Why No Diana Live CD?

[longtimefan]

Over the past 3-4 years, Diana has been extremely successful with her live concerts. The reviews have been extraordinarily positive and many of the venues have been high profile, i.e., Brooklyn this week.

Please know that this post is in support of Diana and hopefully does not open doors for personal attacks.

My question: Why has there been no release [[CD or downloadable) of this concert over these several years? Surely, they have been recorded, and even if it meant splicing together outstanding performances from various venues, that would be understandable.

It seems that Diana is not choosing to do studio recordings any more ... but why not document this fabulous series of concerts for her legacy?

I know that she does not have a "recording contract," but there are many avenues to release music with today's technology. Just think: As the audiences leave her concerts, they would gobble up these recordings in the lobby!

[thommg]

I was hoping they might record the Brooklyn Concert from the other night but it doesn't appear that they did. I heard it was a magical, electric night at the King's Theatre!

[marybrewster]

I think the answer lies in why no other heritage artists of the same era do not release live recordings. Yes, Diana sounds great and generally gets positive reviews, but the Diana singing today is not the Diana of say, the 70's or 80's. I'm sure Diana herself would even say that her voice is not what it used to be.

That's no disrespect, it's the truth. Her voice favors a lower range, and at 70 years old, she clearly has difficulties hitting some of the notes. She will always sell out. She'll always be the Supreme Diva. But truthfully, if we can't get "Funny Girl" or "Baby It's Me" on physical CD, there's no chance we'll get this.

[jobeterob]

And also, I doubt there is much profitability in any recording of a live CD.

There isn't even much profitability in the issuance of a CD period. I noticed last night that Bette Midler's quite well received recent CD [[For the Girls??) is #192 on Billboard. Basically, it fizzled fast. The Aretha Franklin CD came and went far quicker and was gone off the Billboard Charts within a month.

So, I can't see it happening.

[marybrewster]

I love Bette's "new" [[is it still considered new?) CD. She picked the perfect genre; one very rarely touched upon. The only dud to me is "Waterfalls". I know others love it, I just think compared to the rest of the CD, it sticks out like a sore thumb. She should have just stuck to the 40's/50's/60's, and perhaps done a "Part 2", reaching into the 70's/80's/90's.

Aretha, God bless her, just tried too hard to be contemporary.

Diana had the right idea with "I Love You", just a horrible selection of songs. Diana would explode with a "Tribute to the Divas" CD: Sarah Vaughn, Josephine Baker, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Billie Holliday, Nina Simone, Carmen McRae, Dinah Washington.....

[reese]

I have also seen where some older artists like Dionne, the Pointer Sisters, and Chaka Khan have released live cds and then for whatever reason, ownership of the material changes hands. Then the same concert gets released over and over again on different labels and under different titles. Dionne's live cd from the Syracuse Jazz Festival has been reissued numerous times under different titles. Most likely they aren't getting proper [[if any) royalties from these.

[RobertZ]

I think all of the points made here are correct. Perhaps a PBS live special during their fund-raising periods would be an option. I think Diana is sounding great and as I have said in other threads I really wish for new material, cover versions or otherwise -

[reese]

I think all of the points made here are correct. Perhaps a PBS live special during their fund-raising periods would be an option. I think Diana is sounding great and as I have said in other threads I really wish for new material, cover versions or otherwise -

A PBS special would be nice.

I also thought it would be nice if Diana did an A&E By Request show, where fans could call in an request a song. I don't even know if the show is still in production. But I remember some nice episodes, particularly one with Johnny Mathis.

[Mark Desjardines]

Yes, a dilemma indeed for Diana Ross, what direction to take if she chose to release another recording. I know many young blood hip-hop type producers would love to work with her, but getting the dance club set interested would be a hard sell. Most of us are tired of the "duets" concept. We all know Diana shines on standards and jazz classics, but does she need to revisit that territory?

I have always been thrilled when recording artists go back to the material that made them famous in the first place, and reinterpret it from the distance of age and wisdom. Lamont Dozier has released recordings of himself performing several of his best compositions by The Supremes and Four Tops, with only acoustic accompanyment with him playing piano. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Diana and Mary could work on a studio recording, maybe not being there at the same time, but trying to achieve some of that classic harmony, reflecting on "Where Did Our Love Go, etc. No doubt my thoughts will invite some derision but this is my passionate hope.

[jack020]

it is a pity the Symphonica In Rosso organization went banktrupt or else we might have gotten a cd and dvd release of the Ross Concerts from 2009 as was common for all the other concerts from the years before [[f.i. Lionel Ritchie and some Dutch artists)