Scorcese's Blues (1 Viewer)

[Eric F]

You can find most of the Blues Masters stuff on other compilations. JB Lenoir always blows me away. Eisenhower Blues is my favorite. Luckily they reissued most of his stuff on CD now anyways. Same goes for Skip James. I'm not familiar with Blind Willy.

The Blues CD set is just another compilation- I suggest if you like an artist enough you just go out and purchase one of theirs. Tell me who you like and I'll be more than happy to recommend a CD.

I told you not to get me started.

Looking forward to the DVD set.

 

[Henry Gale]

O.K. Eric, help me out with Muddy Waters. I have the Chess Box and Hard Again, but during Robert Gordon interviews I hear pre-Chess material. What CD is that from? Or is it not commercially available?

Jim

 

[Eric F]

The Muddy stuff you heard (without hearing them myself) is probably from The Plantation Recordings

 

[Grant B]

It was broadcast in High Definition in the SF Bay area - GREAT!
I hope they repeat it, I missed #2:frowning:

 

[Eric F]

It was widescreen SD. It was supposed to be HD but for some reason they changed it.

 

[Lance Nichols]

Oustanding series so far, Clint Eastwood's show was interesting, very personal look.

I was shocked at how bad Ray Charles sounded. I don't know why, I mean after a lifetime of smoke filled joints and such. you would expect someone to be pretty weazy, but wow.

I so want the DVDs and audio CDs, but right now they are just too expensive. :frowning:

 

[Eric F]

PBS series DVDs are generally expensive. Amazon.ca has the lowest price, I don't think you'll find it much cheaper than ~$80US. Ken Burn's Jazz is still well over the $100.

 

[Eric F]

Retailers are listing the DVDs as 1.33 Full Frame. I hope that's a mistake. All the films are OAR 16:9. No way am I buying this cropped.

 

[John Watson]

Still watching the tapes of some of the episodes (missed taping several), and am really enjoying the series.

Regarding the plethora of "product" with the Scorcese TM (what's next, lunchboxes? ), does anyone know if the so-called Soundtrack cds feature the full version of the songs? On the video program, the song often gets truncated or turned low for narration, etc. The CD boxset looks less interesting than some of the soundtrack cds, but I might go for the soundtrack cds assuming the songs are complete, without narration.

The individual artist cds under the Scorcese imprint seem by and large to feature relatively easy to come-by material with the exception of the JB Lenoir disk so I guess I'll order that one.

As to collections, when I stack some cds in a tray, I like to feel safe that they will play at a similar volume level, and that seems most likely to happen when I have disks in a series, or from the same label.

So I was doing a bit of research and see that altho the Rhino Blues Masters set is in a sorry state of OOP for many volumes, the Atlantic Blues Box is still available. But I didn't come across a Chess Box, which I would have thought was likely to be still in print. Any tips as to its status, or the exact name?

PS Eric, is there any blues music site where one can pick up tips about what's available? Amazon often gives "related material" references, but their quality (the references) is pretty spotty.

BTW in my last Amazon order I got a CD - "Chuck Berry's Blues", which is a 16 track compilation just recently issued. A nice addition to my Berry collection, and coincided with the interest the Scorcese series was reawakening, and lead me downstairs to a couple of Bluesway Samplers from the early 70's in a box of LPs!

 

[Eric F]

I would think the soundtracks are the full songs. That would be the point, wouldn't it?

Chess Box for who? What are you looking for? I do have the Chuck Chess Box.:p

Half.com is always good for this stuff.

 

[KrisM]

There were a few different Chess boxes for various artists. I have the Waters and Berry boxes and a copy of the Etta James box.
I also saw an ad for a BIG Chess box that was around 15 Cds. I assume that it featured all of the Chess people. I would also assume that it would be very pricy.

Regards
KrisM

NP - nothing, but I'm thinking about putting on my Muddy Waters box.

 

[John Watson]

I'm sure you're right about the soundtrack cds Eric, but I'm going to get just one, at the first opportunity, just to be sure.

I was thinking that that Chess would have a multi-artist box because the label was home to so many talents, but 15 disks scares me!

Thanks for the tips, folks.

PS the Chess Story film was interesting for the music and the history, but I found Marshall a little too much. But I think I'll look for his Electric Mud production.

 

[Eric F]

Yeah- I was tempted to buy The Complete Chess Box, but I already have most of the artists on there. The Wolf, Bo Didley and Muddy boxes are definately must haves. Don't get me started.

You mean you actually want to buy Electric Mud? I wouldn't waste my time with it. It's terrible. So many good Muddy CDs to buy, this is the worst of them.

 

[Eric F]

Amazon just updated their description, and it does indeed appear to be anamorphic widescreen. So I'll be picking this up.