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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Blues lovers: not to be missed!

9/26/2003 1:30 PM
Martin Bertrand	Blues lovers: not to be missed! On air this weekend, 7 movies about the blues. http://www.pbs.org/theblues/ Good watching!

9/26/2003 9:17 PM
Rich	Very cool. Thanks for pointing it out. Rich

9/29/2003 2:08 PM
Mark Hammer	Caught most of last night's installment. VERY glad we have closed captioning on our TV. Otha Thomas seemed like a wonderful man, but an elderly man without all his teeth, talking the southern patois he did, with that accent......whew, hard to follow without subtitles! The interplay between Corey Harris and Ali Farka Toure was wonderful and moving. Though referred to very obliquely, it was not explicitly mentioned, so a few details for those who do not know about "Congo Square". When the slave trade was flourishing, there was a square near the French Quarter in New Orleans, which served as the general slave auction place. (The location still exists with the same name apparently, and unfortunately in my one visit to N.O., it was the pilgrimage I never managed to make. I can imagine that for many of African descent, standing there must feel like it feels for Jews visiting Auschwitz or Yad Vashem.) Those who were not bought and sold by Saturday evening, spent Sundays shackled there (as opposed to being shackled somewhere else) with effectively nothing to do since N.O. was a Catholic town and shut down on Sundays. Since it was assumed that Africans were going to hell anyways because of their non-Catholic and non-white status, no one really minded what Blacks did on the sabbath, even though dancing and music were forbidden for Catholics on the day of rest. Of course, since those stolen for slavery came from all over Africa, many of the people left in Congo Square on Sundays had no common spoken language. But they did have music, the one thing they could understand implicitly and share, and that could make them happy in the midst of everything else. Historians recount how impromptu bands would form on Sundays, and the entire populace of Congo Square would be grooving. French passersby on the way to or from church would notice them playing and singing. It was not uncommon for those same individuals to come back on Monday and buy those slaves they saw playing, as a kind of "orchestra" for their own amusement. The pan-African connection took place in the melting pot that was Congo Square, so small wonder that Harris and Farka Toure find such a common thread betweem Mali and Mississippi, and small wonder that the clip they played of "Jean-Lee Hook-air" (couldn't resist) sounded like he just flew in from Timbouktou. The roots of the blues are partly found in what it means to be left alone by a loved one, but it also finds its roots in what it means to be a stranger in a strange land, ripped from the bosom of one's culture. I'm sure for those in Congo Square on those Sundays, whatever music they could forge with others was probably not unlike gazing at a small frayed picture of a loved one, with only that to hang onto. I'm sure it made them every bit as lonesome as it made them happy. And baby, that's the blues. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

9/29/2003 2:08 PM

Mark Hammer

Caught most of last night's installment. VERY glad we have closed captioning on our TV. Otha Thomas seemed like a wonderful man, but an elderly man without all his teeth, talking the southern patois he did, with that accent......whew, hard to follow without subtitles!

The interplay between Corey Harris and Ali Farka Toure was wonderful and moving.

Though referred to very obliquely, it was not explicitly mentioned, so a few details for those who do not know about "Congo Square". When the slave trade was flourishing, there was a square near the French Quarter in New Orleans, which served as the general slave auction place. (The location still exists with the same name apparently, and unfortunately in my one visit to N.O., it was the pilgrimage I never managed to make. I can imagine that for many of African descent, standing there must feel like it feels for Jews visiting Auschwitz or Yad Vashem.) Those who were not bought and sold by Saturday evening, spent Sundays shackled there (as opposed to being shackled somewhere else) with effectively nothing to do since N.O. was a Catholic town and shut down on Sundays. Since it was assumed that Africans were going to hell anyways because of their non-Catholic and non-white status, no one really minded what Blacks did on the sabbath, even though dancing and music were forbidden for Catholics on the day of rest. Of course, since those stolen for slavery came from all over Africa, many of the people left in Congo Square on Sundays had no common spoken language. But they did have music, the one thing they could understand implicitly and share, and that could make them happy in the midst of everything else. Historians recount how impromptu bands would form on Sundays, and the entire populace of Congo Square would be grooving. French passersby on the way to or from church would notice them playing and singing. It was not uncommon for those same individuals to come back on Monday and buy those slaves they saw playing, as a kind of "orchestra" for their own amusement.

The pan-African connection took place in the melting pot that was Congo Square, so small wonder that Harris and Farka Toure find such a common thread betweem Mali and Mississippi, and small wonder that the clip they played of "Jean-Lee Hook-air" (couldn't resist) sounded like he just flew in from Timbouktou. The roots of the blues are partly found in what it means to be left alone by a loved one, but it also finds its roots in what it means to be a stranger in a strange land, ripped from the bosom of one's culture. I'm sure for those in Congo Square on those Sundays, whatever music they could forge with others was probably not unlike gazing at a small frayed picture of a loved one, with only that to hang onto. I'm sure it made them every bit as lonesome as it made them happy.

And baby, that's the blues.

Looking forward to the rest of the series.

10/1/2003 2:32 PM
giustd	Caught most of last night's featuring BB, but jumping back to Rush and Rosco Gordon. I thought some of the BB parts were cool, back at WDIA, and Rosco seems like a genuine guy, wandering down Beale and wondering why his name wasn't on the sidewalk and the record store doesn't have his records even though he was a big draw back in the day. That's a bitch! Not sure why Bobby Rush was included as part of this film segment, seemed to me there's story enough there to warrant his own film. I thought his live stuff at the club was cool, especially the booty shake part, that's entertainment! Was it blues? Hell, I don't know, some of it I guess. I am dissapointed in teh series, though, I had an expectation that it'd be like the Jazz series, more chronlogical and touching on a lot of the major players. I think the (white) film makers are looking for cred for their participation, like, look how cool i am for going to the REAL black blues joints and getting the REAL footage. It's like the sanitized House of Blues chain, with all the folk art presented in a way that intellectuals can swallow it, without having to go to the delta. Incidentally the original HOB in cambridge has closed, a damn shame since I used to get into shows and drink for free because I knew some of the bartenders. It'll no doubt be replaced by some other tourist trap.

10/1/2003 2:32 PM

giustd

Caught most of last night's featuring BB, but jumping back to Rush and Rosco Gordon.
I thought some of the BB parts were cool, back at WDIA, and Rosco seems like a genuine guy, wandering down Beale and wondering why his name wasn't on the sidewalk and the record store doesn't have his records even though he was a big draw back in the day. That's a bitch!
Not sure why Bobby Rush was included as part of this film segment, seemed to me there's story enough there to warrant his own film. I thought his live stuff at the club was cool, especially the booty shake part, that's entertainment! Was it blues? Hell, I don't know, some of it I guess.
I am dissapointed in teh series, though, I had an expectation that it'd be like the Jazz series, more chronlogical and touching on a lot of the major players.
I think the (white) film makers are looking for cred for their participation, like, look how cool i am for going to the REAL black blues joints and getting the REAL footage. It's like the sanitized House of Blues chain, with all the folk art presented in a way that intellectuals can swallow it, without having to go to the delta.
Incidentally the original HOB in cambridge has closed, a damn shame since I used to get into shows and drink for free because I knew some of the bartenders. It'll no doubt be replaced by some other tourist trap.

10/1/2003 2:47 PM
Mark Hammer	Gahh! I dozed off early on the couch last night and when I woke up around 11:30 I had this gnawing feeling that I had missed something but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Now I know what it was. I guess I'll just have to wait for the next pledge drive week to see it. Probably wise to program the VCR too.

10/1/2003 4:56 PM
Peter	I was sorta disappointed that last night's episode seemed to be more about Beale Street and tour buses and whatnot than about music. BB King's musical evolution, in which I would say he had a musical vision which he worked to achieve, and did achieve by the early 60s, would make a more interesting film. Ever the critic, I was also displeased the night before, in which you'd get a great 1 minute clip of Skip James, and then 5 minutes of a present-day cover version of the tune, which has the correct notes and lyrics, but none of the essence. If you have to examine cover versions I'd rather look at bands like the early animals and stones, where they got the words and notes wrong but the feeling right (IMHO!).

10/1/2003 4:56 PM

Peter

I was sorta disappointed that last night's episode seemed to be more about Beale Street and tour buses and whatnot than about music. BB King's musical evolution, in which I would say he had a musical vision which he worked to achieve, and did achieve by the early 60s, would make a more interesting film.

Ever the critic, I was also displeased the night before, in which you'd get a great 1 minute clip of Skip James, and then 5 minutes of a present-day cover version of the tune, which has the correct notes and lyrics, but none of the essence. If you have to examine cover versions I'd rather look at bands like the early animals and stones, where they got the words and notes wrong but the feeling right (IMHO!).

10/1/2003 6:39 PM
Mark Hammer	Without meaning to be an apologist, there are the usual licensing things to contend with. Getting permission from all the right signing authorities in a timely manner has had a more profound influence on music packaging than many of us would like to think. If there is a flaw in the series so far, it seems to be the gap between whatever expectations were set up in advance, and the films themselves. They obviously weren't meant to be straightforward historical performances tacked end to end, but of course those of us who wish that's what they were still hope for it and feel let down when it doesn't happen. Monday's film was about 3 "could-have-beens" (Blind Willie Johnson, Skip James, JB Lenoir), and in a sense it was as much about the whole "could-have-been" phenomenon as it was about blues or about those three individuals. Perhaps the emphasis on contemporary big-ticket artists (Los Lobos, Bonnie Raitt, Beck, etc.) doing those songs was to underscore how much those 3 individuals could have been, and not so much to recreate their material with authenticity. I'll tell you one thing. Whatever it was that JB Lenoir was playing (and it looked like some sort of big-body Kay archtop with a single cutaway; blond with great inlay), I really dug. It just seemed to do whatever he wanted. On the other hand, great players seem to be able to make any instrument look like that, don't they? Picked up BB King Live at the Regal in the bargain bin the other day and couldn't help noticing how much thinner his guitar sound had gotten over the years.

10/1/2003 6:39 PM

Mark Hammer

Without meaning to be an apologist, there are the usual licensing things to contend with. Getting permission from all the right signing authorities in a timely manner has had a more profound influence on music packaging than many of us would like to think.

If there is a flaw in the series so far, it seems to be the gap between whatever expectations were set up in advance, and the films themselves. They obviously weren't meant to be straightforward historical performances tacked end to end, but of course those of us who wish that's what they were still hope for it and feel let down when it doesn't happen. Monday's film was about 3 "could-have-beens" (Blind Willie Johnson, Skip James, JB Lenoir), and in a sense it was as much about the whole "could-have-been" phenomenon as it was about blues or about those three individuals. Perhaps the emphasis on contemporary big-ticket artists (Los Lobos, Bonnie Raitt, Beck, etc.) doing those songs was to underscore how much those 3 individuals could have been, and not so much to recreate their material with authenticity.

I'll tell you one thing. Whatever it was that JB Lenoir was playing (and it looked like some sort of big-body Kay archtop with a single cutaway; blond with great inlay), I *really* dug. It just seemed to do whatever he wanted. On the other hand, great players seem to be able to make any instrument look like that, don't they?

Picked up BB King Live at the Regal in the bargain bin the other day and couldn't help noticing how much thinner his guitar sound had gotten over the years.

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