Bluesland Portrait of a Music

BLUESLAND

A Portrait in American Music 
Masters of American Music
EUROARTS DVD 

Euro-Arts has reissued on CD the 1993 documentary, Bluesland- A Portrait in American Music, that was part of the American Masters series. A mix of performances (some in short clips), interviews and commentary from pundits Robert Palmer and Albert Murray, this was an exploration of blues music as both a musical idiom and it's transformation as a way of coping with the things in everyday life that give one the blues.  

The mixing of quotes from Willie Dixon and Otis Spann, clips of performances and recordings and the pundits interpretations (and Murray and Palmer have very distinct perspectives). Palmer terms W.C. Handy the father of the blues industry while Murray refers to him as father who helped the music spread and regards it as part of jazz. This perspective can be discerned by their writings on blues as well as their comments here. Palmer deals with the facts of the people playing blues while Murray is more about the allegorical aspects of blues.

The perspective is tied together by a narration from actor Avery Brooks and has bits and performances from Bessie Smith, Lonnie Johnson (great blues ballad from TV) and recordings from Charlie Patton and Louis Armstrong. The classic recording of the latter's West End Blues, precedes Murray distinguishing folk art and fine art in the blues idiom, which leads to minimizing the achievement of the "folk" bluesman. So Basie epitomizes the blues as fine art, as a video of One O'Clock Jump, is shown, but at the same time the Basie Band and vocalist Jimmy Rushing (seen singing) had a definite impact on B.B. King. 

The perspectives of Murray and Palmer have points of agreement as opposed to those of disagreement, both both making cogent observations. Palmer, noting some blues is described as primitive suggests that Mozart, with it's very simple rhythm, might be called primitive, segues into Murray's discussion of African talking drums. Regardless of whether one is more sympathetic to Murray or Palmer, Bluesland, provides an enlightening overview of blues music and it's expression within jazz. It remains fresh and illuminating over a decade and a half after it's initial broadcast. Recommended.


This review originally appeared (I have made minor changes) in the June 2010 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 326). I received my review copy from the publication.

Count Basie Swingin' The Blues

COUNT BASIE
Swingin the Blues 
Masters of American Music 
EUROARTS DVD

Among the recent reissues from the Masters of American Music video series is one Swingin’ the Blues, devoted to Count Basie, the great big band leader and pianist. Issued by EuroArts on the Lower 5th imprint, it presents the near hour appreciation of Count Basie with some choice video clips and interview recollections by Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison, Al Grey, Illinois Jacquet, Jay McShann, Buddy Tate, Earle Warren, Claude Williams, Joe Williams and Albert Murray (who co-authored Basie’s autobiography), along with a number of interview clips of the Count himself.

Additionally, there are a number of performance clips from Basie himself from several periods of his career which feature Joe Williams, Jimmy Rushing, Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis, and Lester Young. The sources range from the soundies (an amusing Rushing performance of Take Me Bake Baby, a film short (the clip of Young is from the classic film The Blues), and television (Basie with Judy Garland).

The mix of recollections and oral history with the clips helps us understand the development of the Basie sound as Basie remembers how he came to Kansas City and gradually put together his own band and Jay McShann remembers Basie and his band and the impact they had. Earle Warren, Edison, Williams and Tate recall there time with the band (Williams ironically recalling that John Hammond had him let go from Basie at a time when Claude was highly regarded as a guitarist) and the personalities including Lester Young, and Buck Clayton as well as how Basie could set the tenor of a number with just one note, the use of the two tenors, and the All American rhythm section. Murray adds his own perspective on Basie’s place in the music.

This documentary then traces how Basie had to disband the big band for a sextet before gradually bringing back the big band and the new personnel and sounds with arrange- ments from the likes of Neal Hefti, Frank Wess and Frank Foster and numerous new legendary soloists like Lockjaw Davis and Al Grey.

Joe Williams recalls how Basie asked him to join the band, which he agreed to so long as he did not to do any of Jimmy Rushing’s material. And he brought Basie an old Memphis Slim tune, Everyday I Have the Blues, that helped reignite Basie’s profile. And that led to more commercial successes as well as partnerships with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and others.

Like others in the Masters of Modern American Music series, the program on Count Basie; Swingin’ the Blues, fleshes out a musical icon in a most entertaining and informative manner. 

This review originally appeared in the June 2010 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 326). I received my review copy from the publication.  Here is a classic video of Basie with Buck Clayton on trumpet.