THE AMERICAN FOLK BLUES FESTIVAL
PORTLAND, ME - On Monday, May 7, as part of the ongoing Music Movie Mondays film series, One Longfellow Square will present the American Folk Blues Festival film. This film features rare footage of many of America’s best blues musicians filmed in Germany during their prime, including Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson, Sippie Wallace and many others. Showtime is 7 pm; doors open at 6:30 pm. Tickets are $7 in advance and at the door. One Longfellow Square is an all-ages venue.
Rarely screened, this AFBF film was produced in 2001. It was nominated for a Grammy Award and won a Blues Heritage Foundation award, along with several other video industry awards. The film’s most recent screening was at the Louvre last month. With the Music Movie Monday series, OLS continues its effort to bring rare and historical performances to both new and long-time fans.
In 1962, American blues musicians received little respect and worse compensation for their art at home in the United States. Consequently, when the opportunity came to embark on an historic series of annual tours through Europe, they wholeheartedly jumped at the chance to go. The American Folk Blues Festival tour abroad brought these musicians acknowledgement and offered them a dignity that was most often denied them in their homeland where the battle against segregation and Jim Crow laws raged on.
Two young German concert organizers arranged to have the musicians record live at the German public radio and television studios in Baden-Baden. Germany had its own history to contend with. As Al Leighton, OLS board member and film series curator relates, “It’s quite remarkable that these two guys got AFBF on the air in Germany. Less than 20 years earlier, Hitler and the Nazis had state power. The organizers and some of the TV station staff consciously saw this as an effort to bring Germany back into civilized society.”
For several years, performances were broadcast across the country. At the end of its run, the tapes were boxed up and placed in storage. There they sat, eventually forgotten. And then 30 years later, they were discovered.
“These aren’t those choppy, grainy images you see in most blues documentaries” says Leighton. “They’re also not films where many of the performers were just hanging on. These are mostly performances from the prime of their careers. This is the blues!”
The Music Movie Monday series takes place at 7pm on the first Monday of every month. Fans are treated to some of the most important music performances ever recorded as we bring a collection of blues, rock, folk and bluegrass films to One Longfellow Square.
The Music Movie Monday series is generously sponsored by:
Mexicali Blues Maine; http://www.mexicaliblues.com
Enterprise Records http://www.enterpriserecords.net
The Paint Pot http://www.paintpotportland.com
Monday, May 7, 2012 at 7 pm
ONE LONGFELLOW SQUARE
181 State Street | Portland, ME
$7 adv/door | All Ages
Tickets: Available online at www.OneLongfellowSquare.com or by calling (207) 761-1757
Sponsored by The Paint Pot, Enterprise Records, and Mexicali Blues Maine.
Online ticket link: http://www.onelongfellowsquare.com/Details.asp?ProdID=1360
Rare 1960s footage of world’s greatest blues musicians in Germany to be screened at One Longfellow Square
LINKS:
Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Folk_Blues_Festival
VIDEO CLIPS:
Trailer: Jam on "Bye Bye Blues: Otis Spann, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Sunnyland Slim & more: http://youtu.be/Rq6D-pSb4VM
Howlin' Wolf - "Shake For Me" with Hubert Sumlin, Sunnyland Slim, Willie Dixon, Clifton James.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex3nc0Km77g
No comments:
Post a Comment