- Actors: Memphis Slim
- Format: Closed-captioned, Colour, Dolby, DVD-Video, PAL
- Language English
- Region: All Regions
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3 - 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: Exempt
- Studio: Universal Island
- DVD Release Date: 11 Oct 2004
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- ASIN: B0002TB6IY
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 68,705 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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DVD Description
Tracks Featured:
1. The Blues Is Everywhere (Jazz Prisma - 1963 performance) 2. All By Myself (Jazz Prisma - 1963 performance) 3. My Gal Keeps Me Crying (Jazz Prisma - 1963 performance) 4. Matt's Guitar Boogie (Jazz Prisma - 1963 performance) 5. I'm Lost Without You (Jazz Prisma - 1963 performance) 6. Wish Me Well (Jazz Prisma - 1963 performance) 7. I'm A Lonely Man (Jazz Prisma - 1963 performance) 8. Keep It To Yourself (Jazz Prisma - 1963 performance) 9. Your Funeral And My Trial (Jazz Prisma - 1963 performance) 10. Bye Bye Bird (Jazz Prisma- 1963 performance) 11. Rockin' The House (American Folk Blues Festival - 1962) 12. I'll Just Keep Singing The Blues (American Folk Blues Festival - 1963) 13. Who's Gonna Take Care Of You (1964 Swedish Film Short) 14. It's Raining Outdoors, Baby (1964 Swedish Film) 15. JFK Blues (1964 Swedish Film) 16. Careless Love (American Folk Blues Festival - 1965) 17. Boogie Woogie Blues (Newport Folk Festival - 1960) 18. Slow Sweet Blues (Newport Folk Festival - 1960) 19. St. Louis Blues (Newport Folk Festival - 1960)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Another indispensable production from Reelin in the Years, with presentation to the very highest standards
The bulk of the material is from a 1963 tour offshoot of the American Folk Blues Festival of that year, filmed in a jazz bar in Paris: SBW II and Memphis Slim with Matt Murphy. Memphis Slim comes across very well, while Sonny Boy is (despite the strange camera angle which doesn't move away from his head) on excellent form.
In addition there is - my favourite - a 1962 AFBF excerpt with Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon and T-Bone Walker (off camera), while there are further tracks from 1963 (Memphis Slim) and 1964 (Mae Mercer with SBW)
The Swedish Sonny Boy tracks also feature which show him in a different light accompanied by a local acoustic guitar and double bass, while there is some powerful playing from Otis Spann with the Muddy Waters band from the 1960 Newport Jazz festival
If you're into the real thing, you just have to have this in your collection
The bulk of the material is from a 1963 tour offshoot of the American Folk Blues Festival of that year, filmed in a jazz bar in Paris: SBW II and Memphis Slim with Matt Murphy. Memphis Slim comes across very well, while Sonny Boy is (despite the strange camera angle which doesn't move away from his head) on excellent form.
In addition there is - my favourite - a 1962 AFBF excerpt with Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon and T-Bone Walker (off camera), while there are further tracks from 1963 (Memphis Slim) and 1964 (Mae Mercer with SBW)
The Swedish Sonny Boy tracks also feature which show him in a different light accompanied by a local acoustic guitar and double bass, while there is some powerful playing from Otis Spann with the Muddy Waters band from the 1960 Newport Jazz festival
If you're into the real thing, you just have to have this in your collection
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
"You look like Satan with that goatee"
12 Oct 2004
Format:DVD
Not QUITE as essential as the three "American Folk Blues Festival" DVDs, this is nevertheless a really fine collection of performances by Memphis Slim and Rice Miller (Sonny Boy Williamson II).
It opens with a six-song set by Memphis Slim, taped in Holland in 1963. A very distinguished-looking Slim is backed by Matt "Guitar" Murphy and drummer Bill Stepney, and he does a dignified "The Blues Is Everywhere", a sloppy, too-fast "All By Myself" which he doesn't really take seriously, and a stately rendition of "My Gal Keeps Me Crying" which ranks as one of the highlights of this disc.
So does the lesser-known "I'm Lost Without You", a swinging, supremely catchy mid-tempo boogie, and Matt Murphy also gets a chance to show off, doing a dextrous (if not all that memorable) "Matt's Guitar Boogie" which also features a brief drum solo by Bill Stepney.
Slim's first set comes to a close with the delightful shuffle "Wish Me Well", and the first four performances by Rice Miller is from the same TV program, Jazz Prisma, taped in front of a small studio audience.
Sonny Boy opens with a slow, wistful "Lonely Man", followed by two more absolute highlights: "Keep It To Yourself" and "Your Funeral And My Trial", two of his best mid-50s Chess sides. The camera zooms in on Sonny Boy while he plays, and his half-closed lids, aloof I-couldn't-care-less expression and pointy goatee actually makes him look a little like the common depiction of Satan!
Maybe there was some truth to the legend that the young Aleck "Rice" Miller promised his soul to Old Scratch in exchange for not having to breathe while performing...
(And yes, the headline is a "Friends" quote.)
Sonny Boy may have been nearing the end of his life at this time, but his playing and singing show little if any sign of wear, and his sense of timing is impeccable.
His other set, a low-key trio performance taped in Sweden in 1964, is slightly less impressive, mainly due to the choice of material, but still worth while. And Memphis Slim gets two more songs as well, both footage from the American Folk Blues Festivals of 1962 and 1963 respectively. Willie Dixon joins him for both, and T-Bone Walker plays the guitar on the 1962 taping of the driving, up-tempo "Rockin' The House".
The bonus tracks include three grainy clips from the 1960 Newport Folk Festival (Muddy Waters' piano player Otis Spann plays three instrumentals) and a rather...different...performance of "Careless Love" by Mae Mercer with Sonny Boy on harmonica.
But it's the main content which will interest most viewers. This DVD is not quite as accessible to "mid-level" blues fans as the three "Folk Blues" DVDs, I suppose, but there are some tremendous performances here by both Slim and Sonny Boy, and fans of either man will certainly want a look. And a listen.
It opens with a six-song set by Memphis Slim, taped in Holland in 1963. A very distinguished-looking Slim is backed by Matt "Guitar" Murphy and drummer Bill Stepney, and he does a dignified "The Blues Is Everywhere", a sloppy, too-fast "All By Myself" which he doesn't really take seriously, and a stately rendition of "My Gal Keeps Me Crying" which ranks as one of the highlights of this disc.
So does the lesser-known "I'm Lost Without You", a swinging, supremely catchy mid-tempo boogie, and Matt Murphy also gets a chance to show off, doing a dextrous (if not all that memorable) "Matt's Guitar Boogie" which also features a brief drum solo by Bill Stepney.
Slim's first set comes to a close with the delightful shuffle "Wish Me Well", and the first four performances by Rice Miller is from the same TV program, Jazz Prisma, taped in front of a small studio audience.
Sonny Boy opens with a slow, wistful "Lonely Man", followed by two more absolute highlights: "Keep It To Yourself" and "Your Funeral And My Trial", two of his best mid-50s Chess sides. The camera zooms in on Sonny Boy while he plays, and his half-closed lids, aloof I-couldn't-care-less expression and pointy goatee actually makes him look a little like the common depiction of Satan!
Maybe there was some truth to the legend that the young Aleck "Rice" Miller promised his soul to Old Scratch in exchange for not having to breathe while performing...
(And yes, the headline is a "Friends" quote.)
Sonny Boy may have been nearing the end of his life at this time, but his playing and singing show little if any sign of wear, and his sense of timing is impeccable.
His other set, a low-key trio performance taped in Sweden in 1964, is slightly less impressive, mainly due to the choice of material, but still worth while. And Memphis Slim gets two more songs as well, both footage from the American Folk Blues Festivals of 1962 and 1963 respectively. Willie Dixon joins him for both, and T-Bone Walker plays the guitar on the 1962 taping of the driving, up-tempo "Rockin' The House".
The bonus tracks include three grainy clips from the 1960 Newport Folk Festival (Muddy Waters' piano player Otis Spann plays three instrumentals) and a rather...different...performance of "Careless Love" by Mae Mercer with Sonny Boy on harmonica.
But it's the main content which will interest most viewers. This DVD is not quite as accessible to "mid-level" blues fans as the three "Folk Blues" DVDs, I suppose, but there are some tremendous performances here by both Slim and Sonny Boy, and fans of either man will certainly want a look. And a listen.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Great DVD! Buy it!
2 Oct 2004
Format:DVD
Great DVD with excellent performances by Memphis Slim and Sonny Boy Williamson. The backing provided by Matt 'Guitar' Murphy on guitar and by Bill Stepney on drums (Willie Dixon jumps in on bass on two cuts) works prefectly and makes the performances very tight. Memphis Slim is terrific but it is Sonny Boy who steals the show!
Sonny Boy also plays three songs with two swedish musicians, who doesn't seem to be used to playing blues. These songs are much looser but Sonny Boy makes them work too.
Also included is a song with Sonny Boy as a sideman, providing excellent backup for singer Mae Mercer, and three cuts with Otis Spann playing with the Muddy Waters band minus Muddy himself. These latter cuts are from the 1960 Newport Folk Festival, and must be the band warming up for the legendary Muddy Waters concert which is issued as the classic album "Muddy Waters at Newport".
So, in my opinion the bonus material alone is worth the purchase. There is absolutely nothing negative to say about this DVD.
Sonny Boy also plays three songs with two swedish musicians, who doesn't seem to be used to playing blues. These songs are much looser but Sonny Boy makes them work too.
Also included is a song with Sonny Boy as a sideman, providing excellent backup for singer Mae Mercer, and three cuts with Otis Spann playing with the Muddy Waters band minus Muddy himself. These latter cuts are from the 1960 Newport Folk Festival, and must be the band warming up for the legendary Muddy Waters concert which is issued as the classic album "Muddy Waters at Newport".
So, in my opinion the bonus material alone is worth the purchase. There is absolutely nothing negative to say about this DVD.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Great Stuff
10 April 2007
Format:DVD
Video documentation of the blues greats is shamefully unavailable.
It is a tremendous loss to us all that there is so little good footage and that the Europeans had to show us where it's at and how it's done. I'm glad they did.
It is a tremendous loss to us all that there is so little good footage and that the Europeans had to show us where it's at and how it's done. I'm glad they did.
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