Dir. Richard Pearce, USA , 90 mins
Cast: Bobby Rush, B.B. King, Rosco Gordon, Howlin' Wolf, Nat D. Williams, The Coasters, Fats Domino, Little Richard
B.B.King is hugged and photographed by adoring fans as he makes his way to a waiting limousine; Bobby Rush, in a no-frills dressing room, prepares to go on stage in a small-town club; Rosco Gordon plays to passing shoppers in a busy mall. Linking the three is the distinctive Memphis style, the movement that started from the Mississippi Delta during the early '50s. For his instalment of Martin Scorcese's The Blues project, Director Richard Pearce pays homage to that style. Pearce's musical journey documents how a generation of musicians came out of the cotton fields of the Delta, developed and performed their brand of blues to any locals who'd listen. These artists took their music to Memphis, Tennessee where a radio station - struggling to get listeners - gave them some airtime. Their 'black spot on the dial' increased the listenership dramatically, and made stars of the presenters. This in turn enabled them to take to the road on and tour on what became known as the Chitlin Circuit . Pearce travels on Rush's seen-better-days tour bus as it makes its way round the Chitlin Circuit - and to the W.C. Handy Awards that will reunite Rush with King and Gordon. Rush's life on the road is cut with shots of King and Gordon as they too prepare to return to their roots. It's very clear that the cards dealt to all three in their blues career couldn't be more different. Rush still delivers an electrifying performance for his audience, which includes some serious booty-shaking! But after Saturday night comes Sunday morning where he's in church and belting out gospel music with equal fervour. 'Saturday night, I wanna be lifted by my baby and on Sunday, lifted up by Christ', he smiles.
King looks out at the streets of Memphis from his limousine and reminisces how the first sixteen years of his blues career was spent singing to the back of a cow as he ploughed in the field. Now, an American icon, his audience has changed! He movingly tells of how one night in 1968 he'd turned up to play a gig and the venue was filled with a predominately white audience. That had never happened to a black artist before. Meanwhile, Gordon wanders down Beale Street, which was the cultural centre for the black community, and where he was a huge star in the 50s. Now, it's a tourist trap full of second-rate blues bars and Gordon struggles find anyone who has heard of him. At the reunion concert, you feel for particularly chuffed for Gordon who has had the night of his life. And very sad at his death which followed a few weeks later. Pearce's film is as much about those musicians who didn't hit the big time, as the few who did. Sandi Chaitram |
