So here we are Speaker’s Top 11 scenes from tv shows and movies that could pass for video clips in their own right in ranking order.

11. TUPAC RESSURECTION

10. MULHOLLAND DRIVE

9. MAD ABOUT YOU

8. SMALLVILLE – SEASON 6

7. DONNIE DARKO

6. SMALLVILLE – SEASON 1

5. SMALLVILLE – SEASON 5

4. WONDER YEARS

3. CADILLAC RECORDS

2. DONNIE DARKO

1. SCRUBS

1) Massachusetts (The Bee Gees)

2) Dirty Water (The Standells)

3) Please Come to Boston (Joan Baez)

4) Sweet New England (Paul Simon)

5) Yankee Lady (Jesse Winchester)

6) I’m Your Doctor (Muddy Waters, James Cotton, Otis Spann)

7) Good Lovin’ (Grateful Dead)

I Don’t Need No Doctor (Ray Charles)

9) The Physician (Gertrude Lawrence/Cole Porter 1933)

10) I’m Sick Y’All (Otis Redding)

11) Backstabbers (the O’Jays)

12) Cigarettes and Coffee (Otis Redding)

13) When It Hurts So Bad (Lauryn Hill)

14) Good Lovin’ (the Rascals)

15) The Healing Game (John Lee Hooker)

According to WIKIPEDIA:

Michelle Obama, wife of U.S. President Barack Obama, told the BBC that she frequently listens to [Lauryn] Hill’s music on her iPod,^{[61] SOURCE BELOW}

1. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ifs_news/hi/newsid_7442000/7442317.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauryn_Hill

16) TLC (TSOP) (The Sound of Philadelphia)

17) The Revolution Will Not be Televised (Gil Scott-Heron)

18) Death Don’t Have No Mercy (The Rev. Gary Davis)

19) The Welfare Blues (Nyle Jones)

20) Fanny Mae (Johnny Otis)

21) Get It While You Can (Janis Joplin)

22) The Impossible Dream (Temptations)

23) The Score (The Fugees)

24) I Truly Believe (Temptations)

25) Chain of Fools (Aretha Franklin)

26) Tell the Truth (Derek & the Dominoes)

27) Respect (Aretha Franklin)

28) Pain in My Heart (Otis Redding)

29) I’ll Be in Trouble (Temptations)

30) This Magic Moment (the Drifters)

31) Blind Leading the Blind (Paul Butterfield Blues Band)

32) Security (Otis Redding)

33) Let’s Work Together (Canned Heat)

34) I Take What I Want (Sam and Dave)

35) ‘Taint Nobody’s Business (Jimmy Witherspoon)

36) A Change is Gonna’ Come (Otis Redding)

37) Times are Changing (Jimmy Witherspoon)

38) Nobody Knows When You’re Down and Out (Danny Kalb)

39) Money’s Gettin’ Cheaper (Jimmy Witherspoon)

40) The Payback (James Brown)

41) Money (That’s What I Want) (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles)

42) Signed Sealed Delivered (Little Stevie Wonder)

43) Am I the Man (Jackie Wilson)

44) Can’t You Find Another Way of Doing It (Sam and Dave)

45) Share It (Smokey Robinson)

46) I Need Some Money (John Lee Hooker)

47) Shake Your Money Maker (Paul Butterfield Blues Band)

48) Them That Got (Ray Charles)

49) Mr. Taxman (the Beatles)

50) Why Can’t We Be Friends? (War)

51) Ain’t Too Proud to Beg (Temptations)

52) What’s Going On? (Marvin Gaye)

53) Ball of Confusion (Temptations)

54) Ready or Not (The Fugees)

55) What Makes You Act Like That?  (Lonnie Johnson)

56) Don’t You Tell Nobody (Willie Dixon & Memphis Slim)

57) Error of Our Ways (Temptations)

58) Serve Me Right to Suffer (John Lee Hooker)

59) One More Heartache (Paul Butterfield Blues Band)

60) Funny How Time Slips Away (Al Green)

61) I Know I’m Losing You (Temptations)

62) Choosey Beggar (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles)

63) Mystery Train (Elvis Presley)

64) Remember What I Told You to Forget (Tavares)

65) I’ve Got the Whole World to Hold Me Up (Barry White)

66) I Can’t Believe What You Say (Ike & Tina Turner)

67) Don’t Mess With Bill (the Marvelettes)

68) Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud (James Brown)

69) Trust in Me (Etta James)

70) Nobody’s Dirty Business (Mississippi John Hurt)

71) I’ll Never Trust Your Love Again (John Lee Hooker)

72) One Bourbon One Scotch One Beer (John Lee Hooker)

73) Lose Your Money (Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee)

74) Mr. Big Stuff (Jean Knight)

75) Talkin’ Loud and Sayin’ Nothing Part I (James Brown)

76) Baby Scratch My Back (Slim Harpo)

77) Minnie the Moocher (Cab Calloway)

78) I’m a Fool to Care (Ray Charles)

79) Help the Poor (BB King & Eric Clapton)

80) Take the Bitter With the Sweet (Muddy Waters)

81) We’re Gonna Make It (Little Milton)

82) I Can’t Be Satisfied (Muddy Waters)

83) I Was Born in Chicago (Paul Butterfield Blues Band)

84) Sweet Home Chicago (the Blues Brothers)

85) Don’t Start Me to Talkin’ (Sonny Boy Williamson)

86) Papa Don’t Take No Mess Part I (James Brown)

87) Don’t Let Your Right Hand Know What Your Left Hand Do (Koerner Ray & Glover)

88) Can’t Get My Rest at Night (Koerner Ray & Glover)

89) Chicago Sound (Jimmy Rogers)

90) Cause of It All (Howlin’ Wolf)

91) I’m Bad Like Jesse James (John Lee Hooker)

92) Trouble I’ve Had it All My Days (Mississippi John Hurt)

93) Stop in the Name of Love (the Supremes)

94) Try a Little Tenderness (Otis Redding)

95) Get Down On It (Kool & the Gang)

96) I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor)

97) I Wanna Take You Higher (Ike & Tina Turner)

98) If the World Were Mine (Marvin Gaye)

99) Fannie Mae (Canned Heat)

100) I Need a Miracle (Grateful Dead)

Hello. I think that the one of the best luxury car is cadillac-escalade, cadillac-records, rolls-royce.

I often order this car at airport, when need comfort travel from airport to home.

Recently I had an opportunity to watch Cadillac Records.  I enjoyed the movie as it covers a genre of music that speaks to me and there is one scene from the movie that has continued to stick with me for both the song and the cinematography.

What movie moment has haunted you?

Just because Cadillac Records is already older then a year. If you haven’t seen it yet, take a look at the source….Chicago

And follow the beat in a time where sex had a sound…

Cadillac Records tells the tale of the formation of Chess Records; the groundbreaking 1950’s Chicago record label that brought the blues from the porches of the Mississippi Delta to the radio waves. The story follows Chess Records’ founder Leonard Chess (Adrian Brody) as he struggles to ascend from night club owner to become a legendary record mogul. In the process, Chess encounters and signs some of the most fabled musicians of the 20^th Century, including Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), Little Walter (Columbus Short), Howlin’ Wolf (Eamonn Walker), Etta James (Beyonce’ Knowles), and Chuck Berry (Mos Def). With this all-star roster, Chess Records leads the way in turning the blues from “race music” into something marketable to all; paving the way for future black musicians and leaving an irrevocable stamp on pop music.

 The acting in this movie is superb from top to bottom. The weakest performance belongs to Mos Def. Although there is a striking resemblance to Chuck Berry, Mos Def failed to convince me, especially when compared to the other performances (He couldn’t pull off a passable duck walk). Adrian Brody nails it as the ambitious Chess. Gabrielle Union turns in one of her best performances as Geneva Wade, the love interest of Muddy Waters. Cedric the Entertainer surprisingly delivers as Willie Dixon, who narrates the film. Beyonce’ shows remarkable depth as Etta James; and her stirring renditions of James’s classics are sure to leave you with goose bumps. With all of these fine performances, Jeffrey Wright steals the show as Muddy Waters. Wright draws you in with his aloof Mississippi charm, then forces you to feel the pain of the much troubled bluesman.

 The story itself leaves something to be desired. It seems to jump around as it attempts to condense two decades of content into a movie lasting less than two hours. It puts the primary focus on character development, while omitting details necessary to put the movie in its proper historical context. The result is a sloppy storyline; but the performances by the actors more than make up for it. In fact, you wind up caring so much about the individual characters that the story of Chess Records itself is nearly lost. It’s almost as if the writers sought to intertwine several musical biopics into one.

 Bottom Line: See it if you love character depth and/or the individual artists of Chess Records. Don’t see it if you’re looking for something historically faithful.

 Main Acting: 8/10

Supporting Acting: 9/10

Direction: 8/10 

Casting: 10/10  

Style: 5/10         

Originality: 4/10 

Plot: 4/10            

Script: 8/10         

Soundtrack: 8/10   

Rewatchability: 4/10

Total: 68/100

but i’ll never watch it again:

you should check it out!

Cadillac Records (Darnell Martin, 2008)

** ½

This movie had a lot of singing.  I like singing.  But there was also a lot of arguing.  I did not like that they stopped singing and argued about money.  Beyonce was Etta James, and I really like both Beyonce and Etta James.  I fussed and fidgeted a lot when there was arguing, but I when Beyonce/Etta James was singing, I got really calm.  Mos Def played Chuck Berry, and he did a good job of acting silly.  Mom giggled a lot when there was arguing, and Dad complained that they left out Phil Chess.

Muddy Waters had baby in this movie, but it didn’t have a name and was only there to be argued about.

Adrian Brody smirks after winning a bet with Jeffrey Wright.

(TriStar) Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Beyonce Knowles, Gabrielle Union, Cedric the Entertainer, Columbus Short, Emmanuelle Chriqui. Directed by Darnell Martin

Once in a great while, fortune and talent come together in a great confluence that allows the most unlikely of people to join together to become legends.

Leonard Chess (Brody), a Polish émigré to Chicago, has grand ambitions. Hoping to marry the love of his life Revetta (Chriqui), he opens a bar on the predominantly African-American South Side of Chicago. Hoping to draw in the local crowd, he hires local talent to play his stage. One of the first guys he finds is a gifted guitarist who goes by the name of Muddy Waters (Wright).

Muddy had been a Mississippi sharecropper before being “discovered” by Smithsonian-Folkways recording archivists, and being prompted to move to Chicago to play the Blues. His wife Geneva (Union) puts up with the rough living conditions and the late nights, turning a blind eye to his many infidelities.

So impressive is Muddy’s prowess that Chess buys a recording studio and founds a recording company he names after himself. However, Muddy’s career really goes into overdrive when he finds gifted harmonica player Little Walter (Short). Walter has a unique style that employs electric amplification, something only just coming into style back then. However, his abrasive personality and drinking problem leads him to be fired from Muddy’s band, although they still record together. Walter’s solo career, however, takes off on its own.

With songwriter/engineer Willie Dixon (Cedric) in the house, Chess has assembled a winning team which only gets better with the arrival of Howlin’ Wolf (Eamonn Walker) and the great Chuck Berry (Mos Def). Berry’s unique blend of blues, country and r&b creates a bastard child that can only be labeled “rock and roll.” His music begins to cross over lines to white audiences and becomes Chess Records’ most successful artist.

Add into this mix the incredibly talented (and incredibly troubled) Etta James (Knowles) and you have a recipe for game-changing music, as well as for ego-driven conflicts. As the ‘60s dawn and musical tastes begin to change, the influence of the Chess artists becomes apparent even as their record sales begin to dwindle. Not everybody, sadly, will make it out alive.

Martin has a cinematic love letter to an era and to a record label in particular. Music underwent a profound change in the 1950s, and Chess and Sun Records were both at the forefront of that change – the birth of rock and roll out of country (Sun Records with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins) and the blues (Chess Records). Only Motown Records in the ‘60s would have the same kind of effect on the musical landscape that these two labels did.

Leonard Chess actually co-founded the label with his brother Phillip, who for some odd reason is not even mentioned here. In any case, Brody gives a solid performance as the label head, who gave his artists Cadillacs when they completed their first record, but who may have played fast and loose with royalty payments.

Knowles, who has shown some real acting skills in Dreamgirls and Austin Powers: Goldmember, continues to impress with a powerful portrayal as Etta James. She captures the artists’ outer bravura as well as her inner fears and demons. Short, similarly, captures the larger-than-life aspects of an artist who burned brightly and was snuffed out all too soon.

It’s a shame that in a movie about Chess Records, little of the original music from these artists was used. Instead, the producers chose to have the songs re-recorded (Knowles does her own vocals on James’ hits ”At Last” and “I’d Rather Be Blind”), mostly by the actors playing the artists. While it’s admirable that the actors did their own singing, I’d rather have heard the original versions by Muddy Waters, Etta James and Chuck Berry.

The filmmakers obviously have a reverence for Chess Records and its legacy. They gathered a strong cast and gave them some strong material to work with. This is a movie that helps illustrate the development of modern music, which is of more than passing interest to anyone who loves it. While the movie didn’t fare particularly well on its theatrical run, it is more than worth checking out. Yes, it’s an imperfect glimpse into the past but ultimately, a satisfying tribute to a label and the people on it who, together, changed music forever.

WHY RENT THIS: The story of Chess Records is an important historical event in the history of modern music and the movie covers it respectfully. Solid performances from an impressive cast, especially Knowles and Short.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: The movie plays a little fast and loose with the facts, and oddly, doesn’t use the music from the actual performers and instead recreates these iconic songs with the actors lending their voices.

FAMILY VALUES: Lots of sex and sexual situations, as well as drug use and some racially-motivated violence. Not for small fries.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The part of Leonard Chess was originally to have been played by Matt Dillon, but he had to bow up due to scheduling conflicts. Adrien Brody wound up taking the part.

NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: The Blu-Ray includes an interactive playlist maker that allows you to create and share playlists of the songs in the movie.

FINAL RATING: 7/10

TOMORROW: Zombieland

Just finished watching Rain Man, first time I have watched it for several years yet it still hits home and must surely have been one of Dustin Hoffman’s finest performances.

To buy the DVD of Rain Man click HERE

What I never realised before is that during the dance lesson scene the music used is  “At Last” performed by the great Etta James

This was one of our key wedding songs and was an all time favourite of Fiona’s.

I have posted the MP3 of the song before so here is Beyonceseeking to replicate the magic in the film “Cadillac Records”

To buy the music of Etta James click HERE

To buy Cadillac Records on DVD click HERE

On  Cadillac Records

Wow! An Instant Classic

 Ever so often a movie comes along that captures the spirit of an age, Parkwood Pictures’ Cadillac Records is such a movie. A period piece set in the racially tumultuous era between the end of the great depression and the outbreak of World War II in the early 1940’s, and the turbulent 1960’s when the walls of segregation – which had defined the lives and art of the bluesmen in fundamental ways – came tumbling down, we follow the lives, loves and musical careers of the legendary Mississippi bluesmen who created the “Delta Blues.’  And one of the many achievements of this remarkable movie is the way it shows how their sound was the bedrock upon which a multi-billion dollar industry was built, as the musical styles that became world famous as Rhythm and Blues, Rock and Roll, and Hard Rock all evolved from these blues roots – what the perceptive music critic Robert Palmer calls “Deep Blues” in his authoritative book by that name.

 As in any historical movie the sets, costumes, language, etc play a critical role in the ability of the film to transport us back in time.  But the ultimate time machine is the music they played back then. The much celebrated Afro-American novelist Ralph Ellison, reflecting on the birth of Be-bop in Harlem’s “Minton’s Play House,” observed: “Music gives resonance to memory.”  And as this movie is about the migration of Mississippi country blues musicians to the great city of Chicago, we have a treasure trove of sound portraits that mirror their journey.

 As a student and teacher of history I am intensely interested in historical drama and fictions.   I am especially thrilled when I see another important slice of black life successfully portrayed on the giant silver screen, where it literally becomes larger than life.  And if Woodrow Wilson – a former US President and Princeton history Professor – thought D.W. Griffiths racist propaganda film Birth of a Nation was “history written by lightening,” Cadillac Records is history written with enlightenment. 

 Cadillac Record’s is remarkably candid in portraying the racist social etiquette and oppressive political system of white supremacy that it supported.  And it does so without ever becoming preachy; the play remains the thing, and the imperatives of dramatic art are ever observed.  In this film the muses are served in fine fashion; even while the harsh realities of the sharecropper south where hunger, poverty and random white violence were omnipresent, and the dangerous cities of the north with its seductions of vice and the catharsis of violence,  are graphically portrayed. 

 This film however, does not stop at portraying the most obvious aspects of race prejudice and the discriminatory treatment that results from it, but also looks at questions of class and ethnicity and subtly meditates on how they have shaped the contours of American culture.  There is a richness here that inevitably results when a film maker – who is, at their best, a celluloid dramatist – takes an honest look at the cultural complexity of the United States of America.  For they are sure to find, as our former Mayor David Dinkins elegantly put it: “A gorgeous mosaic.” 

 In the opening scenes of this movie we are given an inside glimpse of what it was like being the poor son of Polish Jewish immigrants in Chicago in the portrayal of a young Leonard Chess.  Convincingly played by Adrien Brody – a talented actor whom I first saw in The Pianist, a movie about the plight of the Polish Jewish community during the German Nazi occupation – Chess is hungry for success in America after the father of the lady he wanted to marry spurned his request for her hand with the pronouncement: “Your father and I are from the same shit hole in Poland.  I didn’t travel all this way to have my daughter marry some schmuck from the same village!” 

On another occasion when Muddy waters and Leonard chess were traveling the back roads of Mississippi by car Muddy asks Chess why his family traveled across the vast oceans from Poland to come to Chicago, Chess replies by asking him why “ yo ass left Mississippi” to come to Chicago?”  This episode alludes to the shared experience of African-Americans and Eastern European Jews who hailed from Poland and the Russian Pale.  For both of them Chicago was a city of refuge and hope as they sought to escape racial discrimination and random violence. It is through the use of such representative anecdotes, accompanied by the employment of artful intelligent visuals, that much of the sociological depth and complexity of this story is simplified and given a human dimension.  And like all good historical dramas, Darnell Martin, the writer and director of this splendid art film, have shown excellent taste and judgment in selecting the right issues and episodes to capture the zeitgeist of the era.

 **************

From a purely artistic point of view this script was a writer’s delight.  The characters that people this flick are the right stuff for the making of legends.  Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, the harmonica virtuoso Little Walter, and the legendary Willie Dixon, composer of blues hits such as “My Babe” and “Hootchie Kootchie Man are all there. These modern day troubadours took the trials and triumphs that mirror the vicissitudes of life universal to the human condition and set them to song – that’s why their music touched and inspired people across racial, ethnic, class, and national boundaries.

This should come as no surprise however, after all, as Albert Murray, the preeminent commentator on the philosophy, esthetics and cultural significance of the blues tells us in his seminal book Stomping the Blues: “The blues as music” is  the antidote to “the blues as such.”  In  other words, while most people who hear the blues outside of its social and  cultural context think of the music as sad, Murray argues that the blues sensibility is just the opposite  of “sack cloth and ashes.”   In fact, as the title of his book suggest, musicians stomp the blues to chase the Blues away.

 All of this is captured marvelously in Cadillac Records and gives it the ring of truth.  It’s insightfulness into the philosophy and esthetics of the blues is clearly on display in the way they portray the lives and personalities of the bluesmen and the milieu in which they thrived.  As Mr. Murray has observed, the blues is more likely to celebrate the joi de vivre  of Afro-American life than to wallow in self-pity and sadness.  Put differently, the blues is party music, the cure for depression.  And the bluesmen in Cadillac Records partied all the time as they created great art that continues to win the hearts of fans all over the world

 Jeffery Wright As Muddy Waters

Jeffrey Wright is as good playing Muddy Waters as Jamie Fox was playing Ray Charles, and Jamie won the Academy Award for his performance!”   One can take the measure of an actor’s skill by the way they interpret the subtleties of character, idiosyncratic gestures expressed in body language and nuances of speech.  I didn’t know Muddy Waters like I knew Ray Charles, but I feel the same way about Wright’s portrayal of him as Albert Einstein felt when the Rabbi’s demanded to know if the scientist believed  his theories explained how god created the universe. To wit Einstein replied: “No, but I know that he could have done it that way.” 

 Wright is that convincing in the role.  Having grown up around southern black musicians I am amazed at the accuracy of the portrait of them the actors render in Cadillac Records. It is a tribute to their diligence in preparing for the roles they sought to play.  And anybody who was fortunate enough to hear them interviewed on BET and elsewhere, knows that these great performances were inspired by the actors’ profound respect for their characters.

Cedrick the Entertainer give a solid performance as the level headed Willie Dixon, and Eamonn Walker is sensational as The Howling Wolf, one of the most interesting and original of the Mississippi bluesmen.   A man of imposing stature, Eamonn Walker can go from a smiling geniality to a murderous scowl with a twitch of his face muscles and a gesture from his heavily muscled ebony frame.  When we consider the fact that he is a British actor, Walker’s amazing rendering of backwoods Mississippi speech through a marvelous control of his voice and an amazing ear for nuance distinguishes his performance as a tour de force that stands out in a cast of great performers. 

It is a pity that the academy does not give awards for ensemble acting, because great performances are common fare in this film.  For instance Columbus Short’s portrayal of the innovative harmonica virtuoso Little Walter would certainly qualify as a great performance by any objective measure.   He was like a man possessed by the spirit of a great ancestor and had become one with his subject.  Although I thought Moss Def was miscast as Chuck Berry since he looks nothing like him, Will smith would have been perfect for the part, his performance was splendid.  After a while the physical disparity seemed trivial.

 As any story about great blues musicians must be, the cast of Cadillac Records is male dominated and the narrative is told from the point of view these gun toting, free spirited, libertine song poets.  A great part of the achievement of this film is the way in which it shows how the blues man was a symbol of black male freedom and potency in a society where the full power of the armed state was employed to crush any manifestation of it.

 Having acknowledged the dominance of male concerns and the outstanding performances of the male actors, let me hasten to acknowledge that Gabriel Union, an elegant hot chocolate beauty, revealed the depth of her talents as an actress playing the stoic but earthy wife of the ebullient philanderer Muddy Waters. And it remains true that casting Beyonce Knowles as Etta James was a singular act of genius. Having dominated the pop music charts for several years now, with this moving picture the great singer has come of age as an actress.  Abandoning the glamorous persona that is her stock in trade, Beyonce gained over twenty pounds in order to give authenticity to her performance as the young Etta James – a boozy dope fiend who courted tragedy because of a deep inner-pain that she seemed to almost nurture as the source of her tortured, though profoundly beautiful, art. 

           An Actress Of Substance

        Byonce As Etta James

This role demonstrates Beyonce’s range as an actress, for she is called upon to recreate emotions that cannot come from her well of experience with the ways of  a dope fiend and bar fly who appears to have occasionally turned tricks when she was just starting out.  In regard to all these tawdry matters, Ms. Knowles’ well is dry.   Hence it is all artifice in the truest sense of the word, for interpreting the complex highly neurotic character that was the youthful Etta James, the illegitimate daughter of the legendary white pool hustler “Minnesota Fats,’ and a black prostitute he hooked up with.  In the film she is obsessed with gaining the recognition of her father, and that is the deepest source of her pain. 

           Beyonce’s performance ranks right up there with Diana Ross’ portrayal of Billie Holliday, another tragic vocal genius, in Lady Sings the Blues, Angela Basset’s rendering of Tina Turner in What’s Love go to do with It?   Jennifer Hudson’s portrait of Florence Ballard in Dream Girls must also be added to this list of great performances by black actresses in bio-pics.   Hudson won the Oscar for her role, and Ms. Ross and Ms. Basset would have won if everybody played fair.  However, unlike the other three ladies Ms. Basset cannot sing so she was forced to act her way through it, just as Halle Barry had done in her powerful portrayal of the  beautiful and superbly gifted Dorothy Dandridge – a role I always thought would have been better suited for Vanessa Williams who, like Dorothy, is a triple threat.  She can sing, dance, and act with seemingly equal facility – and she is brilliant at all three.   

 However the three singers all gave inspired performances in their roles, buoyed by the wonderful repertoire of American song that the role provided.  While I do not intend to make invidious comparisons because I believe that both Ms Hudson and Ms Knowles are great singers – Prima Donna Absoluta’s of the dynamic Gospel/Soul style –I must nevertheless confess that I found Beyonce’s rendition of the Etta James hits ‘At Last” and “I’d Rather Go Blind Baby, Than Watch You Walk Away From Me,” to be without equal.  When she sang “At Last” our spirits were buoyed by thoughts of past loves that now seem perfect, or we reveled in a newly found love; it was a joy.   And when she sang I’d Rather Go Blind” there wasn’t a dry eye in the house…this writers eyes included. It was a bravura performance …Bravo!      

 ***********

Playthell Benjamin

Harlem New York

Fall 2008               

Soul Power!

 African American Stars Return to the Motherland

Blues Boy King Wailing In the Motherland

Soul Power, a powerful documentary film directed by Jeffery Levy-Hinte, about an extraordinary troupe of musicians from the African Diaspora in the Americas, is the real sound track from the 1974 “ Rumble in the Jungle,” the epic boxing match between Muhammad Ali and the fearsome George Foreman which was recently released as the moving documentary film “When We Were Kings.”  The attention of the world – and not just the sporting world – was focused on this prize fight, which was held in Zaire, the sprawling Central African nation formerly known as the Belgium Congo.  The controversies that surrounded the fight, like the star attraction Muhammad Ali, transcended the sport of boxing and accounts for the great interest the event held for people who were not boxing fans or sports fans at all.  It is impossible to grasp the gravity of this spectacle without understanding its relationship to broader historical trends.

At the time Muhammad Ali was the most famous man in the world and the perfect icon for an era of world black revolution which came of age with Ali in the 1960’s, and was embodied in his personality.  Having given up millions of dollars when he was stripped of his heavy-weight crown because he denounced America’s criminal invasion of Vietnam and refused induction into the US army, Ali became one of the most controversial personalities of that revolutionary decade and the ultimate symbol of militant black resistance.  What made his stance so admirable was that he would have been assigned to special services and never have to actually go into combat.  So his stance was an unmistakable act of principle, made at great sacrifice to him self. 

There was no comparable act by anyone in the world of sports and entertainment.  And when he joined the feared and hated “Black Muslims” of the Nation of Islam, the white media and white supremacist of every stripe were up in arms.  Ali’s decision to join the NOI, which under normal circumstances would have been his personal business, was announced at a time when the NOI’s spokesman Malcolm X was the most feared and hated man in the nation by white Americans.  And during his preparation for the title bout with the seemingly invincible Sonny Liston – a former Mafia enforcer who became the undisputed champion and petrified everybody else in the heavy-weight division – Ali invited Malcolm X into his training camp.  After his relatively easy victory over the powerful but outclassed Liston, which shocked the boxing world, Ali attributed his victory to the state of mind he developed in rap sessions with Malcolm during training. 

 There were white guys in the boxing business who had never said a word about the role of white gangsters in the game who wanted to strip Ali of the title immediately.  But since freedom of religion is a constitutional right of all American citizens they would surely have been defeated in court had they attempted to take the crown by administrative fiat.  Hence Ali’s refusal of induction was a gift to these reactionary racist who saw their chance to dethrone him; they knew this was the only way he would lose the crown because he was miles ahead of any of the heavy-weight contenders.  Ali was truly the greatest!

 However aside from the rumblings on the right about the fight, there was much consternation on the left too.  For black progressives, who were huge Ali fans, both the legendary promoter Don King – the best since P.T. Barnum – and Mobutu SeSe Seko, the corrupt dictator who ruled Zaire with a ball and chain, were black charlatans who had appropriated the symbols and slogans of the black revolution but where all blow and no go.  In the view of politically astute black people Don King was giving positive play to a traitor to the African revolution. A man who had collaborated with the Belgium colonialists to assassinate the true leader of the Congolese liberation movement- the brilliant and fearless Patrice Lumumba – that resulted in his ascension to power, where he presided over a government that was so corrupt that analyst had to coin a term to describe it: “Cleptocracy!”

 *********

This is the minimal essential background one must understand in order to fully appreciate the contemporary and historical significance of “The Rumble in the Jungle.” While Don King was mostly interested in making money and Mobutu was in it for the glory, in spite of King’s effusive “black talk,” the musicians were excited about going to perform in the motherland.  For them it was a spiritual journey to the wellsprings of their art, Neo-African musical forms which has expanded and enriched the western musical tradition.  This is readily apparent from the ongoing interviews with the performing artists at every stage of the trip; the triumphant return to the motherland is a recurrent theme.  The film is constructed so that the narrative builds in drama by showing the great anticipation which greeted the performances on the part of everybody: the planners and promoters; the set builders and sound and lightening men; the people of Zaire; Muhammad Ali and his entourage, and most of all the musicians.

The great enthusiasm with which the musicians anticipated this performance was displayed in the impromptu performances that broke out on the long plane ride from the Americas back to Africa.  This was an all star lineup, the most popular black American and Afro-Latino musicians in the world!  Although the Latin contingent included musicians of all complexions – from the virtuoso congero Ray Barretto, who is a white Puerto Rican, to the great singer Celia Cruz, who is a black Cuban, they were all committed to a Neo-African art form.  In both the English and Spanish speaking Americas, the music created by the blacks and mulattos is the most dynamic and popular – the national music of their civilizations. 

 Celia Cruz: Queen of Afro-Cuban Song

Her Powerful Pipes lit it up!

Given the prominence of rhythm instruments in Afro-Latin music it is no wonder that it was they who started the jam on the plane.  It started with clave, cow bell, hand claps and voices – led by the singing of Celia Cruz – and soon the guitarists joined in on acoustic guitars, strumming rhythmic figures and inventing melodies, then the violinist had their axes out.  It got so funky blues icon B.B. King had his guitar out picking along.  The Johnny Pacheco broke out his flute and the plane was rocking, this preview only wet our appetites for the performances to come.

 On the night of the concert the Latin musicians brought the house down.  Although the Zaireans loved the Afro-American musicians, and the “Godfather of Soul” James Brown was the biggest star of all, the Latinos had a special rapport with the audience because their music has retained so many African elements.  First of all African music is characterized by complex polyrhythms, with percussion instruments the dominant voice, and so is Afro-Latin music: Afro-Cuban music especially.   Furthermore the Son Montuno, which is the traditional Afro-Cuban orchestral music, was largely attributed to the creative genius of Arsenio Rodriguez, who is said to be of Congolese origin.  One need only listen to bands like Africando to see how well Africans relate to Afro-Cuban music.  All African music is dance oriented and drums are played for a variety of religious and cultural rituals, which is also true of Afro-Cubans.

So the Latin Musicians wowed the crowd; Celia Cruz was marvelous, she got everybody on their feet as the band fired her up. Flautist Johnny Pacheco, who was conducting the band went off, he played beautifully on the flute and then got down with Celia Cruz in a dynamic display of the art of Mambo.  The crowd went wild!   Ray Barretto delighted the crowd with his virtuosity on the Conga drums, at one time playing four of them.  It was a wonderful exhibition of what the African musical tradition became when it encountered the melodically and harmonically complex music of Europe in the new world.

Celia Cruz and Johnny Pacheco Getting Down

When Louis Armstrong toured West Africa during the colonial period in the 1950’s his British hosts assured him that Africans would only appreciate up-tempo dance music with “a lot of loud drum solos.”  Pops rejected their musical advice and played his normal repertoire, and the African audiences loved it.  I thought of this when I watched Bill withers singing a very slow and beautiful romantic ballad, accompanying him self on acoustic guitar, casting a spell on the crowd who listened with rapt attention.

 Bill Withers Crooning a Sensitive Song

A great songwriter and dynamic performer, withers is also a sensitive and intelligent guy.  The African Journey was a deeply spiritual experience to him.  When the question arose as to what the musicians wanted to take back from Africa, withers said the main thing he wanted to carry back home from his journey wasn’t souvenirs but “this feeling I have here.”   B.B. King was another guitar man who played his regular repertoire and just came out and shouted the blues, the audience loved him and he loved them too. The journey was also profound spiritual journey for him. Growing up in apartheid Mississippi where his blackness and African origins were used as an indictment against him as if it were a crime by the white rulers of the state, the trip to Africa was a kind of spiritual cleansing, he even loved the sweltering heat that had everybody dripping with sweat from the moment they took the stage. 

 The Divine Merriam Makeba!

Some of the most touching moments was the exchanges between African performers and the Africans from the American Diaspora. The scenes of Ray Barretto and other Latin percussionist drumming together and Sister Sledge exchanging hip movements with the African ladies – who got the better of the exchange – are poignant examples. They Africans also loved the all male Rhythm & Blues singing group with their tradition of great singing while executing fabulous complex choreography.  Which on this occasion was represented by the Spinners, the classic group with Phillppe Wynn singing lead, who rocked the stadium with their hit song “One of A Kind Love Affair.”  One of the characteristics of this genre of singing, who’s staple is the love song – sung slowly or uptempo – and to be effective the lead singer must recreate the emotional experience, the ecstasy of being happily in love or the pain of heartbreak.  None has done it better than Phillippe Wynn, who gave an inspired performance as the Spinners backed his lead with glorious harmonies and fancy footwork.

 The Mighty Spinners in Full Effect!

Of all the magic moments in this film – and there were many – none were more moving than the performances of the African musicians.  There are the wonderful scenes of the Cameroonian Saxophonist Manu Dibango, who recorded “Soul Makossa,’ which combined Afro-American Rhythm & Blues arrangements on top of a slamming African percussion section.  The record was a monster smash hit in Africa, Europe, Latin America and the USA.  One could credibly argue that it was the beginning of what is now euphemistically called “World Music.”  In the movie we do not see Dibango’s concert performance; rather he is filmed wandering through the city’s neighborhood’s with his soprano sax playing for the children like a pied piper.  When the children surround him he begins to compose a chant with them on the spot. 

Soul Makossa!

Mano D’bango the Pied Piper

As with the Latino’s on the plane, this episode demonstrates how Africans can create an impromptu musical performance with polyrhythmic hand claps and antiphonal chants – call and response – with a lead singer whose lines are answered by a chorus.  As the children gathered around, mesmerized by the sound of the saxophone much like Emmanuel Kant was mesmerized by the church steeple, the teenagers began to surround him too.  Soon they were all singing and clapping in a joyous display of polyrhythmic polyphony, two elements that are present to some extent in all African derived music.  

Although among African Americans in the US polyphony eventually gave way to harmony, as an examination of our singing styles from the work songs of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries – which is very African in character – to the sleek four and five part harmonies of Rhythm and blues singing.  Polyphonic singing is alive and well in Afro-Latin music however; polyrhythms and antiphony remains a basic feature of all Neo-African music whether vocal or orchestral.  This was very clear in comparing the African and Neo-African bands in the movie.

 Among the galaxy of stars who performed at this historic concert none gave a more spiritually uplifting performance than the gifted South African songstress Merriam Makeba.  While there was much talk about the African struggle against European oppression, the state of African peoples in the world was uneven, with various nationalities experiencing different degrees of liberation.  For instance, the centuries old struggle of African peoples in the America’s had eliminated chattel slavery and resulted in various degrees of civil rights and national integration in their societies.  In the US racial discrimination had been rendered illegal after a final bloody push in the 1960’s, and Cuba had dramatically eliminate the system of legal racial apartheid as a result of the armed revolution in which Afro-Cubans played a major role.  Although racist sentiment still hangs on in the hearts and minds of some white Cubans. 

However the symbol of that continuing struggle was best represented by Merriam Makeba, whose countrymen were still suffering under an oppressive murderous racist regime whose ideology was synonymous with Nazism.  Her Marriage to the radical black leader from the US Stokely Carmichael – who made a brief cameo in the film rapping with Muhammad Ali – was a living symbol of the unity of the pan-African struggle against white domination.  Hence her performance was the most politically significant of the concert.

 When all was said and done, the undisputed superstar of the three day musical happenings was James Brown, “The Godfather of Soul!”   Earlier in the film Loyd Price – one of the fathers of Rhythm & Blues – is seen telling James Brown how he has heard many bands performing his music, although French is the European language that they are conversant with.  Yet, Price tells Brown, “They sing your songs in English.”  Such was Browns appeal on the African continent that politicians routinely used his music to draw crowds at their rallies!  James Brown listened with genuine joy and humility, and it made him determined to put on the best show of his life…which was no mean feat since he was already known as “The hardest working man in show business!”

James Brown and Lloyd Price

Soul Survivors Who Created an Art form

 While most people fifty years old and younger may not know who Lloyd Price is, I remember him as a big star of the mid 1950’s who was a founder of the musical style we have come to know as Rhythm & Blues.  Price was right out there with the Georgia boys who contributed so much to the foundation of this dynamic musical genre: Ray Charles, Little Richard and James Brown.  Billed as “Mr. Personality” because of his luminous style and dynamic stage persona Price produced a string of hits that did much to define the style: Lawdy Miss Claudy, Stagolee, Where Were You on Our Wedding Day, Personality, etc.  So I was very disappointed that we did not get to see him perform his vintage hits: oldies but goodies for sure!

 The Godfather Makes A Grand Entrance

The crowd was hyped for James Brown’s performance, which was the highlight of the historic show.  And when it was superstar time in the stadium the Godfather was super bad.  Backed by a rocking big band that was funkier than a mosquitoes Tweeter, James Brown demonstrated why he justly deserves the title of “Hardest working Man in show business as he sang is heart out and danced like a whirling dervish.  Browns basic moves comes off of a style we used to call the mash potatoes, of which he was the undisputed king if not the inventor.  All of the greatest dancers in the US pop music tradition flow from James Brown.  While he had some close competitors – for instance Jackie Wilson, Little Richard and Muddy Waters were some dancing fools too – James Brown has emerged as the greatest influence on contemporary performers like MC Hammer, Prince and the recently departed King of Pop Michael Jackson.  The Africans – who dance on all important occasions, as those who witnessed highly intellectual octogenarian Nelson Mandela dancing the Toi Toi upon his election as the first black President of South Africa can attest – surely recognized the influence of their dance traditions in Browns spectacular soul ballet.

 Super Ba

 The God Father Works up a Cold Sweat!

The only star in this show who was larger and shone more brightly that The Godfather was Muhammad Ali: “The Greatest!”  Like Brown Ali is a man of the people – not like the central character in the Nigerian novelist and modern African sage Chinua Achebe’s well crafted and highly insightful novel by that name.  He is the real deal, black people all over the world love him with an unusual passion reserved for those who struggle and sacrifice in their behalf.  One of the most entertaining, witty and inspiring features in this documentary is the unexpurgated monologues of Muhammad Ali.

 The Avatar of Our Hopes and Dreams

The Cause Celebre that brought a multitude to Africa.

Ali expanded on his views about There was no question that the man of the moment, the raison de’ ere for the magnificent celebration of our Africanity, was Muhammad Ali. The great affection with which he was held in Africa was reflected in the constant chants that rang out from the crowds everywhere he went: “Al Boomaye!  Ali Boomaye! “Which literally meat “Ali Kill him!”   When the hulking and menacing George Foreman, found out the meaning of the chants he was so unnerved he threatened to pack up and go home.  George foreman had mistakenly assumed that the Africans would be for him because he looked more like them than Ali. 

 But that’s the same mistake the white Republicans make when they choose obsequious house Negroes like Clarence Thomas, Dr. Alan Keyes and Mikie Steele – whose spine seems to be made of mercury – in the vain hope that black people will support them because they are unambiguously black in their physical persona.  However black people are far more sophisticated than that – we have even coined a term for such quislings: Oreos!  Africans in particular are not overly impressed with skin color because in Africa both the heroes and the villains are black!  They loved Ali because they can feel that he loves them and has sacrificed for black people in a way that has made him one of the most beloved sons of African anywhere in the world.

It is instructive that Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest men of the twentieth century, and a former heavy-weight boxer, said that following Ali’s fights inspired them and helped him continue his own fight during the 27 years he was imprisoned at the notorious Robbin Island prison! You can’t get a better endorsement than that. This movie was a great tribute to the man and his mettle, and a great musical experience to boot.  Everybody who interested in the history of popular music in the twentieth century and the history of the black liberation struggle too, should see this movie in the theater and rush to the store and buy it when it comes out on a DVD.  This is a piece of the black experience in the modern world you would like to own.

 ********

Playthell Benjamin

New York City 

July 10, 2009

Darnell Martin’s Cadillac Records takes a look at the music industry from the 1940s to the 1960s, following Leonard Chess and his Chess Records in a fictionalized account of what things were like when the game was changing rapidly in Chicago. The movie is ensemble style, using a rather large and famous cast to put some truly remarkable legends of music on screen.

Martin, who was the first African-American woman to direct and produce a film for a major studio with 1994’s I Like It Like That, handles the subjects ably but sometimes things feel a little too crowded and hard to follow. That doesn’t take away from the fact that there are some really solid performances in this motion picture, however, and the music is just flat-out fantastic.

Adrien Brody stars as Leonard Chess, the co-founder of 1950s record label Chess Records. Located in Chicago, Chess Records would become the iconic record company of such stars as Etta James (Beyoncé Knowles), Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), Chuck Berry (Mos Def), Howlin’ Wolf (Eamonn Walker), Little Walter (Columbus Short), and other top stars of the era.

Cadillac Records deals with the launching of the record company and the various relationships and entanglements in its operation, following the rise and fall of some truly great musicians along the way. It also does well to highlight the rise of black music at the time and the reluctance of some DJs and clubs to play it. There are also some interesting dynamics, such as the relationship between Chess and Waters, that help give the movie more substance.

At the end of the day, though, it’s hard to say that Cadillac Records is more than just another musical biopic. Knowles is the movie’s best performer and her Etta James is fantastic. She delivers a performance of grit and heartache, proving that she is a consummate performer with the will to deliver with the very best in the biz. Her covers of a few James songs are also great, nearly topping her work in the excellent Dreamgirls.

The problems with Cadillac Records largely arise with its full cast and in maintaining interest in all the various supporting characters. While Knowles does bump up the energy when she turns up as James, her role adds more unnecessary complexity to the already crowded plot and gives us one more thing to be concerned with. It becomes less about the music and the history of Chess Records and more about the relationships and near-relationships behind-the-scenes.

Some of the performances are less than good, too, starting with Brody as Leonard Chess. While I am normally impressed with his work on screen, Brody doesn’t do much here. His character is bland and boring, for the most part, He doesn’t do much with the role, which was originally designed as a Matt Dillon part before scheduling complications prevented the casting from taking place.

Even so, Cadillac Records is still worth a look and a listen for a relatively entertaining look at the time when music changed. Chess Records represents an important part in music history in America and Martin’s look at the subject, while incomplete, is convincing and enjoyable enough to check out. Plus, Knowles is just awesome.

5.6/10

Trailer:

Cadillac Records – Music From The Motion Picture, the critically-acclaimed Music World/Columbia Records soundtrack album, has proven the year’s biggest success on America’s Blues Albums charts.

Propelled by Beyonce’s emotional rendering of “At Last,” the song she performed at the 2009 Inaugural Ball for President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s first dance as First Couple, Cadillac Records – Music From The Motion Picture has ruled the Billboard Blues Albums chart since its release on December 2, 2008, spending more than six months (27 weeks) at #1 and 37 consecutive weeks in the chart’s Top 10 (or better).

Created as the musical accompaniment to “Cadillac Records,” the film chronicling the history of Chicago’s Chess Records starring Adrien Brody and Beyonce Knowles, the film’s soundtrack introduced a whole new generation of music fans to classic American blues through classic rhythm & blues covers and new soul sounds performed by Beyonce, Solange, Jeffrey Wright, Raphael Saadiq, Mos Def and others.

Cadillac Records – Music From The Motion Picture is produced by multi-instrumentalist/songwriter/drummer Steve Jordan (Eric Clapton, John Mayer Trio, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards) and Executive Produced by Mathew Knowles for Music World Entertainment, Inc. Marshall Chess, the son and nephew of the original Chess Records founders, served as Executive Music Producer for the soundtrack.

Cadillac Records – Music From The Motion Picture is available in both a standard and a deluxe two-disk edition.

Cadillac Records – Music From The Motion Picture – tracklisting

Standard Edition

1. I’m A Man (Jeffrey Wright)

2. At Last (Beyonce)

3. No Particular Place To Go (Mos Def)

4. I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man (Jeffrey Wright)

5. Once In A Lifetime (Beyonce)

6. Let’s Take A Walk (Raphael Saadiq)

7. 6 O’Clock Blues (Solange)

8. Nadine (Mos Def)

9. The Sound (Mary Mary)

10. Last Night (Little Walter)

11. I’d Rather Go Blind (Beyonce)

12. My Babe (Columbus Short)

13. Bridging The Gap (Nas featuring Olu Dara)

Deluxe Edition

Disc One

1. I’m A Man (Jeffrey Wright)

2. At Last (Beyonce)

3. No Particular Place To Go (Mos Def)

4. I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man (Jeffrey Wright)

5. Once In A Lifetime (Beyonce)

6. Let’s Take A Walk (Raphael Saadiq)

7. 6 O’Clock Blues (Solange)

8. Nadine (Mos Def)

9. The Sound (Mary Mary)

10. Last Night (Little Walter)

11. I’d Rather Go Blind (Beyonce)

12. My Babe (Columbus Short)

13. Bridging The Gap (Nas featuring Olu Dara)

Disc Two

1. Maybelline (Mos Def)

2. Forty Days and Forty Nights (Buddy guy)

3. Trust In Me (Beyonce)

4. Juke (Soul 7 featuring Kim Wilson)

5. Smokestack Lightnin’ (Eamonn Walker)

6. Promised Land (Mos Def)

7. All I Could Do Was Cry (Beyonce)

8. My Babe (Elvis Presley)

9. Come On (Mos Def)

10. Country Blues (Jeffrey Wright & Bill Sims JR.)

11. Evolution Of A Man ( Q-Tip ft. Al Kapone)

12. Radio Station ( Terence Blanchard)

Written and directed by Darnell Martin, “Cadillac Records” chronicles the history of Chess Records, the pre-eminent blues label of the 1950s and 1960s co-founded by Leonard Chess (played by Adrien Brody) and his brother Phil (Shiloh Fernandez). A powerful saga of sex, violence, race and rock & roll set in 1950s Chicago, “Cadillac Records” follows the turbulent lives of the American musical legends who recorded for Chess: Etta James (played by Beyonce Knowles), Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), Little Walter (Columbus Short), Willie Dixon (Cedric the Entertainer), Chuck Berry (Mos Def), Howlin’ Wolf (Eamonn Walker) and more. The film tracks the story of Chess Records, from the time the Chess brothers sold the label’s first recordings from the trunk of their Cadillac through the company’s emergence as the greatest repository of black American music — blues, gospel, and the electric blues that became rock & roll — in the mid-20th century.

www.musicworldent.com

www.columbiarecords.com

Short feature I wrote.
Published in Independent Weekly August 5, 2009 issue.

Raleigh
Hubert Sumlin and Bob Margolin with Cadillac Records
NCMA – Written and directed by Darnell Martin, Cadillac Records chronicles the life of Leonard Chess and the artists – like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Chuck Berry and Etta James – that he recorded on his label, Chess Records. The film explores the evolution of rock ‘n’ roll from the 1940s to 1960s, as well as the issues of race, sex and violence that accompanied it. Starring Academy Award winner Adrien Brody as Chess and Grammy award-winning singer Beyonce Knowles as Etta James, the film boasts a great ensemble cast. Prior to the film, guitarists Hubert Sumlin (a former Howlin’ Wolf sideman) and Bob Margolin (who played with Muddy Waters) will perform. The guitarists rock at 7 p.m., with the film screening after dark. General admission is $15, members $12, children 7-12 $7.50, and children under 6 enter free. For more information visit www.ncartmuseum.org. –Belem Destefani

Shared via AddThis

The boys reconvene for a discussion of the sex and drugs marathon that is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. They go on for a rant on the re-casting of Futurama voices, dive into the world of Roald Dahl and Wes Anderson and then have a think about movie lengths and what difference these make. They follow this with a talk about the third season of Dexter, the Blade Series and Russell Crowe in Master and Commander, before concluding with a talk about the very best book adaptations the movie world has to offer.

Download The Movie Overdose Episode 27

Remember to check out our Twitter, Facebook and iTunes profile pages and email us with anything you’d like to ask or suggest. Also, please check out our friends over at Filmstalker and at Bonaroo.