Prince's galvanising performance ‘Live at the Aladdin’ demonstrates that he really was one of the great talents of the last quarter-century, a fact easily obscured by the sheer volume and varying quality of his recorded output, not to mention his weird behavior and his eerie love for symbols.

The concert is footage capturing the final show of Prince’s world tour the One Nite Alone…..Tour filmed at the Theatre for the Performing Arts of the Aladdin Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, on 15^th December 2002 and features several notable cover versions, an unreleased song and touches on some of his rarely performed back catalog of material. It is unfortunately a little short at 80 minutes (edited down from a two-hour-plus concert) is that but if you have ever watched a Prince concert, it has a high intensity and a huge amount of funk to make you wonder at a man called Prince. Performed to an audience of 7,000, the DVD does not capture the full concert, ‘Prince Live At The Aladdin Las Vegas’ but rather it has the middle portion of that show.

Besides the set list, the DVD contains one previously unreleased song U Want Me, which dates from 2002 and is performed as part of a medley with Strollin’. The concert features a guest appearance by Nikka Costa performing her song Push & Pull as a duet with Prince. The pair first met in 2001 when Prince invited her to performed at Prince: ‘A Celebration at Paisley Park’

The other songs that feature on this DVD are Money Don't Matter 2 Night/The Work to covers of the Ohio Players' Love Rollercoaster and a sizzling version of Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love. Prince also performs some of his lesser known songs, leaning towards some newer material, from the past such as Pop Life, Strange Relationship, Gotta Broken Heart, Sometimes It Snows in April. There’s also a bonus clip with an extra song in the form of The Ride which is magical.

For all the rumours of Prince being self-centered and arrogant, which he probably still is in some aspects, he gives a lot of space for others to shine such as the brilliant Maceo Parker (former sax-man for James Brown) and long-term collaborator Sheila E.

If you like Prince you will love this DVD. The level of funk is high here with pop production lessened with even his rap coming down in most of his songs over the mid-80's and much of the 90's. He replaced this with jazz and funk which worked well.

‘Prince Live At The Aladdin Las Vegas’ charted at number 2 on Billboard’s music video chart. It would become the final physical format video release issued in Prince’s lifetime.

Initial release: 19^th August 2003

Director: Sanaa Hamri 

Music director: Prince

Rating: *****

Reviewed by Verus Ferreira