DVD Review
CHICAGO BLUES
(Vestapol 13095)
by Tony Glover
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"Keeping the Blues Alive Award" Achievement for Blues on the Internet Presented by The Blues Foundation
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This DVD release of a 1972 film is a time warp for sure. In many ways its a classic, prototype blues documentary. It was produced and directed by Harley Corkliss and a English film school crew who explored Chicago. Over the course of their 3 week journey they shot footage of the now defunct Maxwell Street market, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells at Theresa' s, as well as at home segments with Floyd Jones and housepainter-guitarist Johnie (sic) Lewis. They also collected atmospheric shots of tenements, skyscrapers and housing projects of 30 years ago Chicago, as seen from moving autos and the El.
Interview subjects included activist Dick Gregory, a neighborhood preacher, and Delmark records owner Bob Koester; all talking about the socio-economic milieu that blues music was made in. The film starts with southerners arriving at a bus station, looking for work in the north. Finding a large and noisy metropolis their music became rougher and louder as well.and Johnie Lewis's bottleneck acoustic version of "Poor Boy" (a Bukka White number) soon gives way to the bar-room amplified scrawl and splonk of J B Hutto's Elmore James-styled sounds. It's pointed out that most of these men had to hold day jobs to make ends meet, so weekends really became their main time to wail.
On the other end of the spectrum is full-time performer Muddy, briefly heard doing snippets of "Hoochie Coochie Man" and "19 Years Old", with Buddy Guy accompanying him. Guy is later featured with a verse or two of his own "First Time I Met The Blues". Most performances are abbreviated, none complete-still the footage does a good job of capturing the feel of the then-dwindling Chicago blues scene.
One caveat: the film is just under 50 minutes long. However there is a bonus audio track with Cokliss and a fellow film-maker commenting as the film goes along, remembering where scenes were shot, etc. Also, the musical performances are indexed so you can jump to them and skip the interview-narration sections.
Despite its brevity, the film spans its subject well, and tho more performance footage would be welcome, its good that even this much exists.
It's obvious this was a labor of love, and an artifact worth checking out.
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Copyright © 2003 Ray M. Stiles & Blues On Stage All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author. Blues On Stage is a ® Trademark of Ray Stiles.
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