A NIGHT OF BLUES, WITH SEVERAL SHADES.Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic 'LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE'' captures a 2003 Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall New York City’s famous cinema; home of the Rockettes. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 2338] See : Theater ``Salute to the Blues'' concert. Martin Scorsese Noun 1. Martin Scorsese - United States filmmaker (born in 1942) Scorsese produced and Antoine Fuqua, whose films include the gritty ``Training Day'' and the puzzling ``King Arthur King Arthur: see Arthurian legend. ,'' directed. And like that latter Fuqua feature, the show itself does some interesting but not necessarily copacetic co·pa·cet·ic or co·pa·set·ic adj. Very satisfactory or acceptable; fine: "You had to be a good judge of what a man was like, and the English was copacetic" John O'Hara. messin' with the legend. The performance roster includes a good number of true blues and r&b giants, as well as a few who stretch the definition but sound like they should be here: B.B. King, Solomon Burke, James ``Blood'' Ulmer, Ruth Brown, Buddy Guy, Mavis Staples, Clarence ``Gatemouth'' Brown, Shemekia Copeland, Robert Cray. In order to show how the great music of troubled America has influenced a variety of subsequent genres - or, if you want to put it another way, to sell tickets to people who might not be attracted to a whole evening of the pure, uncut stuff - we also get soul, jazz, rock, rap, pop and even bluegrass bluegrass, any species of the large and widely distributed genus Poa, chiefly range and pasture grasses of economic importance in temperate and cool regions. In general, bluegrasses are perennial with fine-leaved foliage that is bluish green in some species. stars aplenty a·plen·ty adj. In plentiful supply; abundant: "There were warning signs aplenty for their candidates as well" Michael Gelb. . (I love Alison Krauss, but really, what on Earth was she doing there?) It's a dizzying display of everyone from Natalie Cole to Steven Tyler, John Tyler, John, 1790–1862, 10th President of the United States, b. Charles City co., Va. Early Career Educated at the College of William and Mary, he studied law under his father, John Tyler (1747–1813), governor of Virginia from 1808 to Fogerty to Chuck D of Public Enemy. Bill Cosby also walks on-stage for some reason. Some of the non-bluesers, it must be said, rise to the occasion and give pretty credible performances. Others seem way out of their league once the likes of Burke and King take command of the room - mostly from sitting positions, yet. An effort is made to tell the socio-historical story of the blues, linking it to the African-American experience from slavery up through the Jim Crow era. (Burke engagingly recalls winning over a Ku Klux Klan Ku Klux Klan (k  ' klŭks klăn), designation mainly given to two distinct secret societies that played a part in American history, although other less important groups have also used audience with multiple encores of ``Down in the Valley.'') The story continues through migrations to northern cities and the civil rights struggle. This is all superficially referenced at best, but the case is made that the music did as much as many political efforts to bridge the gap between races. Songs are more-or-less fully presented, and when Fuqua does cut midtune, it's done artfully and judiciously. Backstage patter pat·ter 1 v. pat·tered, pat·ter·ing, pat·ters v.intr. 1. To make a quick succession of light soft tapping sounds: Rain pattered steadily against the glass. , rehearsal footage and archive film of Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and the like provide invaluable counterbalance to what often seems like an overproduced variety show - albeit one that can't help but burst its show-bizzy bonds into roaring paroxysms of pure musical emotion. Bob Strauss, (818) 713-3670 bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE - Two and one half stars (PG-13: language, violence) Starring: Mavis Staples, Keb' Mo', India.Arie, Dr. John, Natalie Cole, Ruth Brown, Macy Gray, Bonnie Raitt, Solomon Burke, B. B. King. Director: Antoine Fuqua. Running time: 1 hr. 48 min. Playing: Nuart, West L.A. In a nutshell: Documentary of a big ``Salute to the Blues'' concert has a lot more than blues on the program, to both its benefit and detriment. |
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