Blues Masters - The Essential History of the Blues

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DVD details

Actor: Bessie Smith, Leadbelly
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Black & White, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-05-28
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Rhino / Wea

DVD Reviews of Blues Masters - The Essential History of the Blues

DVD Review: A History
Summary: 3 Stars

Id really thought it would be more of a history of Ledbetter than a broad history of the blues but it was still adequate.

DVD Review: Blues Masters Video cd
Summary: 5 Stars

This blues dvd displays some of the only video recordings of the early blues founders,like; Bessie Smith, Sun House, and others. It is a very good dvd for blues and music lovers.

DVD Review: Blues Masters
Summary: 4 Stars

I was surprised to learn that there was a DVD of the Blues Master series, after owning the CD series for a number of years. This video is well worth the cost for several reasons. One of the high points is being able to view the only known film of Leadbelly, which is excellent. Other performers include some of the best names in the older generation of blues musicians, such as: Son House, Muddy Waters, Bessie Smith, Billie Holliday, Big Joe Turner, Buddy Guy, B.B. King and Big Bill Broonzy. The only down side is that there is perhaps a little too much of a jazz presence which might not be appreciated by someone who is a blues fan exclusively. Overall however, this DVD will be a prized item in the collection of any blues fan.

John Cole

DVD Review: Horrendous
Summary: 1 Stars

This is the worst Blues DVD I've ever seen. Many essential points to understanding the history of the Blues are missed: Mamie Smith recording the first Black vocal song with the word "Blues" that became a huge hit ("Crazy Blues"), the subsequent popularity of Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson becoming the first male Blues star in the Race Records industry, the birth of electric Blues that was necessary when blacks moved north and needed to amplify music in order to be heard in huge crowds, the birth of Rock 'N' Roll around 1954, and the Country Blues revival during the early 1960's. Facets of the terrible documentary which should have been taken out were the footage of Kennedy during the Jimmy Witherspoon song, which was simply idiotic and without reason (not to mention the documentary's failure to state that Witherspoon was covering a song Bessie Smith had popularized), the excessive talk of Blues constantly being associated with the struggle for Civil Rights (many Bluesmen's daily activities were not in line at all with morality), the mentioning of the Beatles and Michael Jackson being heavily influenced by Blues (this is plain absurd), and associating Aretha Franklin with Sarah Vaughan (they were separated by three decades). The Muddy Waters footage was terrible, as they selected one of the worst Muddy performances I've ever seen. There was no effort to fix up the sound quality of not just the performances, but also the narrator's statements, despite the DVD coming out in 1993, and then being touched up during the current decade. In addition, Babe Stovall was not a hugely popular performer during the 1920's, as the DVD states. The closing footage of B.B. King is from the early 1960's, so why was it shown after the narrator talked about B.B. being the representative of the Blues in today's world? Also, Sleepy John Estes was not hugely popular in the 1940's and 1950's, and Elmore James died in the 1960's (instead of being a huge star throughout the decade, as the DVD states). From top to bottom, this is the worst Blues documentary ever. For all of you who claim to know about Blues and give this terrible work 5 stars, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

DVD Review: Could be better
Summary: 3 Stars

Yes, I understand why the U.S. History lesson applies to the hisory of the Blues BUT: Did we really need to see video clips of JFK's presidency & his assassination as background to Jimmy Witherspoon's "Ain't Nobody's Business"? Was it misrepresentation to use late 1970's film footage to introduce Muddy Waters in the late 50's segment? Imagine my surprise to find Clifton Chenier, the king of Zydeco, listed as a Blues artist. Did they have to use the guy that recorded voiceovers in his bathroom for the Army's V.D. training films as the voiceover for this?
All I'm saying is, It could've been better.

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