051001

Redemption Song - movies, music & thoughts - 051001

The Blues: A Musical Journey - "Warming by the Devil's Fire" & "Godfathers and Sons" | Bush Administration Guilty of Buying the News

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MOVIES --


- TONIGHT -

Martin Scorsese Presents: The Blues: A Musical Journey (7-Disc Series) (2002)
Disc 4: Warming by the Devil's Fire
This PBS series, executive produced by Martin Scorsese, consists of seven feature-length films that capture the essence of the blues while exploring how this art form so deeply influenced music and people the world over. The films include such treasures as rare video footage, interviews and unforgettable performances by some of the greatest musicians in blues history.
Starring: B.B. King, Ray Charles, More
Director: Martin Scorsese, More

- Disc 4: This disc includes the film "Warming by the Devil's Fire," in which director Charles Burnett presents the parallels between gospel and the blues through the story of a young Mississippi boy. Special performances from the likes of Big Bill Broonzy, Elizabeth Cotton, Ida Cox, Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey, Muddy Waters and more are included.
Additional "Actors:" Son House, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mississippi John Hurt, Victoria Spivey, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Ida Cox, Mamie Smith, Bessie Smith, Dinah Washington Love, Big Bill Broonzy, Lightnin' Hopkins

- Disc 5: This disc includes the film "Godfathers and Sons," in which rapper Chuck D, Marshall Chess (of Chess Records) and director Marc Levin take to the streets of Chicago to recount the glory days of Chicago blues. The film features performances by Bo Diddley, Pinetop Perkins, Sam Lay, Lonnie Brooks, Chuck D and Public Enemy, Common and more!
Additional "Actors:" Ike Turner, Chuck D., Koko Taylor, Magic Slim, Common, Sam Lay, Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf, Marc Levin, Marshall Chess

above quote[s] from netflix


reviews of the above series range from "a serious must-have" to "practically worthless" - i, myself, am enjoying it quite alot; but then my grasp of the history of the blues is fairly limited


- Editorial Review from Amazon.com -

It may have been underrated when first broadcast on PBS on consecutive nights in the fall of '03, but executive producer Martin Scorsese's homage to the blues is a truly significant, if imperfect, achievement. "Musical journey" is an apt description, as Scorsese and the six other directors responsible for these seven approximately 90-minute films follow the blues--the foundation of jazz, soul, R&B, and rock & roll--from its African roots to its Mississippi Delta origins, up the river to Memphis and Chicago, then to New York, the United Kingdom, and beyond. Some of the films (like Wim Wenders's The Soul of a Man and Charles Burnett's Warming by the Devil's Fire) use extensive fictional film sequences, generally to good effect. There's also plenty of documentary footage, interviews, and contemporary studio performances recorded especially for these films.

The last are among the best aspects of the DVDs, as the bonus material features the set's only complete tunes. Lou Reed's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" and the ElektriK Mud Kats' (with Chuck D. of Public Enemy) hip-hop-cum-traditional updating of Muddy Waters's "Mannish Boy" are among the best of them; on the other hand, a rendition of "Cry Me a River" by Lulu (?!) is a curious choice, even with Jeff Beck on hand. The absence of lengthier vintage clips, meanwhile, is the principal drawback. For that reason alone, Clint Eastwood's Piano Blues is the best of the lot; a musician himself, Eastwood simply lets the players play, which means we get extensive file footage of the likes of Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, and Nat "King" Cole, as well as new performances by Ray Charles, Dr. John, and others. Overall, this is a set to savor, a worthwhile investment guaranteed to grow on you over the course of repeated viewings. --Sam Graham

- from customer reviews at Amazon.com -

"A Music Appreciation That Needs To Be In All The Schools..." | "limited footage of performers (and the audacity to narrate over footage instead of allowing the viewer to listen firsthand) and a selectivity that is baffling and, sometimes, offensive.

The bigger problem is that the series suffers from some major historical blunders. As much as each presenter is attempting to chart the history of the 'blues', its antecedents and forebears, there is little attention to the history of blues scholarship which informs the research attempted by the series. Blues scholarship has a history - one decidedly romantic, grounded in a 1950s/60s record collector attitude which has foregrounded some objectively insignificant artists in their time (Robert Johnson) and studiously ignored tremendously influential ones (Lonnie Johnson)..."

(see this "movie's" page at Amazon.com)


- UPCOMING -


The Butterfly Effect: Director's Cut, In the Time of the Butterflies, Frida


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MUSIC --


image hosted by wherehouse.com

see above in MOVIES - Martin Scorsese Presents: The Blues: A Musical Journey


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THOUGHTS --


- LINK OF THE DAY -


Bush Administration Guilty of Buying the News
Federal auditors said on Friday that the Bush administration violated the law by buying favorable news coverage of President Bush's education policies, by making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relation company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party.


see also: /RENEGADE/


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