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| Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues - A Musical Journey | 
 enlarge | Actors: Carl Lumbly, Tommy Redmond Hicks, Nathaniel Lee Jr., Sonny Boy Williamson, Susan Mcwilliams
Studio: Sony
Category: DVD
List Price: $139.98
Buy New: $77.98
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New (22) Used (12) from $73.28
Avg. Customer Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 31528
Format: Anamorphic, Box Set, Black & White, Color, Compilation, Dolby, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Running Time: 780 minutes
Number Of Items: 7
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.5 x 2.3
MPN: 55808
ISBN: 0738903892
UPC: 074645580890
EAN: 9780738903897
ASIN: B0000CBHOI
Theatrical Release Date: September 28, 2003
Release Date: October 14, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new Item. CD, DVD, Book, VHS more than 400 000 titles to choose from. ALL days Low Price !
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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. The last are among the best aspects of the DVDs, as the bonus material features the set's only complete tunes. Lou Reed's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" and the ElektriK Mud Kats' (with Chuck D. of Public Enemy) hip-hop-cum-traditional updating of Muddy Waters's "Mannish Boy" are among the best of them; on the other hand, a rendition of "Cry Me a River" by Lulu (?!) is a curious choice, even with Jeff Beck on hand. The absence of lengthier vintage clips, meanwhile, is the principal drawback. For that reason alone, 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. Overall, this is a set to savor, a worthwhile investment guaranteed to grow on you over the course of repeated viewings. --Sam Graham
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 Avoid This Walking Disaster Of A Documentary Like The Plague!!! August 3, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Blues is a genre of music that is greatly under-appreciated by most Americans, despite being the fundamental roots and building blocks of all other forms of music, minus the Old-Timey music which was created by Western European immigrants in the Appalachians and down south, though even that music mingled with the Blues; the perfect example being "John Henry", which was hugely popular in both black Blues traditions and in Old-Timey music. Jazz, Rock 'N' Roll, Soul, Hard Rock and Heavy Metal all borrow heavily from the Blues. Though I am only 25 years of age, I have been a major Blues fan for over ten years. When I say "major", I mean that I am an obsessive collector, fan, singer and have just started to learn how to play the acoustic guitar. When I saw this documentary on television when it originally aired, I was disappointed. Upon renting the dvds from my local library three or four months ago, I was even more disappointed. It'd be much easier to tell one what's WRONG with this documentary than what's RIGHT about it.
Firstly, Corey Harris is a wonderful musician, but his original compositions and the Country Blues classics which he covers have nothing to do with musicians in Mali. Although that (very long!) segment of the film was interesting, it didn't pertain to the subject matter at all. It's nice to hear that someone thinks John Lee Hooker's music is "African", but what exactly does that mean? His music is meditative, hypnotic and sexual, but when we look up "Africa" or "African music" in an encyclopedia, we don't see "meditative", "hypnotic", or "sexual", do we? I think this is just the romanticism of a bunch of middle-aged whites who worked on this dvd, and perhaps even some of the young black musicians. With that said, it's great that Harris is in the documentary, as he is one of the top three greatest living Bluesmen. Alvin Youngblood Hart is also present in a different episode of this documentary, but why is he never interviewed? He is the best, that is, he is #1, out of all the living Blues musicians. His guitar playing is fantastic, he is able to compose songs which sound like they are from Charley Patton in 1928 but which contain all original lyrics, and his voice has an accent and snap to it that sounds like a real Country Bluesman from the '20s or '30s. In addition to Hart and Harris being shown covering important songs from the past, Samuel James and John Hammond should have been included in this documentary. John Hammond has done more to spread the word about real Blues than any other person alive, for the last half-century, and his brilliant father did the same thing during his long life. It's deeply insulting that John wasn't included. Furthermore, the artists who WERE shown performing classic Blues songs are simply Godawful. Beck's reading of Skip James' "I'm So Glad" is the most horrendous, disgusting, laughable thing I've ever seen in my life. Keb' Mo is a lightweight and not a Bluesman; he sounds more like James Taylor than he does like Big Joe Williams. Also, Skip James did not re-record all of his 1931 classics, as this stupid documentary would have you believe. This is just poor research on the part of the people who produced this monstrosity. Bonnie Raitt turned in a considerably good performance. Los Lobos and Susan Tedeschi had no business being part of the project, just as Susan didn't belong on Buddy Guy's newest album. I have seen her live; she is very good at playing Blues licks on her guitar and she's a good singer, but she is not Blues. Chuck D. makes an absolute ass of himself, along with his rapper friends, and Marshall Chess shows that he has no taste in music, and can't distinguish good Blues from crap. The footage of Skip James and the discussion of James' life and career by Dick Waterman is the highlight of this entire project and is wonderfully done. The J.B. Lenior business was ridiculous, as the private tapes of him performing show his limited talents on the guitar. The episode about the young man going to live with his uncle is utterly ridiculous because few blacks in the south at that time knew who Robert Johnson was, though the uncle supposedly touts him as one of the greatest of all-time, and even fewer blacks or people in general had any understanding of the greatness of the Blues as a serious musical form, like we think of Classical music, or Jazz, these days. So, why would the uncle have a shrine dedicated to Blues and be a Blues historian?!?. "Sleepy" John Estes is mistakenly called "Sleepy" Joe Estes. If Ken Burns' "Jazz" documentary were to call Thelonious Monk, "Thelonious Blunk", can you imagine the outrage on the part of the Jazz community? Bobby Rush is a joke and isn't a Blues artist. He should stay on the chitlin circuit, doing his dirty dances and poor James Brown imitations. I have no idea why he was included in this documentary. Also, although we all love and respect B.B. King, perhaps we didn't need to see him sitting on his tour bus, talking about his love for the Blues for an extended period of time, but this is one of the minor things wrong with this atrocious documentary.
The British episode of this abomination is ridiculous, due to Lulu and Tom Jones' presence. Honestly, Mayall and Baldry are of very little importance to Blues and we didn't need to hear about and from them, over and over again. If there needed to be a British "Blues"-themed episode to this disgrace of a documentary, why not focus on the lives of Clapton, the early Fleetwood Mac, Jeff Beck, and, more importantly, their influences, and why they (the British guitar players) love the Blues. Clint Eastwood's work is very well-done, but the problem is that very few of the musicians have anything to do with the Blues. Where was Roosevelt Sykes? He, in my opinion, was the greatest Blues pianist/singer in history. Dave Brubeck is a Jazz musician, and he doesn't even perform good Jazz; he does what Jelly Roll Morton or Joe Bussard would consider to be something other than Jazz, to put it nicely. The Johnny Shines footage in one of the earlier parts of this documentary was fantastic, but why wasn't the great Johnny Shines honored for what he truly was; a musician every bit as good as Robert Johnson, with a stronger and more versatile voice than Johnson, and the ability to perform both acoustic Country Blues standards and originals, and electric Chicago-style Blues standards and originals with equal force and beauty? When, oh, when, will Johnny Shines be recognized? He was the last of the great Bluesmen. He belongs up there with Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, Blind Blake, Blind Willie McTell, Blind Willie Johnson, Skip James, and, perhaps, Alvin Youngblood Hart, who should have had a much more prominent role here. It would have been better to have a dry, historical reading of the story of the Blues, even if the directors and producers didn't know their stuff (which was obviously the case) than to have a mish-mash of different segments, done by different fools, with, and this is the really awful part, horrible performances by living, supposed "Blues" or Blues-influenced "artists". I am able to sing these old classic Blues songs better than any of these morons, minus the great Hart, Harris and Bonnie Raitt. I believe it was the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion that was the low-point of this entire documentary, though it's really hard to discern what the worst part of this walking disaster was. Lou Reed, Oscar Peterson, Dr. John; why are they a part of this documentary? There was plenty of great Son House footage here, but why wasn't Blind Willie McTell mentioned? What about the unique Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas, who sounds nothing like anyone in all of American music, and who was an important Songster who came before the Blues, along with the brilliant Luke Jordan and the heavenly Richard "Rabbit" Brown?
I am not a huge fan of Eric Clapton, but the discussion of white teenagers' embracing the Blues during the 1960s and '70s is very important to the history of the Blues. With that being said, instead of having talentless artists who happen to be white covering Blues classics, it would have been better to sit down with Eric Clapton for one hour and just have him talk about the records he loved growing up, right off the top of his head. This would also help de-bunk the myth that "Clapton is God", and show young guitar-playing-Clapton-obsessed Blues-Rockers out there that Eric doesn't think he's the best; he feels he can never equal Muddy Waters' greatness, not to mention the beauty of Skip James or Robert Johnson. As Clapton has said in various interviews with various magazines, he is incapable of playing solo acoustic Country Blues because he is not a good enough player to play the complete guitar accompaniment to a song, which is what men like Blind Blake and Blind Lemon Jefferson did. This is why Clapton's album of Robert Johnson covers has other musicians on it. Finally, where the hell is the virtuoso of the Blues, Lonnie Johnson? This man was the inventor of Jazz guitar, performed marvelous guitar duets with Eddie Lang that still sound unbelievable almost 100 years laters, accompanied the brilliantly talented Texas Alexander by playing some of the most startling, dazzling, ominous guitar work in the history of mankind, pioneered Rhythm & Blues ten years later, and was able to play and croon Pop music standards with the best of them. I could probably go on and on about the inaccuracies and mistakes associated with this sad disappointment of a documentary, but I will have to stop here. Rent this thing from your local library. Do not buy it under any circumstances! If you want to know what Blues cds you should buy or which artists you should check out, just ask me, and I will tell you. I will save you a lot of money and aggravation, which is something that this documentary won't be able to do!
 For true fans of the Blues May 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you love music and love the Blues, this is a must have for your collection.
 B-O-R-I-N-G treatment of an awesome genre of music. March 28, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Save your money and instead borrow this set from your local public library. There is nothing about any of these DVDs that you'd want in your permanent collection. I guess I was hoping for more of a well organized documentary and less "filler". I mean, how many shots of BB King staring quietly out of his bus window do we need to see? This whole series is a collection of disconnected, rambling pieces that could have been better organized. All the parts are probably there, but it's like handing the viewer a pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces and saying "here's a nice oil painting".
This mess has Scorsese's name on it for marketing reasons only. It's clear that, other than the single DVD that he directed, the only message the other directors got was "put something together about the blues".
Out of the 900+ minutes of video here, I'd estimate that there are about 240 minutes worth of interesting material for the blues aficionado (I'm not talking just music here; for example the thread about Rosco Gordon was touching and worthwhile). The majority is senseless filler. Who cares about a rap musician's interpretation of a blues classic? Who cares about Clint Eastwood playing his piano?
A much better approach to this would have been to start with the roots of this wonderful music, and then highlight notable musicians and performances in chronological order. Connections of "who influenced whom" and "who worked with whom" would help tie it together. Sometimes presenting something in a simple, organized manner is the answer, rather than lathering every trick in the director's book on top of the project.
This is real June 8, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
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 January 10, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I purchased this for my son for Christmas. He likes it very much.
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