another 15 minutes.
By then, I turned the DVD off and sold it to a record store that buys used discs. I should have been tipped off when the accompanying CD that comes with this only has 10 songs on it -- all by Ray. On the DVD, there are over 20 songs listed. So more than half the songs are NOT even sung by Ray Charles. Look, Ray Charles SOUNDS great but this concert is definitely not worth the price.
The one thing that kept me watching longer than I should have, though, was -- with the entire choir, all African American, decked out in their tribal African garb -- when the camera showed crowd shots it was all a bunch of country bumpkin looking middle aged white folks clapping and dancing (out of rhythm!) to the music.
Now THAT was entertaining.
The rest of the concert/DVD? Not so much.
Don't waste your money on this and, instead, get "O Genio"."

Egregious

W. Read | Gulf Stream | 01/07/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This was beyond belief from the forced commercial at the beginning to the lousy production values and poor Ray looks and acts ill.
Avoid."

Better than the other guy says

SpookyChick | in tha' world! | 12/13/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It's true that about half of the 90 minute concert is the Voices of Jubilation choir on their own, the other half is led by Ray Charles. I would've liked more Ray, but to hear the other review tell it you'd think he only made a cameo appearance!

The Voices of Jubilation choir is very good, I only wish their numbers had been more traditional Christmas songs (there are a number of non-holiday gospel tunes). The packaging states this was Ray Charles' final video-recorded performance, if that's true that makes it even more worth seeing.

For the price, this is a very worthy Christmas set. You get an hour and a half concert, with excellent picture quality and 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. And on top of it, a CD that consists of all of Ray Charles numbers from the concert. Very generous if you ask me. This will be a part of my yearly Christmas tradition (along with Ray Charles' excellent 1985 "Spirit of Christmas" cd).

"