The Definitive Montreux Collection (DVD)

To the accomplished guitarist, the name Gary Moore should be no stranger to your ears. This veteran guitar player has long been revered as being a true master of his craft; learning his chops with such 70's blues acts as Skid Row (the UK version that predated the U.S. Skid Row), Coliseum as well as brief stints in Thin Lizzy. His fiery yet very deep friendship with Phil Lynott lead to some great music with both Thin Lizzy as well as solo collaborations. Throughout the late 70's and into the mid 80's, Gary Moore produced a number of fine albums that were mainly hard rock/heavy metal in nature. By the end of the 80's and after such classic albums like Wild Frontier and After The War, Gary felt that he had done everything he could do with the whole hard rock and metal genre and yearned for a return to the blues roots of his youth. His 1990 album Still Got The Blues became his biggest seller to date and for many is synonymous with the Gary Moore name. Since then, he has released several other blues albums as well as some rock albums including Scars as well as a collaboration with Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce of Creem fame. Through it all, Gary's signature sound of combining ferocious power with singing vibratos has remained as strong as ever along with his powerful and soulful voice; something her never gets enough credit for.

This new double DVD set chronicles Gary Moore's 5 separate appearances at the famous Montreux Jazz Festival with over 4 hours of live footage as well as some of the highlights packaged onto an accompanying audio CD. This package includes 39 songs in all with just a few duplications. For the excerpt from the 1990 show, we get a sweat drenched full throttle assault from Gary and his band including Cold, Cold Feeling with Albert Collins on lead guitar and vocals as well as a truly stunning piece of singing sweet vibrato guitar combined with intense shredding for the very passionate instrumental The Messiah Will Come Again from his After The War album. Gary's voice for this set has never sounded better and his vocal power is truly remarkable. The 1995 show was during the tour for the album Blues For Greeny; dedicated to Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green and includes several of his songs. Still Got The Blues is another concert highlight from this show as is a rousing version of Stevie Ray Vaughn's The Sky Is Crying. The 1997 set sees Gary ditching the trusty Gibson Les Paul in favour of Gibson hollow bodies and Fender Strats. The real highlight of this show is an awesome version of Out In The Fields, a track written with Phil Lynott and released just prior to Phil's death. The 1999 set sees more blues standards creeping into the set as well as another Moore/Lynott collaboration with Parisienne Walkways. The final excerpt is from the 2001 set and features a mix of blues standards and a solid version of Jimmy Hendrix's Fire.

The camera work for these shows is top notch (as is with most Montreux releases) and even though it would be nice to have had all these shows in their entirety, I'm sure that there would have been quite a bit of duplication in the set lists. Gary Moore really puts his heart and soul into each and every note he sings or coaxes out of his guitar. No-one these days plays with such passion and power. He may not be the most technically precise player but his playing has so much more feeling and a personal touch that most guitarists today simply do not have. Even though most of the material here is blues based, he takes every opportunity to cut loose and shred up a storm whenever possible. Although excessive guitar "wankery" can often be too over the top for most, Gary does it in such a way that is always excting and never gets boring or clichéd. A fine DVD set for the fans of Gary Moore, one of my all-time favourite guitarists has also reminded me of just how great a vocalist he really is and how commanding a presence he is in a live situation.