It’s better than killing yourself …
Featuring 36 rare – and frequently astonishing – live! in-a-German-TV-studio performances from some of the best ’n’ brightest S*T*A*R*S in Blues Heaven, recorded in glorious, full-range mono, and shot in gorgeous, painterly black-and-white (often by Michael Ballhaus, later the cinematographer on GoodFellas, The Age of Innocence, The Last Temptation of Christ, Gangs of New York) …
It’s better than killing somebody else …
Seems like everybody’s got the blues these days, but back in ’62, Horst Lippman and Fritz Rau, two German jazz-fans-turned-concert-promoters, really had the blues, which they thought was extinct. A field trip to Chicago opened their eyes, and, enlisting the protean talents of songwriter/bassist Willie Dixon, they put together a stellar package of singers, pianists, guitarists, and harmonica virtuosos that represented everything from pre-WWII urban to country to contemporary Chicago blues.
Lippman was also the director of Jazz Gehort und Gesehen (Jazz Heard and Seen), a bimonthly TV show based in Baden-Baden. Wisely, they put the acts on the TV show to help finance the tour, which was a surprising success. For example, they were only able to secure one English date, in Manchester, but no less than Jimmy Page, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, and three of their pals drove up from London in a panel truck to witness the show. (The ’60s blues-rock revolution starts here.)
They repeated these feats with different lineups for several years, but, while the ’67 and ’68 tours weren’t lensed, the existing tapes somehow survived. Now, thanks to the joint efforts of San Diego-based Reelin’ in the Years, Experience Hendrix, and Hip-O/Universal Music Enterprises, they’re making their U.S. debut on DVD.
Each of these hour-plus discs (sold separately) is drawn from five years’ worth of shows/tours and spotlights 18 songs. The worst moments are merely good; the best are … a baby-faced John Lee Hooker performing a suitably eccentric, solo electric “Hobo Blues” … Otis Rush pouring great buckets of sweat from his impossible conk, shades, and sweater combination during a wrenching “I Can’t Quit You Baby” … master showman Sonny Boy Williamson’s satanic goatee and the gleam in his eye as he points to various audience members (who all look like they’re auditioning for Kraftwerk), asking “What would you do?” on “Nine Below Zero” … Earl Hooker’s backstage C&W parody that leads into his guitar-chewing, fuzztone boogaloo “Off the Hook” … the only known live footage extant of Magic Sam, ripping through “All Your Love” and a ferocious down-home boogie instro … and three straight songs by Howlin’ Wolf – backed by his longtime guitar whiz Hubert Sumlin, pianist Sunnyland Slim, Dixon, and drummer Clifton James – that, if you wanna talk about a singer inhabiting his material, rank among the most intensely committed performances this child has ever seen.
While that ersatz back-porch setting is painfully literal, set designer Gunther Kieser’s subsequent use of wall-sized photos or an almost deserted saloon provides a suitably atmospheric contrast to the pure concert sequences. The cameras don’t always get the entire solo in the frame, but the rarity of the performances, including some ad-hoc combinations of talents, underscore a sense of spontaneity – and near-telepathic musical interplay – that’s even rarer.
The extras are minimal – informative notes ’n’ credits, though – but along with the artists previously mentioned, the sounds of unorthodox stylists (Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Big Joe Williams and his nine-string guitar), head-cutting fretgrinders (T-Bone Walker, Buddy Guy, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Lonnie Johnson), barrelhouse pianists (Roosevelt Sykes, Otis Spann, Memphis Slim, Eddie Boyd), harmonicats ’n’ harmoni-kittens (Junior Wells, Walter “Shakey” Horton, Shakey Jake, Big Mama Thornton), relatively big names (Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee), and red hot ’n’ blues mamas (Sippie Wallace, Victoria Spivey) abound.
The American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1966, Vols. 1 & 2, Reelin’ in the Years Productions/Experience Hendrix/
Hip-O/Universal Music Enterprises. $19.98 each.
