Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues - A Musical Journey

Starring:Various Artists
Studio: Sony
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
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.

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.

Customer Reviews:

This is real.......2007-06-08

I learned blues this DVD. This is my teacher about blues.
I met several musicians in this DVD, I remembered lot's of person.
Thank you Mr. Maetin Scorses.

Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues.......2007-01-11

I purchased this for my son for Christmas. He likes it very much.

A Must For ALL Blues Lovers.......2007-01-09

This DVD set takes you to all reaches of the musical spectrum and is a MUST for all blues lovers. You will learn the beginnings of the Blues music and can appreciate the sound and the feeling that inspired the music.

If you are a Blues musician, you have got to get this and learn the origins of this genre and pull from it. And watch your your own music soar. Plus, as a blues dancer, you use all all the feleings a rhythms into your dance.

As Willie Dixon said, "The Blues are the roots, and everything else is the fruits.

If you really want to know something about the blues.......2006-10-22

Scorcese is not your guy. This review covers disk one only. Scorcese is a great director no doubt. He's also presented some fantastic clips from the period. But his understanding of the blues is so warped by the search for authentic African origins that you have to wonder whether he's ever read anything about the subject. An unintentionally hilarious classic of clueless romanticism. Reminded me of another Italian-American director's tribute to the cult of phony authenticity, the Corleone village scenes in Godfather I and II.

Wonderful, alternative history.......2006-06-26

A wonderfully absorbing history of the people and the music. Fabulous old footage that will introduce you to artists who, unless you're already a connoisseur, may be unknown to you--Son House, for example, comes up again and again. Wenders' movie is imaginative, and the best of the others are Scorsese's Africa piece, the Memphis Chitlins Circuit movie and Warming by the Devil's Fire. The only sour moment comes with Clint Eastwood's documentary. First, it stands out as the least imaginative of all the movies. Second, the Hollywood ego bursts all over the piano keyboard as Clint insists on talking over the great pianists he interviews, so that we end up hearing more from him than Ray Charles et al. The silly old fool even includes himself playing piano (in a scene clipped from Honky Tonk Man) in his montage of great blues pianists: Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum and...Clint Eastwood. Finally, Clint shows that he doesn't have any idea what the blues are about. Repeatedly during the series great old bluesmen talk about how the blues is essentially about a man and a woman who for some reason can't be together. Clint idiotically suggests that America the Beautiful is the blues, simply because he shows Ray Charles singing it. If he'd watched the other movies, Eastwood would've been ashamed to suggest that patriotic songs can be the blues--tell that to the downtrodden bluesmen of the 1930s Delta, discriminated against by white overlords. Watch all the other movies, but don't even bother with Eastwood's egotistic, jingoistic claptrap.

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - The Road to Memphis

Average customer rating:

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - The Road to Memphis
Starring: Marcia Ball , Chris Barber (II) , Chester Burnett , Clint Eastwood , and Chris Farlowe
Director: Clint Eastwood , Charles Burnett , Mike Figgis , Marc Levin , and Richard Pearce
Manufacturer: Hip-O Records
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Warming by the Devil's Fire
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Feels Like Going Home
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Godfathers and Sons
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Piano Blues

ASIN: B0001ZMXLS
Release Date: 2004-05-04

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Red, White & Blues

Average customer rating:

Little treasures hidden here...
The Brits got it

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Red, White & Blues
Starring: Marcia Ball , Chris Barber (II) , Chester Burnett , Clint Eastwood , and Chris Farlowe
Director: Clint Eastwood , Charles Burnett , Mike Figgis , Marc Levin , and Richard Pearce
Manufacturer: Hip-O Records
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Blues | Styles | Music

General | Music Video & Concerts | Genres | DVD | Video

General | African American Cinema | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Indie & Art House | Stores | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( M ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - The Road to Memphis
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Piano Blues
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Godfathers and Sons
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Feels Like Going Home
Martin Scorsese Presents Red, White and Blues

ASIN: B0001ZMXK4
Release Date: 2004-05-04

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Little treasures hidden here..........2006-08-08

If you even just sort of like the Blues, you might need to own this disc. For my money, the best parts were the recent live recordings by Van Morrison, Tom Jones, Jeff Beck and Lulu. You will be stunned.

The previous review hit it on the mark with the opening scene of Van Morrison walking into an Abbey Road session, liking the vibe, picking up a guitar and diving into the song. To quote Eric Clapton later on in the material, I was gobsmacked!

I've always liked Tom Jones' voice and presence but he just blew me away here. His love of the Blues and his understanding of that genre were something I had no idea about prior to watching this on PBS.

Then there's Jeff Beck. Back in the late 60's and early 70's, I was a big Jeff Beck fan especially of his guitar mastery. Here again, no idea about his feel for the Blues. The song "Drown in my own tears" with him on guitar and Lulu on vocal is something to be savored and treasured. When you watch this one, remember that Jeff Beck is over 60 years old... he's pure magic without the tricks. Watch his finger work on both hands particularly his string-bending. This is the real deal when it comes to guitar playing.

Lulu was an unexpected surprise in all of this. What a marvelous voice and feel for the Blues material here! She makes you feel the ache.... the phrase "hurts so good" comes to mind. Wow.

O.K., back to our story... who'd a thunk that a bunch of white British kids would introduce the Blues to America? That's right. That's what this disc details - the path of the Blues from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago and Detroit to Britain and back to America.

Back in the 50's and early 60's, the Brits had no compunctions about black musicians having white girlfriends and wives and so they listened, accepted, and came to love these gifted individuals and the music they brought with them. For those reasons, the USA turned it's back on them and would not allow their music to be played on most radio stations. Down south, white kids were listening to it on their transistors late at night under the covers.

Meanwhile over in England, Clapton, Beck, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, the Beatles, Mick Fleetwood... were all tremendously influenced by the Blues ala Muddy Waters, Albert King, etc. Only thing is, they got it direct from the Horse's Mouth.

When these folks and THEIR bands came to America, they brought the Blues with them in the songs they covered and Americans said, "WHAT is THAT?" Because black musicians weren't played on mainstream radio stations, nobody had heard them before. So the message of the Blues had to migrate to England first before we could even pay attention. Because white musicians were the ones who brought it back, it was then accepted by mainstream America. If you love the Blues today, you owe a tremendous debt to the Brits.

This DVD chronicles that journey. The steps it took to complete it are outliined and elucidated by many, many British musicians whose love for the Blues just can't be hidden. In many cases, they were allowed to go up on stage and play behind these ambassadors of the Blues. Their admiration for the simplicity and feeling that are the key elements of great Blues material and the playing of it is readily apparent. For those reasons, this DVD will become a sparkling gem in any collection of Blues music and video you may already own.

Don't forget to scour the Special Features section on the DVD as well. Some very tasty stuff to be found there. The more I watch this disc, the more I feel like I'm in on some kind of very cool secret. I promise you won't be disappointed.

After viewing the DVD several times, I also bought the companion CD which features full length versions of the songs featured in the documentary. Pure dynamite!

The Brits got it.......2005-06-01

Most Americans still don't understand the roots of our own music. Certainly the record companies and radio stations don't _ slotting musicians and music into categories without with no thought about the connections among all varieties. The Brits do, as this, the best of the Scorcese-sponsored series demonstrates. There are numerous examples here of how American musicians had to have their music transported overseas and brought back. The classic: when the Rolling Stones arrived in the U.S. and cited Muddy Waters, among others, as their model, few people knew who he was.

There is some stunning music here, no more so than at the start, when Van Morrison walks into the middle of a session at Abbey Road studios, sits down and starts singing incredible blues with a band that includes Jeff Beck. That session is interspersed throughout and also includes Tom Jones, of all people, and Lulu, who had a hit in the 60s or 70s with "To Sir With Love,'' but really is a pretty good blues singer.

But what hit me is how the British musicians were able to popularize American roots music in this country, something American radio couldn't or wouldn't do. Steve Winwood, a true musical genius, talks about going to Tennessee and understanding the roots of country music. And the Beatles covered Carl Perkins and Buck Owens. (An aside: Albert Lee, a great British player who is interviewed for this film, has played electric guitar with Earl Scruggs, one of the inventors of bluegrass.)

Finally, Mike Figgis, the director and a musician himself, ties it all together in an extra interview. Turns out that he had no idea whether the enigmatic Morrison would show up. So the opening scene is relatively spontaneous _ Van walking in, taking off his coat (but leaving on his hat) and joining the session.

One curiosity. When British musicians show up, a line appears over them: "Van Morrison, born 1945, Belfast,'' etc. Even John Lennon "1940-1980, Liverpool.'' Except for Clapton. The assumption, I suppose, is that everyone knows Eric, who is a central figure in this movie and, obviously, in the British blues scene. Or maybe he decided he didn't need to be identified.

He's also involved in a gratuitous scene repeating what he's said many times: that "Music from Big Pink'' by The Band changed his entire musical orientation. It di, although The Band was not especially bluesy and Clapton, or course, recently recorded an album with B.B. King. (B.B. is also in the movie repeating what he's said many times: that he's grateful to the Brits for making an African-American music part of the mainstream.)

In any case, this is well worth the investment.

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Piano Blues

Average customer rating:

Me me and Piano Blues
Piano Blues Delightful
Terrific fun for piano blues lovers
Piano Man

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Piano Blues
Starring: Marcia Ball , Chris Barber (II) , Chester Burnett , Clint Eastwood , and Chris Farlowe
Director: Clint Eastwood , Charles Burnett , Mike Figgis , Marc Levin , and Richard Pearce
Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Blues | Styles | Music

General | Music Video & Concerts | Genres | DVD | Video

General | African American Cinema | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Indie & Art House | Stores | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( M ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Red, White & Blues
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Feels Like Going Home
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - The Road to Memphis
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Godfathers and Sons
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Warming by the Devil's Fire

ASIN: B00020X9CO
Release Date: 2004-05-11

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 the 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. Because the absence of lengthier vintage clips is the principal drawback of the series, 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. --Sam Graham

Customer Reviews:

Me me and Piano Blues.......2006-12-22

This salad bowl, shisch-kebab and mumbo-jumbo documentary is absolutely amazing: it makes no effort to place Dr. John, Dave Brubeck, Fats Domino, Duke Ellington, or Pinetop Perkins in their respective contexts...

In the end, we get rambling and pointless conversations (sitting alongside Pinetop Perkins, Jay McShann or Ray Charles the interviewer should get something fresh out of them...) and some sensational archive footage; my favorite is the great Jay McShann's interplay with Big Joe Turner, and Otis Spann is also great... Monk also, but that footage I have already seen (actually, Monk is one of the very few artists at least moderately explained in their context).

There is a lot of great and creative music in this film, but performances are cut off precisely when they catch steem, and cross-cutting between various artists is neither artistic nor informative in the musical sense...

It is interesting to remember Wim Wenders' "Buena Vista Social Club" - a documentary equally selfcentred as is Eastwood's "Piano Blues", but at least Wenders was attempting to give structure and meaning to pictures and sounds of the music it depicts. By the way, Wenders' contribution to Scorsese's "Blues" series is far superior to Eastwood's (which I say with sadness - I like Eastwood very much and many of the people he deals with have my warm musical affection, others I would like to now more about...).

Piano Blues Delightful.......2006-11-11

Excellent production. Have watched it several times. Bought this one for my musician brother.

Terrific fun for piano blues lovers.......2005-03-29

If your taste runs towards blues-based piano, watch this video. The "blues" title is (thankfully) used in the loosest, musically correct sense, and features blues, R&B, boogie woogie, jazz (Duke!), rock n' roll, and anything else that rolls up and down the blues scales. The video itself intersperses vintage footage with live performances. Musicians such as Ray (!), Pinetop Perkins, Dr. John, Jay McShann, and Dave Brubeck play next to an obviously awed Clint Eastwood. (It's worth the price of the video to watch the 70+ year old icon look like a 10 year old boy meeting his baseball heroes). There's no music theory mumbo jumbo; the music does the talking. Lots of playing, and occasional anecdotes coaxed out by Clint. About the only minus is the lack of start-to-finish performances. Great fun, definitely recommended.

Piano Man.......2004-07-31

Quite a good Documentary/Interview by Clint Eastwood. A great chance to see Clint in his real element, a frustrated Piano Player who couldnt quit his day job. For someone we are used to seeing so in command onscreen he seems at times nervous and obviously in awe of greats such as Ray Charles and Dr. John. Not a great facts and figures type presentation but fantastic to see more of the personalities dabble around on home and studio pianos telling Clint how they fell into playing and not a movie career.Some classic old footage used as reference only of the old school players and some re visited Prof. Longhair interviews. Not to be missed if you have Scorsese's collection.

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Godfathers and Sons

Average customer rating:

Music finds its future in its roots

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Godfathers and Sons
Starring: Marcia Ball , Chris Barber (II) , Chester Burnett , Clint Eastwood , and Chris Farlowe
Director: Clint Eastwood , Charles Burnett , Mike Figgis , Marc Levin , and Richard Pearce
Manufacturer: Hip-O Records
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Blues | Styles | Music

General | Music Video & Concerts | Genres | DVD | Video

General | African American Cinema | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Indie & Art House | Stores | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( M ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - The Road to Memphis
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Red, White & Blues
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Warming by the Devil's Fire
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Feels Like Going Home
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Piano Blues

ASIN: B0001ZMXJA
Release Date: 2004-05-04

Customer Reviews:

Music finds its future in its roots.......2004-11-30

It is all about music on one hand and the emergence of the Blacks through music in the US on the other hand. As for music, it clearly shows how hip hop or rap are not a musical genres that come from nowhere but that they were prepared by and they inherit a lot from the blues, even maybe gospels, and I would even say jazz. The main idea developed by the film is that any musical form sums up older forms and trespasses their limits. It is true of Black music as well as any other form of art anywhere in the world. Black music is as so noit different at all from Mozart, Purcell or Verdi. Even the most revolutionary form is nothing but the descendent of previous forms. On the other hand, and this is essential, the emergence of the Blues in Chicago was due to the confluence of the same ambition, to emerge from poverty and segregation, among Blacks and Jews, in this case a certain Muddy Waters and a Polish Jewish immigrant (and his family) after WW2, the latter creating the first record label, Chess, that launched the Blues in the world, on radios, on record players, on TV later, and of course in various bars and clubs. It also shows how the Blues was black in its majority but not only and that some Whites took part from the very start, meaning that the Bluies was a music coming from the Blacks, but not only, carried by the Blacks, but not only, and directed at the Blacks, but not only and by far. And it finally shows how the Blues of these old bluesmen can be easily merged with rap or hip hop. The general idea then is that music is a way for down-trodden people to recapture their pride and to conquer a position in the culture of the oppressive society they live in and eventually a position in this society. Culture is a way to liberate energies in people and to liberate people from their humiliation. Culture is also and necessarily a blend of various elements that come from different experiences and people, different historical and geographical backgrounds. Merging is a vast movement that brings together the past and the present to create the future. There is no future for any cultural form if it does not have roots. It is from the roots that the fruits come.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Warming by the Devil's Fire

Average customer rating:

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Warming by the Devil's Fire
Starring: Marcia Ball , Chris Barber (II) , Chester Burnett , Clint Eastwood , and Chris Farlowe
Director: Clint Eastwood , Charles Burnett , Mike Figgis , Marc Levin , and Richard Pearce
Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Blues | Styles | Music

General | Music Video & Concerts | Genres | DVD | Video

General | African American Cinema | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Indie & Art House | Stores | DVD | Video

( M ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - The Road to Memphis
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Feels Like Going Home
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Godfathers and Sons
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Piano Blues
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Red, White & Blues

ASIN: B00020X9DI
Release Date: 2004-05-11

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Feels Like Going Home

Average customer rating:

Certainly not a definitive history of the blues.......

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Feels Like Going Home
Starring: Marcia Ball , Chris Barber (II) , Chester Burnett , Clint Eastwood , and Chris Farlowe
Director: Clint Eastwood , Charles Burnett , Mike Figgis , Marc Levin , and Richard Pearce
Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Blues | Styles | Music

General | Music Video & Concerts | Genres | DVD | Video

General | African American Cinema | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Indie & Art House | Stores | DVD | Video

( M ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - The Road to Memphis
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Piano Blues
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Warming by the Devil's Fire
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Red, White & Blues
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues - Godfathers and Sons

ASIN: B00020X9BU
Release Date: 2004-05-11

Customer Reviews:

Certainly not a definitive history of the blues..............2006-09-12

Feels Like Going Home attempts to tell the story by tracing the blues back through the Mississippi Delta and back in Africa. Blues player Cory Harris takes us from the Mississippi Delta to the African country of Mali to detail how the blues were influenced culturally by the people of tribesmen of Mali and the suffering engendered by slavery which forever separated families on their shores.

This DVD also has some excellent historical footage never before seen by me, including that of Son House explaining why he quit playing the blues around 1942 after the field recordings Alan Lomax made in Mississippi. Son House stopped playing after some of his contemporaries started dying (Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson), and he actually thought he would be next! I was surprised to hear him say this, but he honestly believed that, and as such, moved to New York state. Until some blues enthusiasts found him in the mid 60's, many had no idea where he was....some even claimed to have seen him in movie theaters in Alabama. This was the first time I had ever heard Son House explain why he gave up music for two decades.

A criticism: Much more time could have been spent on the history of the early blues in the United States. The rare footage was wonderful to see, as were the interviews with legends such as Johnny Shines, because he had first-hand knowledge of Robert Johnson and that era. But once Cory Harris goes back to Mali, little is offered as way of a direct and tangible nexus linking the two. In fact, too much time is spent introducing Cory Harris to various tribesman, their families, and then they even highlight the welcoming ceremony of guns for Cory Harris....I thought this was a DVD about the blues! The first 45 minutes were very interesting, but the latter half left much to be desired.

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