Bluesland (2010)
A Portrait of American Music
Studio: EuroArts 2057168 (Distrib. by Naxos) [3/30/10]
Video: 4:3
Audio: English PCM mono 2.0
Subtitles: French, German
Length: 85 minutes
Rating: ****
(Performances by Bessie Smith, Son House, Jimmy Rushing, Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, T-Bone Walker, B.B. King and many others)
What makes Bluesland a special DVD is that it covers the full gamut of American blues music. Covering from turn-of-the-century jug bands all the way up to 1960s white and English electric rock groups influenced by different blues genres, this DVD provides perhaps one of the most comprehensive 85 minutes you’ll find on the history of the blues.
Narrated by Keith David, one of the main narrators of the Ken Burns music series, we start at the beginning of the 20th Century with the influence of African slave rhythms and enter the Mississippi Delta and Piedmont regions with Son House, Charlie Patton, and Blind Willie McTell. From call and response to the 12 bar blues, and the popularity of the 12 string guitar, early blues is heavily covered.
Rare film of Leadbelly singing Pick a Bale of Cotton, and Texas blues from Blind Lemon Jefferson brings the viewer into the 1920s. African and Caribbean rhythms converge in New Orleans. Buddy Bolden and Jelly Roll Morton appear. The piano’s influence with Boogie Woogie and Barrelhouse are covered with Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis, and Roosevelt Sykes.
Crossover artists such as Lonnie Johnson (whose longevity covered five decades), Louis Armstrong, and Bessie Smith show the integration of jazz and blues.
One of the highlights of Bluesland is rare footage, such as Sonny Boy Williamson on the King Biscuit Hour. Music historians Robert Palmer and Albert Murray put their perspective on how electric blues emerged from the migration to Chicago from the South because of the need for work. Much time is spent with Elmore James, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, and other Chicago bluesmen.
Just as blues merged into jazz, we witness the early onset of rock n’ roll as Louis Jordan’s jump blues influenced Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley.
At the end of 85 minutes of restored video, an attentive viewer will find that without the blues, 20th Century American popular music would never have developed into the musical stew that we love today.
– Jeff Krow
