PCM 2.0 Uncompressed (English)

Cliff Richard’s music stardom predates that of the Beatles. So the fact that I wasn’t at all familiar with the British pop singer’s music before sitting down to review this Blu-ray probably says more about me than it does about him. Lucky for me, this career-spanning concert — which includes music from his time with the Shadows, some solo hits, and even his duet from the movie that partly inspired the creation of the Razzies — also doubles as a lively, CliffsNotes glimpse into Richard’s incredibly prolific and successful career.

Richard is 73 now, but he’s still able to tirelessly work every inch of the mammoth stage at the iconic Sydney Opera House, where this concert was filmed earlier this year. The singer made his first record at age 17, and had reached #2 on the British charts shortly after turning 18. The man knows how to entertain, even if he’s fooling absolutely no one with his unnaturally dark brown hair. (Tom Jones and Paul McCartney know what I’m talking about.)

“I’m often asked, ‘What do I do for a living?’ And I answer: ‘I do what I want.”

For the better part of the last 20 years, CeeLo Green has ferociously defied musical expectations by zigging when you expect him to zag. (If you thought the former frontman of hip-hop collective Goodie Mob would eventually become one of the judges on TV’s #1 singing competition, then go buy a lotto ticket immediately because you have a gift.) I happened to be in Las Vegas earlier this year when I saw a poster for CeeLo’s Sin City Loberace show. And for the first time I can remember in regards to CeeLoo’s career, I thought, “Hey that actually makes sense.”

Hugh Laurie is not the first — and he certainly won’t be the last — actor who decided he wanted a career in music too. The move might come as a surprise to people who primarily know Laurie from his sterling eight-year run as the misanthropic title character on House M.D. (Though not if you watched the show carefully.) In the past, Laurie has rocked out with some of his small-screen comrades for charity. But it turns out that after eight years of playing one of the crankiest characters in television history, Laurie was ready to sing the blues.

Hugh Laurie: Live on the Queen Mary aired on PBS in August. The concert finds the actor and the first-rate Copper Bottom Band performing aboard the legendary luxury liner, which is permanently moored in California. For Laurie, dressed for the occasion with a captain’s hat as he took the stage, the show was the realization of a lifelong dream. You wouldn’t necessarily expect an Oxford-born Englishman to be obsessed with New Orleans jazz/blues, but Laurie acquired a passion for that music as a teenager. Laurie was especially dazzled by blues legend Professor Longhair, who had recorded his own “Live on the Queen Mary” album in 1975.

Caroline Esmeralda van de Leeuw didn’t know she was a jazz singer until somebody told her. Growing up in Amsterdam, she was too lazy and impatient to properly learn how to play an instrument. Fortunately, she was blessed with a sultry, soulful and sassy singing voice. Caro Emerald has used that voice to smash chart records in the Netherlands. Earlier this year, her second album, “The Shocking Miss Emerald”, reached #1 in the United Kingdom. And that’s where she happened to be when I was introduced to her funky brand of jazz.

This Blu-ray captures her performance at the art deco BBC Radio Theatre in London as part of the In Concert series. It’s a relatively intimate, 300-seat venue that suits her music perfectly. In fact, if it weren’t for those pesky seats, I could easily imagine the theatre spontaneously turning into a dance hall with everyone in the audience joining in on the fun. I should mention that, in my former life, I was a pretty avid swing dancer. So I’m always looking for potential places to lindy bomb, and cool new music to dance to.

For a variety of reasons, fewer people seem to be retiring when they turn 65. That’s long been the case for legendary musicians like Bryan Ferry, who was at that milestone age when he filmed this concert in Lyon, France during the summer of 2011. Ferry has always combined his own "old soul" sensibility with a forward-thinking approach to creating music. So this show, with Ferry now an actual senior citizen, turned out to be an ideal time to check in on the former Roxy Music frontman.

Live in Lyon was part of a tour supporting Ferry’s 2010 “Olympia” album, and features music from the singer’s staggering 40-year career. As a result, the show highlights Roxy Music hits from the ‘70s and early ‘80s, as well as a generous helping of cuts from Ferry’s accomplished solo career, which also includes his haunting covers of other artists. (The album that preceded “Olympia” was a 2007 collection of Bob Dylan covers called “Dylanesque.”)

Supergroups are hot right now: witness the astonishing box office dominance of The Avengers, as well as Warner Bros./D.C. Comics’ frantic attempts to replicate Marvel’s success. But the idea of a supergroup — a collective whose members have previously achieved individual success — has been around for a very long time, and is most commonly found in the world of music. The members of PSMS (Mike Portnoy, Billy Sheehan, Tony MacAlpine and Derek Sherinian) certainly fit the supergroup bill. Late last year, they united to rock the faces off their fans in Europe and Asia.

Live in Tokyo captures their Nov. 14 show at Zepp Tokyo last year. PSMS — Portnoy (drums/vocals), Sheehan (bass/vocals), MacAlpine (guitar), Sherinian (keyboards) — was formed in January 2012. Although they weren’t exactly strangers, the group experienced some understandable growing pains when they first got together. (Portnoy expands on this in the Behind the Scenes featurette on this Blu-ray.) By the time this concert was filmed, however, PSMS had been together for nearly a year and they sounded like a totally cohesive unit.

Carlos Santana is too cool for words. When I say that, I refer to both his widely-acknowledged status as a “Guitar God” and to the fact that he doesn’t utter a single word until the 30-minute mark of Invitation to Illumination, his 2011 reunion with John McLaughlin. Having another rock deity on stage appears to have inspired Santana, who performs with an extra little bounce in his step during this Montreux Jazz Festival show. This Blu-ray also has the unintended consequence of serving as a tribute to the festival’s late founder.

Claude Nobs, the festival’s general manager and founder, died earlier this year following a skiing accident. The Montreux Jazz Festival was established in 1967, and Nobs crossed paths with both Santana and McLaughlin in the early 1970s. That was also around the time the rock/jazz fusion-loving duo collaborated for 1972’s “Love Devotion Surrender” album, which was followed by a tour the next year. Exactly 40 years later, their first full-length concert in decades makes its Blu-ray debut.