Martin scorsese presents the blues ma rainey

#Martin scorsese presents the blues ma rainey full
#Martin scorsese presents the blues ma rainey series

He had joined the Minstrels as a cornet player when he was twenty-two years old and traveled widely with them: the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Cuba. Handy, the recently departed bandleader for MaharaвЂ™s Minstrels, a black orchestra that mostly plays dance music and popular standards of the day, is a learned musician who understands theory and the conventions of good, respectable music. William Christopher Handy, better known by his initials, W.C., waits on the wooden platform for a train heading north. The slight breeze, when it visits, is warm and wet with humidity.

It is dusk, and the sky is rich in summer color. The place: Tutwiler, a tiny town in the Mississippi Delta, halfway between Greenwood and Clarksdale. A Century Of The Blues вЂ“ Robert SantelliДЎ903. How much can one take in? How does one connect musical inspirations, career paths, development of musical styles, and musical centres of excellence, of how the records business evolved. Piecing together the whole big picture as a newbie listener is an exhausting and bewildering experience. Alas, though, one has to follow obsessive audiophiles having a loyal ear for their favorite Blues artists, and their inspirations.

#Martin scorsese presents the blues ma rainey full

Nevertheless, one would think that a period of such rich musical heritage choc-a-bloc full of talent wherever you look would have passionate writing describing all of it. I could understand why young Black children are not navigating towards the Blues. Perhaps the old Delta Blues come from a time of racial embarrassments that the cultural consciousness wants to forget about. That is a very wise and astute observation.

Comparatively, European classical music of up-to 300-500 years back is considered contemporary and people experiment with it, listen to it as popular music, while someone like a Morton, barely 60-70 years hence is considered ancient. A jazz trumpet player, Delmond is whining about the lack of peopleвЂ™s interest in Jelly Roll MortonвЂ™s music, how it is called вЂancientвЂ™.

And as I said before, as you discover the music, the essay sounds so much more vivid.ДЄ moment in the TVseries Treme caught me off-guard recently. Most writings on Blues, especially when talking about itвЂ™s history get rather annoyingly sterile and academic. It treads the thin line between an emotional attachment with the Blues makers and being a comprehensive big picture view of the whole expanse of the Blues, knowing and showing where each of these Blues fit. One would be hard pressed to find a more comprehensive and readable walk-through of the hundred years of the Blues. The writing gets richer as you get acquainted with each Bluesman. This has been on my mind a lot lately, and I would be reading it multiple times in the future.

#Martin scorsese presents the blues ma rainey series

Before the proverbial ink is dry on the previous blog post, I am here with the promised 37 page essay that forms the introduction to the book and the documentary series Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues.