Rating 4.0
Buy It Now For An Instant Blues Collection....If you are a fan of the blues with few if any blues cds in your collection, add this to cart ASAP. This is a great overview of the genre. After a few listens you can pick out your favorite artists, then search here on Amazon for more of their music. The packaging is top notch and the sound quality of the recordings is 5 stars. You can't really nitpick the track selection, Scorsese and his counterparts were faced with the nearly impossible task of presenting an overview of close to 75 years of music on 5 cds. Plus the title tells you what to expect, a "journey"; and that's exactly what you get. For more dedicated blues fans, this set might offer a lot of overlap to your current blues collection, but it looks great, sounds great and provides some great listening while in the car. So if you have some extra cash, this set is a purchase you won't regret.****1/2. Very impressiveThis five-disc, 6-hour box set is by far the most thorough and well-researched overview of the genre.
The 59-page booklet is exceptionally well written and extremely informative, and almost every major blues artist from the 1920s to the 1990s is represented, from Mamie Smith's 1920 recording "Crazy Blues" over Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, to Keb'Mo' and Shemekia Copeland.
Disc 1 covers the earliest acoustic blues and "blues-related" material by the likes of Louis Armstrong and Jimmie Rodgers. Disc two focuses primarily on the slightly more urban blues forms of the 30s and early 40s. Disc 3 and half of disc 4 is primary electric 50s and 60s blues, and the rest of this admirable collection is devoted to more contemporary blues artists, both black and white.
It's almost too much, actually. Newcomers will perhaps find that 116 songs, some of which were recorded 80 years ago and suffer from horrible fidelity, are too much. And longtime blues fans will own much of this music already.
But there is no denying the quality of the music assembled here. The compilers obviously know something about the blues, and they have chosen some of the very best songs from the genre's masters, and while this certainly isn't everything you'll ever need to know about the blues, "Martin Scorsese Presents" still manages to capture the power of Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, Robert Johnson, Son House, Otis Rush and numerous others.
Robert Nighthawk and Lightnin' Hopkins aren't here, and neither are Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, or Big Walter Horton (not as a featured performer anyway). But a hundred other guys (and gals) are represented by some of their finest work: Muddy Waters' thumping "Hoochie Coochie Man", Elmore James' omnipresent "Dust My Broom", John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom", Howlin' Wolf's awesome "Killing Floor", the witty "Don't Start Me To Talkin'" by Sonny Boy Williamson (II), Otis Rush's smouldering slow burner "So Many Roads, So Many Trains", T-Bone Walker's "They Call It Stormy Monday", Robert Johnson's eerie "Crossroads Blues", the classic "Statesboro Blues" by Willie McTell, and Son House's razor-edged "Death Letter" all rank among the most impressive blues tunes ever cut. And there are several gems here which few casual blues fans will have heard, like slide guitarist Tampa Red's wonderful readings of "Black Angel Blues", "When Things Go Wrong" (AKA "It Hurts Me Too"), and "Don't Lie To Me".
Proto-rock n' roll numbers like "Hound Dog" (Big Mama Thornton's original recording, not Presley's cover), "Rocket '88", and Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love" are here as well, along with juicy R&B by Smiley Lewis, Fats Domino and Ray Charles, and 70s, 80s and 90s blues and blues-rock artists like the Allman Brothers Band, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Taj Mahal, Keb'Mo', and Susan Tedeschi. All bases are covered, really, so if you are looking for a collection of 116 blues tunes, some of which are quite obscure and very much less accessible and radio-friendly than Muddy Waters or B.B. King, this is it.
I have almost all of this music already...which is why I've borrowed "Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues" at my local library. I would never buy it. It is a thoroughly impressive piece of work, surprisingly good, even, but it is also one which longtime blues fans may appreciate more than newcomers who are in danger of choking on reed pipes, violins and bad acoustics before disc 1 has even run out.
And that is the problem with this box set as I see it: who is its audience supposed to be? Casual listeners probably won't buy a sixty-five dollar box set unless they have money to burn, and seasoned blues collectors may admire the quality of "MSPTB", but they won't buy it 'cause they already have a hundred of these 116 recordings.
But maybe I'm just underestimating the taste of the record buying public and this set'll sell a million units like the Robert Johnson box set ;o)Excellent material representing the entire blues genre!This is the "comeback year" for the blues and "Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues" as good as good if not better than all blues cds so far. This is really a contribution as anything we've seen so far in the effort to increase awareness of and appreciation for blues music.The best part is that it's personalized from Scorsese's own liking. People might agree the Rolling Stones should have been included, for instance, but this 116 song piece is not a "best-of the blues". It's more of Martin Scorsese's perspective of what the blues has achieved for America and beyond. This CD box set is not the soundtrack to the video documentary series. Rather, it is a collection of songs representing the blues through the roughly 80-year history of recorded blues music. This is an excellent primer for anyone looking to understand blues music and its evolution. It would be impossible for any collection to include every artist that is loved by every blues fan. However, most of the truly great and important blues artists are here, including Charley Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Son House, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, Johnny Winter, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Virtually every style of blues is also represented here, from the Mississippi Delta to New Orleans to Texas to Memphis to Chicago and even to Africa. And contrary to the assertions of some previously-posted critiques, the Piedmont style IS represented with Mississippi John Hurt's "Frankie." Also, Luther Allison and Johnny Winter ARE included also. There are also a few omissions of important blues artists. Lightnin' Hopkins was one of the most important blues musicians of the 1950s and '60s but was not included. Little Richard was every bit as important to the creation of rock & roll as Fats Domino and Chuck Berry but is not represented. The omission of Dr. John, perhaps the most important blues pianist of the modern era, is near as bad as leaving out the Rolling Stones and their massive love for the blues. More modern accoustic guitarists like John Hammond, Jr. and the incredible Rory Block should have been included (although the newly-recorded Keb' Mo'/Corey Harris cover of Robert Johnson's "Sweet Home Chicago" was almost worth the cost of the box set alone). And if Scorsese wanted a representation of blues-influenced Latino music, Carlos Santana would have been more appropriate than Los Lobos. Notwithstanding a few flaws, however, this CD box set is an excellent representation of recorded blues history, covering the entire history of the blues and including most of the important artists and styles of this wonderful musical genre. Scorsese does a great job with the layout of the entire 5 disc set. Included is a color print book with song by song explanations co-written by a Grammy Award winning music writer, and many pages portraying blues from the very beginning(1830's) to today. I highly recommend it to anyone who desires learning about the blues, or a fan simply looking for a good thorough collection of great blues music. |
