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Blues music has been woefully under-represented in motion pictures. This was particularly tru in the era from 1929, when films had made the complete transition over to sound, up until the 1960's. All of the great blues artists from the early to mid 1920's went unfilmed, not such a great loss since the films would have been silent. But that was when the blues was enjoying its greatest heyday. Travelling Pullman cars carried a gypsy-like caravan of blues acts from town to twon where they performed in TOBA circuit shows. Performers like Mamie Smith, Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith had devoted followings when they played in the black theaters all around the country. A Bessie Smith recording could reliably sell hundreds of thousands of copies, with occasional million sellers. But as the decade went on, blues sales dwindled. By the time of the depression, the blues craze was virtually over. Blues artists would be recorded for the next several decades, but significant sales did not occur until the 1960's when there was a blues renaissance.
WHile there were not many appearances by blues artists in feature films and even fewer all blues shorts, there were some very interesting artists captured on film. The most legendary of these films is St. Louis Blues starring the Empress of the Blues - Bessie Smith. Filmed just at the end of her great period of success and right at the beginning of the sound era, it is a chilling, powerful document. The sight of Bessie singing with such force makes it one of the great musical moments in film history. While many prints of this classic have circulated, they have usually been of inferior quality. Our source is an excellent 35mm nitrate. The dark shades in the film, so carefully photographed at the time, have been lost in the milky copies usually seen. Even more importantly, the sound is crystal clear. Two other great female singers from the 1920's also appear on this DVD - Ida Cox and Mamie Smith. Both were enormously successful as recording and performing artists. But the announcers in these all black feature films almost aplogetically introduces them as stars from an earlier era. Even though it is long past their commercial heyday, they still had a lot of spark and the performances here are of great historical interest.
One rather curious item is the Big Bill Broonzy field recordings. Shot with one camera, often times not even capturing a complete number, the technical limitations can't disguise the power of his singing and his playing. Broonzy was one of the greatest of the Mississippi players and these quck snatches of his style are fascinating.
The program concludes with a great short film featuring the magnificent blues harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson. Dressed in his natty attire, this extremely relaxed session seems to have been filmed very late at night, with able support by some fine Swedish musicians.
The blues has been under-filmed. But this program does give us a vivid picture of the various styles over the years and gives us precious glimpses of some of the finest practitioners.
Includes:
- Saint Louis Blues, starring Bessie Smith performing the title track
- A clip from the film Paradise in Harlem, featuring Mamie Smith performing "Tell Me Mama"
- A clip from the feature film Woman's a Fool featuring Ida Cox performing "Kentucky Man Blues" and "Fore Day Creep."
- Big Bill Broonzy Field Recordings including "John Henry," "Stump Blues," "Guitar Blues 1," and "Guitar Blues 2."
- Sonny Boy Williamson performing "Tell Me Baby," "You're My Baby," and "Goin' Back Home."
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