Chicago Blues

Chicago Blues

United States - 1972

Director - Harley Cokliss

Rhapsody Films, 1991, VHS

Run Time - 50 minutes

There are a number of interesting things about this brief documentary beginning with the director. Cokliss has continued to work in film and has some noteworthy films to his name, however Chicago Blues is not listed among his credits. Nor is it listed among the credits for cinematographer Tak Fujimoto who has an even more impressive resume. Perhaps they're not proud of this film now that they've gone on to the big time. I can't understand why that would be the case though, Chicago Blues is a great piece of history.

Like many of the blues documentary and performance footage shot at the time it suffers a bit from the amateur anthropologist mentality of its makers. Upon 'discovering' Black culture through music in the 60's, white people seem genuinely surprised and practically impressed that there is a Black culture. In presenting the art, white filmmakers repeatedly decontextualized it, filming performers in artificial folksy or rural settings and surrounding them with curious white onlookers.

Chicago Blues is an exception to this trend namely because it doesn't present its subject matter as an exhibit. Icons Muddy Waters, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy (all of whom recorded together in the early 60's) and lesser known bluesmen like Floyd Jones discuss the experiences that led to the creation of the Chicago Blues sound. In the years during and after World War II, large numbers of Blacks left the south to find work up north. As a hub of national commerce, Chicago proved to be one of the most promising destinations. For people born and raised in the south, and for the music they brought with them, the change proved to be utterly transformative. In fact, it is that experience which the film claims was the context for the creation of the Chicago sound. More than any other blues film or documentary that I've seen, Chicago Blues attempts (and mostly succeeds) in allowing the subjects, from the musicians to the city, to speak for themselves.

See also: Legends of Country Blues Guitar

Legends of Country Blues Guitar

Legends of Country Blues Guitar

United States - 1960's

Vestapol Productions, 1994, VHS

Run Time -58 minutes

As a relatively young fan of classic country blues it is always a good thing to find old footage of the originals performing live. Over the years many tapes have been cut together from this festival or that, from this television recording or the other...

Though many of them performed and recorded in the 20's and 30's, all of the footage we have of the country and delta blues artists comes from the 1960's or later. This is because of the revival in interest in United Statesian roots/folk music that blossomed with rock and hippie scenes in that decade. As a result, many of the legends (all of them conspicuously male) of country blues were "rediscovered", re-recorded and re-packaged for a new audience.

For the television programs like American Folk Blues Festival from which this and other videos were made, that package consisted of a bizarre cartoonish interpretation of "black country life" as the producers imagined it. The result leaves the impression of being at a zoo where "realistic" environments are created to make the exhibits feel "at home" while performing. In Legends of Country Guitar Blues however, because it is cobbled from various and sundry films, there is a mix of footage from the black and white era to cleaner color footage. You can get an idea of how the presentation of Black folk musicians to white audiences changed over the years. The first two performances of the video below, Mance Lipscomb followed by Mississippi John Hurt, demonstrate this point well.

Fortunately, thanks to user shimr0b26, you can watch LoCBG in several parts on YouTube.

Underworld

Underworld

United States - 1935

Director - Oscar Micheaux

Starring - Bee Freeman, Sol Johnson and Oscar Polk

Director Micheaux is something of a US film hero, being the first Black man to direct a feature film. It does not however stop there, in his films he actively and deliberately challenged Black stereotypes that were popular in film and elsewhere at the time. As a child of the VHS era, movies of this early age are sometimes difficult to stick through. As a true historian of film however, Micheaux's films are fascinating studies in social context.

In 2010 the United States Postal Service issued an Oscar Micheaux stamp as part of the Black Heritage Series. If you missed it (I did), you can see the home page while it lasts. As a widely respected film maker, there is quite a Micheaux following out there, if you find yourself inclined, you can start here.
Many of Micheaux's films are available on DVD from a popular online movie service, many others can be had for a song online.

In his fantastic study of Black cinema, Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks, film historian Donald Bogle describes Micheaux (among other iconic Black film personalities) with his own chapter. Micheaux was something of a renaissance man, writing, publishing and distributing his own books, one of which, The Homesteader became his first film, and the first feature film directed by a Black American.

Son of Ingagi

Son of Ingagi

United States - 1940

Director -Richard C. Kahn

From the same director as several of the Black-Cast westerns we brought you here, comes this sequel to the sleazy 1930 film Ingagi which we posted here. While this "sequel" poster is much better rendered, I like the crude simplicity of it's predecessor. Son of Ingagi also stars Spencer Williams, who appeared in Kahn's westerns and as you'll note from this poster, also wrote Son of Ingagi. After this film he went on to direct a number of his own pictures and also played the Andy to Alvin Childress' Amos in Amos n' Andy.

P.S., It looks like you can watch Son of Ingagi for free at IMDB. Just sayin'.

Black Cast Westerns

Harlem on the Prarie

United States - 1937

Director - Sam Newfield

Two-Gun Man From Harlem

United States - 1938

Director - Richard C. Kahn

Harlem Rides The Range

United States - 1939

Director - Richard C. Kahn

All three of these films star French-Canadian/Ethiopian Jazz musician Herbert (Herb) Jeffries. He and director Kahn did a third movie together called The Bronze Buckaroo in 1939. That and Harlem Rides the Range are available from NetFlix. Two-Gun Man From Harlem can be bought on DVD. No sign of Harlem On the Prarie, VHS or DVD, but that second one sure is a purty poster.