"The Blues" series on PBS

[Jad]

I liked the use of Jon Spencer in the film, and enjoyed the performance. It shows how influential the blues still is. Spencer, Beck and Cave especially cite James, Howlin' Wolf, et al as importent influence in their music. What they do is their interpretation of the music. So it doesn't suit everyone who thinks they know what "the Blues" is. Jon Spencer is closer to what I get out of the blues than Bonnie Raitt.

[Jim Alfredson]

It may sound tacky and unnatural to you in white singers--and I don't necessarily disagree for many of them--but the reason that they do ths is because it is part of the language of the genre, part of being bluesy. This music is an American thing, and it's not black or white or black and white.

I'm not saying it's a black thing. I'm saying that most white musicians I see and hear who play blues do so in a very contrived way to my ears. I'm mainly talking about the kind of players you see in a local bar because that's about as good as some of the performances were on that show.

Growling may be part of the language but does that mean all blues singers do it? I've never heard Junior Parker growl like Howlin' Wolf. I think it's an easy part of the language to try and mimic and that's why so many do. It's easy to say, "Oh you have to put that growl in your voice to sing the blues," but to my ears the ones that do it well are doing it because they really feel the need to do it, not because it's what they are supposed to do.

I'll admit that I my voice growls and gets scratchy when I sing a blues, but I hope it sounds better than what I heard last night. And I don't do it because that's what Pops did or Howlin' Wolf or whatever. I do it because that's what the music feels like to me at that moment.

Some of last night's performances reminded me of George Thoroughgood's excuse for blues singing... that really lame, wanna-be soulfulness that often times gets mistaken for "bluesy".

[jazzbo]

Okay, you didn't like that stuff. I wasn't crazy about a lot of it either (including Raitt's performances) but I did like some and it was interesting to see in some of it how the music was being adapted to the newer styles. Doesn't mean I like the newer styles that much.

Maybe it's because I'm in Texas where the blues began but I don't find local talent of any hue to really be that bad at singing the blues. . . . I guess I'm lucky.

[skeith]

I don't have a problem with current performers doing the blues and transforming the songs. My issue with the program that featured James and Lenoir is what is Wenders's point in showing me these contemporary performances? Is he saying "see this music is still relevant because Beck is doing this song"? If so, Wenders insults my intelligence - I don't need Beck to show me it is relevant.

If I want to see the blues performed by guys like the Stones or Clapton or whomever (and I like much of it), I can easily to find it, BUT in a program that has relatively little time to devote to a genre that has so many important artists, I think is a monumental waste of time to show these contemporary guys.

[Jim Alfredson]

Maybe it's because I'm in Texas where the blues began but I don't find local talent of any hue to really be that bad at singing the blues. . . . I guess I'm lucky.

Yes, yes you are.

There is a healthy blues scene here in Lansing but a lot of the "singers" leave much to be desired.

[Soul Stream]

I saw last night's episode (hey, they re-run it at midnight so I caught it after my gig!). Anyway...now THIS is what a blues documentary should be.

I had no grips at all with this one. Great episode!

[Jim Alfredson]

I saw it too. Bobby Rush is the man. Saw him last year at a Blues Festival here in town. My R&B band actually played right before him. He's a bad dude.

[skeith]

I did not care for Bobby Rush. The guy clearly has talent, but most of the music featured in the program had little to do with the blues, seemed closer to James Brown.

Also, I was very turned off by that "watch the butt" sequence. I thought it was demeaning, showy, and frankly nauseating. Sorry, but he ain't fit to even carry B.B.'s guitar case.

[Soul Stream]

Actually I dug the Bobby Rush part the most. Because, like it or not, that's the real modern day chitlin' circuit scene. I know, because I played it for several years. That's the kind of show black people play for black people in the little brass rail and mirror clubs down south. Bad synthesizers, 6 string basses and a lot of posturing by all involved. But it's a whole world unto itself and one that I'm glad I got to see first hand.

Say what you will about the music and performances. But that's hard work. And it's REAL. Like it or not (I never did dig the music either, how many times can you play "Down Home Blues." A lot.)

[jazzbo]

Yes, that is the way it is in the circuit, I've seen a few shows like that here in town, and I know there are many more to see throughout Texas.

skeith, I don't think your intelligence should feel insulted. That film was not geared towards us specifically. I don't think we can ever expect to see a flock of documentaries with full historical etc. comment . . .we'll get this mixed bag.

[The Mule]

Eastwood's sounds interesting, but not exactly all about the blues....

VARIETY

Posted: Tue., Sep. 30, 2003, 1:19pm PT

Piano Blues

(Documentary; PBS, Sat., Oct. 4, 9 p.m.) Filmed in Northern California by Vulcan Prods. and Road Movies as part of "Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues." Producers, Clint Eastwood, Bruce Ricker; co-producer, Susan Motamed; associate producers, Salinah El-Amin, Agnes Chu; director, Eastwood; writer, Peter Guralnick;

With: Marcia Ball, Pinetop Perkins, Dave Brubeck, Jay McShann, Ray Charles, Dr. John, Henry Gray, Pete Jolly.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By PHIL GALLO

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The final chapter of "Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues," Clint Eastwood's "Piano Blues" takes the greatest liberties in defining the musical form. Eastwood adds a more personal touch than the other six films -- the director is seen onscreen asking broad questions and eventually even answering his own query -- as he looks at a baker's dozen of keyboardists, most of whom would find their work filed under jazz in record stores and personal collections. While the program lacks spelled-out links to connect jazz greats with the blues, "Piano" fulfills in providing lengthy performance segments and fabulous footage of the great New Orleans stylist Professor Longhair.

To accept Eastwood's definition of a "blues pianist" requires a redistricting of the blues terrain. He establishes ground zero with boogie-woogie pianists Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson, though he gives no dates (they emerged in the 1930s) or historical data (they were Midwesterners who found a broad audience after the Carnegie Hall "Spirituals to Swing" concert in 1939). Building flashy styles with roots in ragtime, boogie-woogie, more than any other blues style, had a run in high-society circles before petering out as most fads do.

The boogie-woogie champs certainly had an impact on the New Orleans pianists over the two decades that followed the style's popularity, though "Piano Blues" doesn't draw a direct line to Fats Domino or Professor Longhair (and completely ignores Roosevelt Sykes). Ray Charles is seated on the piano bench next to Eastwood, and as much as the two share their enthusiasm for similar musicians, interviews don't move along the story.

Also, it's curious that among his other partners at the piano are jazzmen Dave Brubeck and Pete Jolly, both of whom have recorded fine work that involves shifting meters and obscure time signatures. No matter how much they plead an affinity to the blues, the simplicity of that style runs counter to their own compositions and perfs.

Dr. John and Marcia Ball, who join him later on the bench, explore New Orleans styles, and Muddy Waters' pianist Pinetop Perkins presents the Chicago side of the story. Henry Gray, a former Howlin Wolf sideman and possibly the most obscure player in this entire series, provides some gut-pounding downhome blues and Jay McShann, in new and historical footage, brings together blues and big band, Kansas City style.

With Charles as his guide and a voiceover in "Dirty Harry" diction, Eastwood's historical footage overloads on jazz players. There's Art Tatum, the underappreciated Phineas Newborn Jr. and an abundance of Oscar Peterson, even a series in which he duets with Andre Previn. Add to that an unnecessary perf of Charles doing "America."

Footage of Nat "King" Cole is accompanied by Charles' commentary on his early work, but tapes of the late Charles Brown appear out of nowhere. The link between those three is vital toward understanding West Coast blues in the late 1940s and early '50s, when Brown and Cole were the trendsetters and Charles was a young upstart in Seattle. Like the boogie-woogie players, their music was rooted in the blues but decorated with soothing flourishes that had an appeal to both black and white audiences; only Brown stayed with the style as Cole went into the pop arena and Charles changed the face of popular music by incorporating gospel into his work. None of this is mentioned in Peter Guralnick's expansive text.

The treat in "Piano Blues," however, is the artful and sinuous camera work of Vic Losick. He gets a limited canvas -- a recording studio -- and his work exquisitely frames the pianists at work.

camera, Vic Losick; editor, Joel Cox, Gary Roach. 92 MIN.

[skeith]

I believe what you guys are saying about the circuit. But it is sad and somewhat ironic is that the audience for authentic blues is becoming all white. That's a shame. To quote one of my favorite black political philosophers "in this great future, you can't forget your past".

[Rooster_Ties]

But it is sad and somewhat ironic is that the audience for authentic blues is becoming all white. That's a shame. To quote one of my favorite black political philosophers "in this great future, you can't forget your past".

Isn't this also the case with Jazz (although, perhaps to a lesser extent than Blues).

If we want to go off on this tangent further (and I'm tempted), perhaps another (separate) thread would be in order. I know the topic's been discussed before (and perhaps 'discussed to death'), but I'd welcome some more discussion, especially on this here board --- where the discussions about race seem to be far more civil than they usually turn out to be on AAJ, or back on the BNBB.

[maren]

FYI -- an online chat with Charles Burnett about his "Blues" episode starts in about 10 minutes (noon eastern time) at http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/z...blues102203.htm

[Christiern]

Charles Burnett's contrived, poorly acted dramatic segments were painful to watch last night. I don't know who he is or what he has done before, but this was pretty bad. It was particularly annoying since it took up time that could have been used for blues clips. I thought the previous night's episode lacked imagination, but this one might have had too much of it--a strenuous attempt at original approach, IMO.

I just checked out the Burnett interview and I am amazed at how sloppy his research is. The following is from the Q&A:

• Columbus, Ohio: Really enjoyed your film! Was the footage of Bessie Smith singing about being jilted in the bar scene archival or produced for this film? It was like an early MTV video! What ended up happening to her?
  
  Charles Burnett: No, that was produced by WC Handy and the Handy family owns that. It was a film made by Paramount starring Bessie Smith made in the 30's. She died in a tragic car accident and bled to death in Mississippi.
  

First of all, the Handy family does not own the film. It is actually in the public domain and the original negative was owned by Karl Knudsen, who died last month. He purchased it from the son of Dudley Murphy, who directed the film.

Also, the film was not made by Paramount, as Burnett alleges. It was made by RCA Phototone (in Astoria, Queens) and the filming took place in late August 1929, not "in the 30s."

Now I know why the film was a chronological jumble--the guy who made it simply didn't bother to do basic research.

Edited October 2, 2003 by Christiern

[Larry Kart]

Chris, Charles Burnett's segment of "The Blues" sounds like a disaster (haven't seen any of them myself), but I have seen two of his fiction films, "To Sleep With Anger" (1990) and "The Glass Shield" (1994), and they were excellent, especially the first one. Later on he did cross paths with Oprah on a project ("The Wedding"), which may have messed up his mind.

[Christiern]

Later on he did cross paths with Oprah on a project ("The Wedding"), which may have messed up his mind.

That would do it, Larry!

[kulu se mama]

this may have been discussed elsewhere, but what is up with the "red white and blues" segment. i purchased the cd on ebay after checking the song list on amazon. they list 2 new recordings by van morrison. i received the cd today, and the songs are mostly different. i double checked on tower, and they have the correct song list, but a different cover. the van morrison songs are nowhere to be found.

what's up with that?

[jacman]

i have the night off, and i'm not going to watch TV. i'm gonna sit on my front porch, smoke a cigar (ERDM RL in case anyone is interested) and listen to Paul Butterfield, Muddy Waters, and Son House.

[Brad]

I didn't catch tonight's installment but right after that they had 30 or so minutes on Jimi Hendrix, which I thought was fantastic. They portrayed Jimi as an original blues player and r&b guitarist (they showed him in his younger days playing for the Iseley Brothers and others) who then broke through to new territory. One interviewee likened him to Pops, Bird and Coltrane and I agree with that. They of course talked about the Star Spangled Banner and I can still remember listening to that high. Man, nothing can beat it. I had never heard been interviewed but they wove in clips from the Dick Cavett show. He was remarkably soft spoken. It was a great glimpse of someone who I loved as a teenager.

[bluenoter]

Only caught a brief moment of tonight's episode [the first episode, IIRC] - did I really see the lyric caption say "blowing my home" [instead of 'horn']? Maybe I was hallucinating.

Mike--I assume that you're talking about the lyrics to Robert Johnson's "Walking Blues." If so, you weren't hallucinating, and IMO the transcription that you saw was correct.

"Lord, I feel like blowing my old lonesome ____."

What horn? Did Robert Johnson play trumpet? No. Did Robert Johnson have a car (on which to blow the horn)? Well, we know that he had a Terraplane at some point, but in "Walking Blues," he's got the . . . walking blues.

"Blowing" means "leaving," as in "I'm going to blow this town."

He's "leaving this morning" if he has to "ride the blinds" (hop a freight train). He wouldn't need to think about doing that if he had a car.

Today there are "official" transcriptions of Robert Johnson's lyrics, and I assume that the one for "Walking Blues" says "horn." However, on the old Columbia LP Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers, the transcription in the liner notes says "home."

Edited October 3, 2003 by bluenoter

[jazzbo]

Brad, glad you caught the Hendrix bit; I have it taped and will watch it this weekend. Hendrix was a marvel, and in the last few years I have been collecting all the unreleased material that I can from him, and there is a startling amount of it, and it is astonishingly good. The Cavett show interviews (and performances) in their entirety is available and worth seeing. He was indeed a softspoken man with DEEP things to say; the liner notes to some releases (especially the "Stages" Reprise box set) and several books (especially "Cherokee Mist") outline the fact that he had a real insight (in my opinion) into the political, religious and cultural forces of his age and a fascinating viewpoint.

And he made music as no one else has! His cd in the "Blues" cd series in cahoots with this series of films is really something else!

Edited October 3, 2003 by jazzbo

[Man with the Golden Arm]

For my money thus far Ken Burns has kicked Scorsese's butt.

and on top of that I just got a software download prompt for my Mac that adds "the Ken Burns effect" to iMovie? then I'll be able to do everything in blase sepia-tone.

[Dan Gould]

For my money thus far Ken Burns has kicked Scorsese's butt.

and on top of that I just got a software download prompt for my Mac that adds "the Ken Burns effect" to iMovie? then I'll be able to do everything in blase sepia-tone.

Does that include the special audio plug-in for portentous voice overs?

[Christiern]

For my money thus far Ken Burns has kicked Scorsese's butt.

and on top of that I just got a software download prompt for my Mac that adds "the Ken Burns effect" to iMovie?  then I'll be able to do everything in blase sepia-tone. 

Does that include the special audio plug-in for portentous voice overs?

No Dan, iMovie doesn't even contain gratuitous train footage. Besides, all the "Ken Burns" effect does is block one from editing footage made after 1948. Go past that date and you will see flashing, scowling faces of Wynton and Crouch superimposed on you work.