Jammin With The Blues Greats

Starring: Etta James, Mick Taylor Original UK Premiere: 1982 Dvd Release: 11th February, 2002 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: Full Screen, PAL, Region 0 Encoding

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DVD Extras: Jammin' with the Blues Greats is presented in 4:3 aspect ratio & has only one extra feature, a John Mayall discography.

Dont let the cheesy title put you off, because Jammin with the Blues Greats, essentially a roadshow headed up by John Mayalls Bluesbreakers, is quality stuff, managing to convey all the virtues of the music without sacrificing one ounce of the atmosphere of what must have been an extraordinary gig. Its pretty much impossible to identify any one contributor as outshining the others, given that there are as many takes on the music here as there are practitioners, but its worth noting Mayalls ongoing commitment to the form as the Bluesbreakers deliver An Eye for an Eye, Room to Move & several other tunes. Buddy Guy & Junior Wells get a couple of numbers , BB King gets three & Etta James just one. However, despite everyone getting the opportunity to cut loose on the finale , the whole circus is totally upstaged by the 83-year-old Sippie Wallace, who is gently led onstage, leans on the piano & sings Shorty George with the kind of conviction that makes everyone else look like upstarts.

Etta James is an American R&B & gospel singer. Born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles, California, she received her first professional vocal training at the age of 5, from James Earle Hines, musical director of the Echoes of Eden choir at St. Paul Baptist Church in Los Angeles. Her family moved to San Francisco, California in 1950 & in 1952 the trio she had formed with two of her friends came to the attention of Johnny Otis. Otis reversed the syllables of her first name to give her her stage name & began recording her. Her first record & her first R & B hit, was her own composition, The Wallflower, an answer song to Hank Ballard s Work with Me, Annie. She recorded it in 1954 with the Otis band & Richard Berry, who sang the second vocal. The song was later a hit in the white market for Georgia Gibbs, re-written as Dance with Me, Henry. She briefly recorded as Etta James & the Peaches, releasing several hits before signing to Chess Records in 1960. James released several duets with Harvey Fuqua that became major R&B hits, as well as her classic At Last.

Editors Choice: Jammin With The Blues Greats, View DVDology

Mick Taylor is best known as the former lead guitarist for The Rolling Stones. Taylor grew up in Hatfield, a London suburb & began playing guitar at age 9. He was quickly regarded as a musical prodigy & before he was 18, he was playing, touring & recording with English blues pioneer John Mayall in John Mayall & the Blues Breakers. From 1966-1969 Taylor grew to develop a unique, fluid, emotive guitar style that was consistent with blues & rock & roll. When Mick Jagger & Keith Richards wanted to tour North America in 1969, a tour which was to be their first in three years, the problem of Brian Jones could not be ignored. The drug addiction that afflicted Jones would cripple the tour & slow the Stones who already at this early stage of their career were regarded as yesterdays band by some & had to prove their worth on the stage each night. Jones was fired & subsequently perished in a drowning accident. Jagger reportedly did not want to hold auditions & the process by which Taylor became a Stone was significantly different than the way Ronnie Wood would five years later.

Editors Choice: Jammin With The Blues Greats, View DVDology

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