This is a trailer for an upcoming film bio pic about Little Walter that I just found out about on Facebook. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Dang. That looks great. What's notable about the trailer, in contradistinction to every single blues biopic and documentary that I know of, is that black folk are telling the story. Also, LW's music is hitting in your right ear while on-screen folks are talking in your left. A white face doesn't appear--in the trailer; I haven't seen the film--until the funeral scene at the end.
This difference is notable. It's one of a kind. It means that LW's story is being told by his fellow musicians--his contemporaries--and his family, not by the whole machinery of scholars, fans, aficionados, and teachers (me, Filisko, Gruenling) who currently dominate the conversation.
That makes a difference. I can't wait until the film comes out. Thanks, Bob, for letting us know. Please share info as it becomes available.
PS: When Sterling and I played the Winnipeg Folk Festival many years ago, we spent a lot of time with Jimmy Lee Robinson. He never talked about Walter; he spent most of his time talking about how he was on a lettuce-only diet. He was big into diet. A beautiful man.
Last Edited by on Nov 24, 2012 4:59 PM
tmf: The exception that proves the rule! Thanks for that find. Yes: cops and mourners.
Frank: I don't get your point. Your point about Buddy Miles is.....? Does he have something to do with Little Walter?
Last Edited by on Nov 24, 2012 6:04 PM
The white muscian at around 1:35 looks to be a bass player,
It reminds of a story when I was in the army (late 80,s)a Black friend of mine ,who was also my squad leader,Me and him was talking about Music,And I mentioned that i was starting to like some black music Too Short and Easy E,(I was in heavy metal back then) And he looked at me with a smile and said Music has no color.
---------- Hobostubs
Last Edited by on Nov 24, 2012 6:03 PM
If you take a look at the newspaper story I've linked from 1997, you'll discover that Fritz was unable to get funding for the project, early on, because potential funders said that he needed to add a black producer and relinquish control.
He decided not to do that. So in the case of this documentary, race--the race of who was doing the telling--played an absolutely pivotal role. I applaud his decision. It shouldn't be about the color of your skin, but the content of your character: that's what determines the sort of story you're capable of telling. If the trailer is any guide, Fritz was quite clear-headed about his cultural politics. He knew that he had a great story to tell, and he knew that he'd gotten some killer interviews from the folk who knew Walter best. I'm glad that he managed to bring the project home.
When white folks tell the story of the blues, or of significant blues figures, they almost always fit the blues story within a larger framework of rock: Little Walter becomes, for example, the prelude to John Popper, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Huey Lewis, Taylor Hicks, whoever the current flavor on the pale side of town happens to be. Everything leads to classic rock. The blues greats--BB King, Robert Johnson, whomever--lead to Clapton, the Stones, Stevie Ray, Hendrix.
I can point to half a dozen documentaries that work like that. There's nothing surprising: the filmakers want to appeal to the largest possible potential audience, which is the classic rock audience. Just behind that is the blues/rock audience. And hovering behind all that is MTV and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the EMP in Seattle.
That's just how it works. Nothing insidious. People tell the stories they're interested in, for the publics they know and want to service.
What's interesting here, as I say, is that the trailer doesn't do business that way. It lets Walters family and contemporaries, along with his recordings, tell the story. It doesn't feature the usual suspects: today's blues harmonica inheritors, folks who are left with the legacy and enjoy picking it apart. (I'm very much one of this crew.) Perhaps the documentary as a whole does do that, and if so, I'll be interested to see how such people are used. But I'm much more interested in hearing from LW's familiars--friends & family. Fresh footage. Great stuff.
Last Edited by on Nov 24, 2012 6:22 PM
so one day in the late seventies i am headed to a concert on the way my car overheats i pull over to let it my car cool down at the bus stop is a big black dude with a big afro he is telling me he is "buddy miles tells me he played with jimi hendrix muddy waters can i help a fellow out? to this day i wonder... he sure talked the talk someone posted a clip with muddy waters and and buddy miles heck i think that was you adam?
so what does this have to do with little walter well he played with a guy who played with little walte thats not even 7 steps of separation i'd bet money he has played with little walter at some point!
Those white faces at the funeral actually appear to be the guys who raised the funds to place a headstone on Little Walter's long unmarked grave. That appears to be the unveiling ceremony.
One of the white guys unveiling the tombstone is Scott Dirks. I can't remember the name of the other guy. Scott told me his name once, but I can't remember it.
Scott is a huge Blues fan in addition to being a fine harmonica player. Scott wrote the bio of Little Walter and pulled together that great five CD set. I think the way he has told stories has been quite honest. I felt his telling of Walter's life in his book wasn't overly romanticized.
He also produced some great recordings including a couple on Jimmie Lee Robinson. There probably wouldn't have been any easily available recordings of him, if not for Scott.
The white guy standing next to Louis Myers is Dick Shurman. Dick has a huge legacy of producing great Blues recordings including some of Albert Collins' best work. I believe he also produced some of Otis Rush's best work after his Cobra recordings.
Both of those guys have been instrumental in getting some fine and historic music to the populus.
It is too bad that Sam Lay's name was misspelled. I hope it isn't in the film.
@Joe: I'm rereading the Dirks/Glover/Gaines bio of LW right now and tend to agree with you: it does a great job of telling the story, without the usual rock presentism--the usual focus on Clapton et. al.. It makes clear that LW's greatness was a function of his determination to keep trying to do things that other blues harp players weren't doing, hadn't ever done, and/or couldn't do, in part by tracking the jazzmen of his time. I'll always treasure the book for stressing this point, since it cuts against a significant dynamic within the contemporary blues scene to overvalue "tradition," in part by making a fetish of LW's best-known tunes and an assortment of LW's once-revolutionary techniques and tonal innovations. It's important to honor the greats, of course, but there are various ways of doing that. As I've made clear more than once in this forum, producing yet one more replication of "Juke" doesn't strike me as the best way, even if it strikes many as self-evidently the ONLY way.
(When I said "When white folks tell the blues story.....", BTW, I was thinking primarily about film documentaries. But some books work that way too--BILL WYMAN'S BLUES ODYSSEY, for example, a huge glossy coffee table book which leads, on its final page, to....Eric Clapton.)
And as a larger point, I'll agree with you about funerals and gravestones: white blues fans, historians, aficionados, and players, by and large, have been very good about raising money for the gravesites of dead African America bluesmen. Nobody can argue with that, nor would I want to.
I'll urge everybody to read Buddy Guy's new autobiography, WHEN I LEFT HOME, co-authored with David Ritz. It's continually surprising. It tells a representative blues story in a luminous, memorable way. You'll learn a lot about Muddy Waters that you may not have known--including his preference for 19-year olds, his bad habit of beating his women, his solicitous care for Buddy and other up-and-coming bluesmen, and his hunger to "keep the blues alive." There's an extended and stunning rendition of John Lee Hooker's stutter and a very funny scene where Hooker tells Buddy and Big Mama Thornton a story about literally losing his pants after a long night out. Buddy, like Walter, was trying to do something new--although he prided himself on his ability as a session man who could add the down-home sound. The white producers he dealt with just wouldn't let him do his wild club-thing in the studio. They were after singles that could become hits; they had traditionalist ears, you might say, and they just couldn't hear his brilliance. All that finally changed, of course, and the Buddy Guy we know today was finally freed to do what he'd been doing in the clubs for years. Most of it came from Guitar Slim, he makes clear--having his mind blown by Guitar Slim once, early on, and wanting to do THAT. Buddy's love for his father comes through, as does his essentially conservative personal temperament. Apart from his desire to innovate on guitar, he's basically a self-regulating good son, one who steers clear of Chicago's sexual temptations after he arrives as a young man. He doesn't drink heavily or drug or fight. He's not into the self-destruction thing.
Last Edited by on Nov 25, 2012 5:10 AM
Adam - When I was reading your comments about black folks and such, at the same time I was checkin out you tube vids that were automatically added to my youtube page - you know when you sign in there are videos waiting for you that they think you will like to view.
Anyway I was listening to the Buddy and Buddy video and ended up watching the Buddy Miles vid, an that “fro” just spoke to me…Since Michael Jordon though – bald – is the next big thing…Any way, I thought I would introduce the videos by highlighting the black folk fro and was curious if people would comment more on the Music in the vids or my reference to black folk and a fro…
I also understood that there would probably be some confusion of how do those artists and videos have anything to do with the Little Walter Blue Midnight video. But I figured those issues would iron themselves out as the thread progressed.
As IMPORTANT as Little Walter is and as HUNGRY as fans are to know every single detail about every aspect of his short life…Would not it be prudent to ask any and all artists and anyone else for that matter in the music business that may spent a little time with LW if they have something to share about him that FANs may find interesting. Even if that interaction with LW was short and sweet – they may have a nugget of something to bring LW back to life for an instant. Even if the comment is as simple as “yeah he was happy that day” or “he told this dude to F-off for no reason”.
And make a book totally out of those recollections – not a book of paragraphs but a book that mentions the name of the interviewed person and the encounter they had with LW…My point being, there have got to be a lot of folks of all races who could contribute a snippet about LW…Say for example that Buddy Miles did play with LW at sometime –you wouldn’t know unless you asked him, but he’s dead too – so to late?
He very well may have had a little story to tell us about him, good or bad, happy or sad…Anyway – When I watched the “Blue Midnight” video – The color of the people telling the stories never registered – I was interested in the encounter they had with LW…I don’t give rats ass if Pee Wee Herman ended up in the video as long as he had a story to tell about LW.
BTW. I have read the Dirks/Glover/Gaines bio of LW mulitple times and it is an insane read - LW was the epitome of the "BLUESMAN" that I always imagined a real bluesman was like!
Last Edited by on Nov 25, 2012 6:30 AM
"The color of the people telling the stories never registered – I was interested in the encounter they had with LW…I don’t give rats ass if Pee Wee Herman ended up in the video as long as he had a story to tell about LW."
In the comments of the trailer, Mike says he was going to the Little Walter Festival in October to interview more people, but to my knowledge, that did not happen. I have asked Johnny Sansone is he got interviewed. I will let you know the answer when I get it.
There was a really nicely dressed black gentleman there, who I talked to that said he lived in California, and he grew up with Little Walter. He seemed to know a lot about him, and he told me that Little Walter has a relative that lives out there that sounds exactly like him.
The event was a huge success, and they have indicated that they want to make it an annual event. We, The Crescent City Harmonica Club, ran the beginners workshop, and I personally got to teach one of Little Walter's cousins how to play harp, at least the basics.
Film makers will gather resources and sometimes spend all the $ they have on hand to create a trailer and then use this trailer to attract investors to finance the film. I don't know first hand the situation on this one, but there are a lot of trailers out there made by hopeful people and their films never get much further than this first step.
I wish for them to complete their project - however, aside from art house and us folk on these lists, don't think there is really a lot of general interest to propel investors towards this project.
Joe L. "Those white faces at the funeral actually appear to be the guys who raised the funds to place a headstone on Little Walter's long unmarked grave. That appears to be the unveiling ceremony." True. The one in the black suit, thin tie, is Paul Linden. Great harp player, piano. He worked a long time with Sean Costello.
Just discovered this movie, or the idea of it, a few minutes ago on Youtube and started Googling it and it led me to this thread. Is it ever going to be released? ---------- Bend it like Ricci - Me
Rats! I hoped the resurrection of this thread signalled something more interesting. It reminded me I haven't read BGs story yet though, so that's cool. ----------
Known for my brevity, I usually don't get into very long and wordy postings...
However, this film/subject/comments is really exciting.
Kudzu's postings had much "meat" and very little "fat", prompting other very interesting responses.
Perhaps this film will do justice as much as those old black and white 40 minute videos of Bukka White and others from the 60's did to show their artistry. ---------- The Iceman
MMM! it's about time. I'm forever in debt to Walter, ever since i bought his double album 'Boss Blues Harmonica'. I loved it so much i went right back to the record store that same day to buy 'Hate to See You Go'. ---------- MP affordable reed replacement and repairs.
"making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time"
click user name [MP] for info- repair videos on YouTube. you can reach me via Facebook. Mark Prados
tim-elf and I finally agree on something...sorta...Adam's race points are something he would notice but not sure how many other people would. Some might notice, but may not feel the need to share it. IMHO, it was pretty much hijacking the thread even though his statements pertained to the video. Maybe he should have started a new thread with his points....but wait, that would be a racist thread. Adam's 2nd paragraph, 3rd sentence would have been fine alone. The terms "fellow musicians--his contemporaries--and his family" should have been enough.We would have known who it was without mentioning race. I feel the OP was bringing this up as something for us to celebrate! Frank, I love ya man, but you are sorta famous for posting videos that have nothing to do with the thread and sometimes I see a little one-upmanship attempts in the videos you post.
I read tony glover&cohorts book...loved it and cant wait to see the film....I have promised myself that I will never say who the best harp player ever.....but as bird said"if you don't live it,it wont come out your horn"if damn sure came out walters horn...especially his instrumentals....awesome blues sound
@harpdud-don't get it twisted-I will never agree with you on anything-as pertains to playing harmonica that is. Adam has long been known to be a racist-it just that simple-
BTW-I love Franks videos-I think they are always pertinent- showing off his skills are cool with me.
Last Edited by tmf714 on Jul 02, 2013 3:52 PM
@tmf714 how is adam a racist???toward what race????whites???you seem to love to create controversy.....and as you once told me...I have a strange sense of ethics....reading your posts,you are far more knowledgeable about harmonica than me.....I see a lock coming....why cant we all get along????rest my case...
Here is Jake Lamotta rapping, - it's all about "entertaining" "enlightenment" and "education" Jake has a lot in common with Walter and that's a beautiful thing :)
Last Edited by Frank on Jul 02, 2013 6:07 PM
I just kinda wondered why you picked out Tim but left Harpdude out of it, when it was actually harpdude making the pointed remarks about Adam...if you don't count tmf's comment seriously. Anyway...it's all stupid. That's my point. I buy what Adam said ----------
Even though I think I understand what they really mean. I think that the guy who have described Adam as a "racist" need to firstly realise that it's going against the forum creed to resort to that kind of terminology given it's connotations in general society. Secondly to use that term to describe anyone, let alone someone who is married to a person of colour and has children of mixed race could be construed as extremely offensive. Lastly it would be far better to explain why they feel the need to use that term to describe Adam's post.
From my viewpoint is would seem that what these guys are really trying to say is that Adam often appears to be biased in favour of African American bluesmen/women when talking about the historical aspect of blues over white players. Am I right there guys? Is that what you mean?
If so then you need to bear in mind a couple of very simple facts. In most of the time periods that Adam refers to when talking about the history of the music (say 1920's - 1950's) they weren't very many white blues musicians playing at pro level who were as well known as their African American counterparts. If you go forward in time to the 1960's then that it starts to change and have a more level playing field with regards to the race of the players. Forward more until say the 1980's and 90's and it reverses so that white players seem to be the majority.
If I'm totally off the mark then please explain exactly why you think the use of that offensive term is required to describe Adams post.
Last Edited by Kingley on Jul 02, 2013 10:29 PM
Dang tim-elf...found a little something to start mending the fence with and you reject me.....Thanks for ruining my long holiday weekend. Not sure if I even want to play my band's gig this weekend now??
Got me again! This bloody zombie thread...every time it comes back from the dead i have to check it out to see when the film is available...oh, no film.
I remember staying with Mike back in 1993 on a visit to Boston just before the SPAH convention, and he was working on the film then. It's been a slow road. (The night before I met not only Mike, but also Barbeque, Little Annie, Pierre Beauregard, and Jimmy Gordon, all for the first time.) =========== Winslow
Any updates? Is it still in progress? Or completely Abandoned?
If money is the object he should start a Go Fund Me page. If stuipid little millenial Hipsters can use it to buy stuff. I'm sure he could Make it happen for something as great as this.
Im dying to see more of it. Hopefully worse case scenario he releases all the footage uncut. ----------
Last Edited by Killa_Hertz on May 19, 2016 8:46 PM
