DVD Movie Rating for: The Blues - A Musical Journey (2003)

4 out of 5 stars

Movie Plot of: The Blues - A Musical Journey

This DVD Set Contains seven feature-length films:

Feel Like Going Home directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Peter Guralnick

The Soul of a Man directed and written by Wim Wenders

The Road to Memphis directed by Richard Pearce and written by Robert Gordon

Warming by the Devil's Fire directed and written by Charles Burnett

Godfathers and Sons directed by Marc Levin

Red, White & Blues directed by Mike Figgis

Piano Blues directed by Clint Eastwood

DVD Production Details of: The Blues - A Musical Journey

Starring: Martin Scorsese

Studio: Sony Music (Video)

DVD Release Date: October 14, 2003
DVD Features:
Contains seven feature-length films:

Feel Like Going Home directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Peter Guralnick

The Soul of a Man directed and written by Wim Wenders

The Road to Memphis directed by Richard Pearce and written by Robert Gordon

Warming by the Devil's Fire directed and written by Charles Burnett

Godfathers and Sons directed by Marc Levin

Red, White & Blues directed by Mike Figgis

Piano Blues directed by Clint Eastwood

Over three hours of special feature material:

Live performances not seen in the film

Director commentaries

On-camera interviews with the directors

Director biographies and filmographies

Special menu options to scan for all music performances

Trailer

Widescreen anamorphic format

Number of discs: 7

Feel Like Going Home

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Written by Peter Guralnick

Director Martin Scorsese (The Last Waltz, Raging Bull, Gangs of New York) pays homage to the Delta blues. Musician Corey Harris travels through Mississippi and on to West Africa, exploring the roots of the music. The film celebrates the early Delta bluesmen through original performances (including Willie King, Taj Mahal, Otha Turner, and Ali Farka Toure) and rare archival footage (featuring Son House, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker).

Says Scorsese: "I've always felt an affinity for blues music - the culture of storytelling through music is incredibly fascinating and appealing to me. The blues have great emotional resonance and are the foundation for American popular music."

Performances in Feel Like Going Home
Corey Harris
John Lee Hooker
Son House
Salif Keita
Habib Koité
Taj Mahal
Ali Farka Toure
Otha Turner
Muddy Waters
Keb' Mo'
Willie King
Lead Belly

Interviews in Feel Like Going Home
Corey Harris
Sam Carr
Toumani Diabate
Willie King
Dick Waterman
Taj Mahal
Johnny Shines
Otha Turner
Ali Farka Toure
Habib Koité
Salif Keita
Keb' Mo'

The Soul of a Man

Written and directed by Wim Wenders

Director Wim Wenders (Buena Vista Social Club; Wings of Desire; Paris, Texas ) explores the lives of his favorite blues artists - Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson, and J. B. Lenoir - in a film that is part history and part personal pilgrimage. The film tells the story of these artists' lives in music through a fictional film-within-a-film, rare archival footage, and covers of their songs by contemporary musicians, including Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams, Lou Reed, Eagle Eye Cherry, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Cassandra Wilson, Garland Jeffreys, Los Lobos, and others.

Says Wenders: "These songs meant the world to me. I felt there was more truth in them than in any book I had read about America, or in any movie I had ever seen. I've tried to describe, more like a poem than in a 'documentary,' what moved me so much in their songs and voices."

Performances in The Soul of a Man
T-Bone Burnett
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
Eagle-Eye Cherry
Shemekia Copeland
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Alvin Youngblood Hart
Skip James
Garland Jeffreys
Chris Thomas King
J.B. Lenoir
Los Lobos
John Mayall
Bonnie Raitt
Lou Reed
Vernon Reid
Marc Ribot
James "Blood" Ulmer
Lucinda Williams
Cassandra Wilson

Cast: Skip James: Keith B. Brown Blind Willie Johnson: Chris Thomas King

The Road to Memphis

Directed by Richard Pearce

Written by Robert Gordon

Director Richard Pearce (The Long Walk Home, Leap of Faith, A Family Thing) traces the musical odyssey of blues legend B.B. King in a film that pays tribute to the city that gave birth to a new style of blues. Pearce's homage to Memphis features original performances by B.B. King, Bobby Rush, Rosco Gordon and Ike Turner, as well as historical footage of Howlin' Wolf and Rufus Thomas.

Says Pearce: "The Blues is a chance to celebrate one of the last truly indigenous American art forms, before it all but disappears, swallowed whole by the rock and roll generation it spawned. Hopefully we'll get there before it's too late."

Performances in The Road to Memphis
Fats Domino
Rosco Gordon
B.B. King
Little Milton
Little Richard
Bobby Rush
Ike Turner
Howlin' Wolf
The Coasters

Interviews in The Road to Memphis
Bobby Rush
B.B. King
Rosco Gordon
Rufus Thomas
Calvin Newborn
Hubert Sumlin
Chris Spindel (WDIA program officer)
Don Kern (WDIA Production Manager)
Dr. Louis Cannonball Cantor
Cato Walker III
Little Milton Campbell
Sam Phillips
Ike Turner
Jim Dickinson

Warming By The Devil's Fire

Written and directed by Charles Burnett

Director Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep, My Brother's Wedding, To Sleep with Anger) presents a tale about a young boy's encounter with his family in Mississippi in the 1950s, and intergenerational tensions between the heavenly strains of gospel and the devilish moans of the blues.

Says Burnett: "The sound of the blues was a part of my environment that I took for granted. However, as years passed, the blues slowly emerged as an essential source of imagery, humor, irony, and insight that allows one to reflect on the human condition. I always wanted to do a story on the blues that not only reflected its nature and its content, but also alludes to the form itself. In short, a story that gives you the impression of the blues."

Performances in The Warming by the Devil's Fire
Big Bill Broonzy
Elizabeth Cotten
Reverend Gary Davis
Ida Cox
Willie Dixon
Lightnin' Hopkins
Son House
Mississippi John Hurt
Vasti Jackson
Bessie Smith
Mamie Smith
Victoria Spivey
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Dinah Washington
Muddy Waters
Sonny Boy Williamson

Godfathers and Sons

Directed by Marc Levin

Director Marc Levin (Slam, Whiteboys, Brooklyn Babylon) travels to Chicago with hip-hop legend Chuck D (of Public Enemy) and Marshall Chess (son of Leonard Chess and heir to the Chess Records legacy) to explore the heyday of Chicago blues as they unite to produce an album that seeks to bring veteran blues players together with contemporary hip hop musicians. Along with never-before-seen archival footage of Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, are original performances by Koko Taylor, Otis Rush, Magic Slim, Ike Turner, and Sam Lay.

Says Levin: "When we were shooting Sam Lay and his band at the Chicago Blues Festival, they were playing Muddy Waters' classic, 'I Got My Mojo Workin.' I closed my eyes and was transported back to when I was a 15-year-old hanging in my buddy's basement listening to the Paul Butterfield Blues Band for the first time. My life was changed that day, and 35 years later the music's still shakin' my soul. The feel of that day in the basement is what I have set out to capture in this film."

Performances in Godfathers and Sons
Lonnie Brooks
Paul Butterfield
Common
Chuck D and Public Enemy
Bo Diddley
Sam Lay
Ike Turner
Pinetop Perkins
Otis Rush
Magic Slim
Smokey Smothers
Koko Taylor
Sonny Terry * & Brownie McGhee
"Electric Mud Band" Pete Cosey, Phil Upchurch, Louis Satterfield, Morris Jennings
Kyle Rahzel and Ahmir (a.k.a. ?uestlove) of The Roots
Muddy Waters
Sonny Boy Williamson
Howlin' Wolf
Willie Dixon
Blind Arvella Gray
Carrie Robinson

Interviews in Godfathers and Sons
Marshall Chess
Chuck D
Jamar Chess
Phil Chess
Koko Taylor
Magic Slim
Sam Lay

Red, White and Blues

Directed by Mike Figgis

Director Mike Figgis (Stormy Monday, Leaving Las Vegas, Time Code) joins musicians such as Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Tom Jones, performing and talking about the music of the early sixties British invasion that reintroduced the blues sound to America.

During the 1960s, the UK was the location for a vibrant social revolution. London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle all had their own music scenes. Musicians from Belfast and Glasgow moved to London to be part of the club scene there.

The post-war traditional jazz and folk revival movements produced the fertile ground for a new kind of blues music - entirely influenced by the authentic black blues of the USA, and, for the most part, entirely ignored by the good citizens of the US. It was new in the sense that certain key musicians took the blues and molded it in an entirely personal way to fit the new awareness of the UK in the sixties. Importantly, for the most part they continued to pay homage to the originators of the music and to make a huge global audience aware of the likes of Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Freddie King, etc.

Mike Figgis' film examines the circumstances of this vibrant period. Figgis himself participated, albeit in a minor way, in this period of history, playing in a blues band with Bryan Ferry, a band that was the nucleus for the first Roxy Music.

A series of musical interviews with the key players of the blues movement is augmented with a live session at the famous Abbey Road recording studios. Tom Jones, Jeff Beck, Van Morrison, and Lulu all improvise around some classic blues standards, accompanied by a superb band made up of younger and not-so-younger-musicians. The results are electrifying.

Says Figgis: "I'm interested in why there was such excitement about this black music among Europeans. To that end, I've put together a group of these musicians, augmenting the line-up with some younger talent as well. Hopefully the resulting recording session of some blues standards, and the discussions that follow, shine some light on why at a particular moment the blues was reinterpreted abroad and reintroduced in a new form that was universally embraced."

Performances in Red, White & Blues
Jeff Beck
Big Bill Broonzy
Cream
Lonnie Donnegan
Georgie Fame
Chris Farlowe
Tom Jones
B.B. King
Peter King
Alexis Korner
Albert Lee
Lulu
Humphrey Lyttelton
Sonny Terry * & Brownie McGhee
Van Morrison
Rolling Stones
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Muddy Waters
Lead Belly
Jon Cleary

Interviews in Red, White & Blues
Tom Jones
Jeff Beck
Van Morrison
John Porter
Humphrey Lyttelton
George Melly
Lonnie Donnegan
Chris Barber
Eric Clapton
John Mayall
B.B. King
Albert Lee
Chris Farlowe
Bert Jansch
Eric Burdon
Stevie Winwood
Davey Graham
Georgie Fame
Mick Fleetwood
Peter Green

Piano Blues

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Director - and piano player - Clint Eastwood (Play Misty for Me, Bird, Unforgiven) explores his life-long passion for piano blues, using a treasure trove of rare historical footage in addition to interviews and performances by such living legends as Pinetop Perkins and Jay McShann, as well as Dave Brubeck and Marcia Ball.

Says Eastwood: "The blues has always been part of my musical life and the piano has a special place, beginning when my mother brought home all of Fats Waller's records. Also, the music has always played a part in my movies. A piano blues documentary gives me a chance to make a film that is more directly connected to the subject of the music than the features that I have been doing throughout my career."

Performances in Piano Blues
Marcia Ball
Dave Brubeck
Ray Charles Jay McShann
Pinetop Perkins
and many more!

Cast of the movie: The Blues - A Musical Journey

Feel Like Going Home

1. Robert Johnson Traveling Riverside Blues - 2:44 (Robert Johnson)

Robert Johnson (vocal-guitar) Produced by Don Law Recorded Dallas, Texas; June 20, 1937 Originally ARC unissued; Columbia CL1654; King Of The Delta Blues Singers

2. Johnny Shines Dynaflow Blues - 2:35 (Johnny Shines)

Johnny Shines (vocal-guitar); Floyd Jones (bass); Frank Kirkland (drums) Produced by Samuel Charters Recorded Chicago, Illinois; December, 1965 Originally Vanguard 79218; Chicago/The Blues/Today! Vol. 3

3. Robert Johnson Hell Hound On My Trail - 2:35 (Robert Johnson)

Robert Johnson (vocal-guitar) Produced by Don Law Recorded Dallas, Texas; June 20, 1937 Originally ARC 7-09-56

4. Muddy Waters Country Blues - 3:24 (McKinley Morganfield)

Muddy Waters (vocal-guitar) Produced by Alan Lomax & John Work Recorded Stovall, Mississippi; August 26-31, 1941 Originally Library of Congress AAFS 18

5. Taj Mahal The Celebrated Walking Blues - 8:52 (Traditional/arranged by Taj Mahal)

Taj Mahal (vocal-slide guitar-harmonica); Jesse Ed Davis (lead guitar-piano); Ry Cooder (mandolin-rhythm guitar); Bill Boatman (rhythm guitar); Gary Gilmore (bass); Charles Blackwell (drums) Produced by David Rubinson Recorded Hollywood, California; August 18, 1967 Originally Columbia 2779; Taj Mahal

6. Son Simms Four Rosalie - 3:01 (McKinley Morganfield)

Muddy Waters (vocal-guitar); Percy Thomas (guitar); Henry "Son" Simms (violin); Louis Ford (mandolin) Produced by Alan Lomax & John Work Recorded Stovall, Mississippi; July 24, 1942 Originally Library of Congress Recording

7. Son House My Black Mama Pt. II - 3:13 (Eddie "Son" House)

Son House (vocal-guitar) Recorded Grafton, Wisconson; May 28, 1930 Originally Paramount 13042

8. Son House Government Fleet Blues - 6:50 (Eddie "Son" House)

Son House (vocal-guitar); Fiddlin' Joe Martin (mandolin); Leroy Williams (harmonica) Recorded Klack's Store, Lake Cormorant, Mississippi; August 24-31, 1941 Originally Library of Congress Recording

9. Muddy Waters Gypsy Woman - 2:32 (McKinley Morganfield)

Muddy Waters (vocal-guitar); Sunnyland Slim (piano); Ernest "Big" Crawford (bass); Unknown (drums) Produced by Leonard & Phil Chess Recorded Chicago, Illinois; 1947 Originally Aristocrat 1302

10. Charley Patton High Water Everywhere Pt. I - 2:58 (Charley Patton)

Charley Patton (vocal-guitar) Recorded Grafton, Wisconson; October, 1929 Originally Paramount 12909

11. Lead Belly CC Rider - 2:57 (Hudie Ledbetter/Traditional)

Lead Belly (vocal-guitar) Recorded New York, New York; January 23, 1935 Originally Arc unissued; Folkways FP24

12. Willie King & The Liberators Terrorized - 5:01 (Willie King)

Willie King (vocals-lead guitar); Aaron Hodge (guitar); Travis Hodge (bass); Rich Asherson (keyboards); Willie James Williams (drums) Recorded by Sam Watson; Mixed by Martin Czembor Recorded Aliceville, Alabama; April 19, 2003

13. Napoleon Strickland & Otha Turner Oh Baby - 2:52 (Napoleon Strickland)

Napoleon Strickland (vocal-cane fife); Otha Turner (bass drum); John Tytus (snare drum) Recorded by George Mitchell Recorded 1967 Originally Arhoolie Records 1041; Mississippi Delta Blues Vol. 1: Blow My Blues Away

14. Otha Turner & Corey Harris Lay My Burden Down - 2:26 (Traditional/ arranged by Otha Turner)

Otha Turner (vocal-cane fife); Corey Harris (guitar) Recorded by J. T. Takagi Recorded Senatobia, Mississippi; June 9, 2001

15. Ali Farka Toure Mali Dje - 5:37 (Ali Farka Toure)

Ali Farka Toure (vocal-guitar); Souleye Kane (djembe); Fatoumata Traore (chorus vocal) Produced by Nick Gold Recorded Niafunke, Mali; 1999 Originally World Circuit WCD 054; Niafunke

16. John Lee Hooker Tupelo Blues - 3:23 (John Lee Hooker)

John Lee Hooker (vocal-guitar) Produced by Bill Grauer Recorded Detroit, Michigan; April, 1959 Originally Original Blues Classics 542; The Country Blues Of John Lee Hooker

17. Ali Farka Toure Amandrai - 7:18 (Ali Farka Toure)

Ali Farka Toure (vocal-guitar); Songhai (percussion) Produced by Nick Gold Recorded London, England; 1988 Originally World Circuit WCD 007; Ali Farka Toure

18. John Lee Hooker Hobo Blues - 3:01 (John Lee Hooker)

John Lee Hooker (vocal-guitar) Recorded Detroit, Michigan; 1949 Originally Modern Records 663

19. Salif Keita Ana Na Ming - 4:00 (Salif Keita)

Salif Keita (vocal - guitar) Recorded by J.T. Takagi Recorded Mali; August 16, 2001

20. Otha Turner & The Rising Star Fife & Drum Band My Babe - 4:30 (Willie Dixon)

Otha Turner (vocal-cane fife); Bernice Turner Pratcher (vocals); Sharde Thomas (vocals); Otha Andre Evans & Rodney Evans (snare drum); Aubrey Turner (bass drum); Corey Harris (guitar) Recorded by John Harris, Effanel Music Recorded St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, New York; November 9, 2001

Photo Gallery of the movie: The Blues - A Musical Journey

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size, high resolution photographs

_Photo_Gallery_

Reviews of the movie: The Blues - A Musical Journey

_Reviews1_

_Reviews2_