PBS
Blues Series, at BB's!
The
films will run from 8-9:50 pm each night. The live performances
will begin at 10:00 pm each night.
PBS Shows
|
9/28
Feel Like Going Home
Directed
by Martin Scorsese
Written by Peter Guralnick |
9/29
The Soul of a man
Written
and directed by Wm Wenders |
9/30
The Road to Memphis
Directed
by Richard Pearce
Written by Robert Gordon
|
10/01
Warming by the Devil's fire
Written
and directed by Charles Burnett |
10/02
Godfathers
& Sons
Directed
by Wm Wenders |
10/03
Red,
White & Blues
Directed
by Wm Wenders |
10/02
Godfathers
& Sons
Directed
by Wm Wenders |
|
|
Sep
28 Henry Townsend,
Ron Edwards, Leroy Pierson, Tom Hall
Sep
29 -
Arthur Williams Blues Masters
Sep
30 -
Willie Johnson Band
Oct
01 -
Fontella Bass & Guests
Oct
02 -
Oliver Sain's R&B All-Stars
Oct 03 - Big George Brock
& The Houserockers
Oct
04 -
Silvercloud & Bennie Smith
Feel
Like Going Home
Directed
by Martin Scorsese
Written by Peter Guralnick
Director Martin Scorsese (The Last Waltz, Raging Bull, Gangs
of New York) pays homage to the Delta blues. Musician Corey
Harris travels through Mississippi and on to West Africa,
exploring the roots of the music. The film celebrates the
early Delta bluesmen through original performances (including
Willie King, Taj Mahal, Otha Turner, and Ali Farka Toure)
and rare archival footage (featuring Son House, Muddy Waters,
and John Lee Hooker).
Says
Scorsese: "I've always felt an affinity for blues
music the culture of storytelling through music
is incredibly fascinating and appealing to me. The blues
have great emotional resonance and are the foundation
for American popular music."
Performances
in Feel Like Going Home
Corey Harris
John Lee Hooker *
Son House *
Salif Keita
Habib Koité
Taj Mahal
Ali Farka Toure
Otha Turner
Muddy Waters *
Keb' Mo'
Willie King
Lead Belly *
*indicates
archival performance
Interviews
in Feel Like Going Home
Corey Harris
Sam Carr
Toumani Diabate
Willie King
Dick Waterman
Taj Mahal
Johnny Shines *
Otha Turner
Ali Farka Toure
Habib Koité
Salif Keita
Keb' Mo'
The Soul of a Man
Written
and directed by Wim Wenders
Director Wim Wenders (Buena Vista Social Club; Wings of
Desire; Paris, Texas) explores the lives of his favorite
blues artists Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson, and
J. B. Lenoir in a film that is part history and part
personal pilgrimage. The film tells the story of these artists'
lives in music through a fictional film-within-a-film, rare
archival footage, and covers of their songs by contemporary
musicians, including Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams, Lou
Reed, Eagle Eye Cherry, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, The
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Cassandra Wilson, Garland Jeffreys,
Los Lobos, and others.
Says
Wenders: "These songs meant the world to me. I felt
there was more truth in them than in any book I had read
about America, or in any movie I had ever seen. I've tried
to describe, more like a poem than in a 'documentary,'
what moved me so much in their songs and voices."
Performances
in The Soul of a Man
T-Bone
Burnett
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
Eagle-Eye Cherry
Shemekia Copeland
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Alvin Youngblood Hart
Skip James *
Garland Jeffreys
Chris Thomas King
J.B. Lenoir *
Los Lobos
John Mayall *
Bonnie Raitt
Lou Reed
Vernon Reid
Marc Ribot
James "Blood" Ulmer
Lucinda Williams
Cassandra Wilson
*indicates
archival performance
Cast:
Skip
James: Keith B. Brown
Blind Willie Johnson: Chris Thomas King
The Road to Memphis
Directed
by Richard Pearce
Written by Robert Gordon
Director Richard Pearce (The Long Walk Home, Leap of Faith,
A Family Thing) traces the musical odyssey of blues legend
B.B. King in a film that pays tribute to the city that gave
birth to a new style of blues. Pearce's homage to Memphis
features original performances by B.B. King, Bobby Rush,
Rosco Gordon and Ike Turner, as well as historical footage
of Howlin' Wolf and Rufus Thomas.
Says
Pearce: "The Blues is a chance to celebrate one of
the last truly indigenous American art forms, before it
all but disappears, swallowed whole by the rock and roll
generation it spawned. Hopefully we'll get there before
it's too late."
Performances
in The Road to Memphis
Fats
Domino *
Rosco Gordon *
B.B. King
Little Milton
Little Richard *
Bobby Rush
Ike Turner
Howlin' Wolf *
The Coasters *
*indicates
archival performance
Interviews
in The Road to Memphis
Bobby
Rush
B.B. King
Rosco Gordon
Rufus Thomas
Calvin Newborn
Hubert Sumlin
Chris Spindel (WDIA program officer)
Don Kern (WDIA Production Manager)
Dr. Louis Cannonball Cantor
Cato Walker III
Little Milton Campbell
Sam Phillips
Ike Turner
Jim Dickinson
Warming
by the Devil's Fire
Written
and directed by Charles Burnett
Director Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep, My Brother's
Wedding, To Sleep with Anger) presents a tale about a young
boy's encounter with his family in Mississippi in the 1950s,
and intergenerational tensions between the heavenly strains
of gospel and the devilish moans of the blues.
Says
Burnett: "The sound of the blues was a part of my
environment that I took for granted. However, as years
passed, the blues slowly emerged as an essential source
of imagery, humor, irony, and insight that allows one
to reflect on the human condition. I always wanted to
do a story on the blues that not only reflected its nature
and its content, but also alludes to the form itself.
In short, a story that gives you the impression of the
blues."
Performances
in The Warming by the Devil's Fire
Big
Bill Broonzy *
Elizabeth Cotten *
Reverend Gary Davis *
Ida Cox *
Willie Dixon *
Lightnin' Hopkins *
Son House *
Mississippi John Hurt *
Vasti Jackson
Bessie Smith *
Mamie Smith *
Victoria Spivey *
Sister Rosetta Tharpe *
Dinah Washington *
Muddy Waters *
Sonny Boy Williamson *
*indicates
archival performance
Godfathers and Sons
Directed
by Marc Levin
Director Marc Levin (Slam, Whiteboys, Brooklyn Babylon)
travels to Chicago with hip-hop legend Chuck D (of Public
Enemy) and Marshall Chess (son of Leonard Chess and heir
to the Chess Records legacy) to explore the heyday of Chicago
blues as they unite to produce an album that seeks to bring
veteran blues players together with contemporary hip hop
musicians. Along with never-before-seen archival footage
of Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and the Paul Butterfield Blues
Band, are original performances by Koko Taylor, Otis Rush,
Magic Slim, Ike Turner, and Sam Lay.
Says
Levin: "When we were shooting Sam Lay and his band
at the Chicago Blues Festival, they were playing Muddy
Waters' classic, 'I Got My Mojo Workin.' I closed my eyes
and was transported back to when I was a 15-year-old hanging
in my buddy's basement listening to the Paul Butterfield
Blues Band for the first time. My life was changed that
day, and 35 years later the music's still shakin' my soul.
The feel of that day in the basement is what I have set
out to capture in this film."
Performances
in Godfathers and Sons
Lonnie
Brooks
Paul Butterfield *
Common
Chuck D and Public Enemy *
Bo Diddley *
Sam Lay
Ike Turner
Pinetop Perkins
Otis Rush
Magic Slim
Smokey Smothers
Koko Taylor
Sonny Terry* & Brownie McGhee*
"Electric Mud Band":
Pete Cosey, Phil Upchurch, Louis Satterfield, Morris Jennings
Kyle Rahzel and Ahmir (a.k.a. ?uestlove) of The Roots Muddy
Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon,
Blind Arvella Gray, Carrie Robinson
*indicates
archival performance
Interviews
in Godfathers and Sons
Marshall
Chess - Chuck D - Jamar Chess - Phil Chess - Koko Taylor
- Magic Slim - Common - Sam Lay
Red,
White & Blues
Directed
by Mike Figgis
Director Mike Figgis (Stormy Monday, Leaving Las Vegas,
Time Code) joins musicians such as Van Morrison, Eric Clapton,
Jeff Beck, and Tom Jones, performing and talking about the
music of the early sixties British invasion that reintroduced
the blues sound to America.
During
the 1960s, the UK was the location for a vibrant social
revolution. London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester
and Newcastle all had their own music scenes. Musicians
from Belfast and Glasgow moved to London to be part of
the club scene there.
The
post-war traditional jazz and folk revival movements produced
the fertile ground for a new kind of blues music
entirely influenced by the authentic black blues of the
USA, and, for the most part, entirely ignored by the good
citizens of the US. It was new in the sense that certain
key musicians took the blues and molded it in an entirely
personal way to fit the new awareness of the UK in the
sixties. Importantly, for the most part they continued
to pay homage to the originators of the music and to make
a huge global audience aware of the likes of Robert Johnson,
Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Freddie King, etc.
Mike
Figgis' film examines the circumstances of this vibrant
period. Figgis himself participated, albeit in a minor
way, in this period of history, playing in a blues band
with Bryan Ferry, a band that was the nucleus for the
first Roxy Music.
A
series of musical interviews with the key players of the
blues movement is augmented with a live session at the
famous Abbey Road recording studios. Tom Jones, Jeff Beck,
Van Morrison, and Lulu all improvise around some classic
blues standards, accompanied by a superb band made up
of younger and not-so-younger-musicians. The results are
electrifying.
Says
Figgis: "I'm interested in why there was such excitement
about this black music among Europeans. To that end, I've
put together a group of these musicians, augmenting the
line-up with some younger talent as well. Hopefully the
resulting recording session of some blues standards, and
the discussions that follow, shine some light on why at
a particular moment the blues was reinterpreted abroad
and reintroduced in a new form that was universally embraced."
Performances
in Red, White & Blues
Jeff
Beck
Big Bill Broonzy *
Cream *
Lonnie Donnegan
Georgie Fame
Chris Farlowe
Tom Jones
B.B. King
Peter King
Alexis Korner *
Albert Lee
Lulu
Humphrey Lyttelton
Sonny Terry * & Brownie McGhee *
Van Morrison
Rolling Stones *
Sister Rosetta Tharpe *
Muddy Waters *
Lead Belly *
Jon Cleary
*indicates
archival performance
Interviews
in Red, White & Blues
Tom Jones
Jeff Beck
Van Morrison
John Porter
Humphrey Lyttelton
George Melly
Lonnie Donnegan
Chris Barber
Eric Clapton
John Mayall
B.B. King
Albert Lee
Chris Farlowe
Bert Jansch
Eric Burdon
Stevie Winwood
Davey Graham
Georgie Fame
Mick Fleetwood
Peter Green
Piano
Blues
Directed
by Clint Eastwood
Director and piano player Clint Eastwood (Play
Misty for Me, Bird,
Unforgiven) explores his life-long passion for piano blues,
using a treasure trove of rare historical footage in addition
to interviews and performances by such living legends as
Pinetop Perkins and Jay McShann, as well as Dave Brubeck
and Marcia Ball.
Says
Eastwood: "The blues has always been part of my musical
life and the piano has a special place, beginning when
my mother brought home all of Fats Waller's records. Also,
the music has always played a part in my movies. A piano
blues documentary gives me a chance to make a film that
is more directly connected to the subject of the music
than the features that I have been doing throughout my
career."
Performances
in Piano Blues
Marcia
Ball
Dave Brubeck
Ray Charles Jay McShann
Pinetop Perkins
and many more!
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