HUM 223: DVD on Corey Harris and the blues

Tomorrow (Tuesday< Nov. 4) and Thursday we will screen a DVD called "Feel Like Going Home," directed by Martin Scorsese for the Public Breoadcasting System in 2003. It features blues and reggae artist Corey Harris of Charlottesville, Va., (whose MySpace page has more information) searching for the roots of blues and playing with local musicians in Mississippi and the West African nation of Mali. You'll notice I'm giving you a handout in class that lists the performers and interviewees in the video. That's the good news. Since you have the handout, you'll know how to spell their names correctly. Right? Which means you'll be expected to. That's the ... was I about to say "bad news?" No, it's good news.

We all want to spell correctly. Right?

I thought so.

Scorsese put together a whole series of seven TV shows for his series The Blues. In his introduction he says:

Corey isn't just a great player, he also knows the history of the blues very well. We filmed him in Mississippi talking to some of the old, legendary figures who were still around and visiting some of the places where the music was made. This section culminates in a meeting with the great Otha Turner, sitting on his porch in Senatobia with his family nearby and playing his cane flute. We were also fortunate to film Otha's magnificent November 2001 concert at St. Ann's in Brooklyn, which I believe was his last performance captured on film. It seemed natural to trace the music back from Mississippi to West Africa, where Corey met and played with extraordinary artists like Salif Keita, Habib Koité, and Ali Farka Toure. It's fascinating to hear the links between the African and American music, to see the influences going both ways, back and forth across time and space.

You can -- and should! -- read more on the linked page. Scorsese ends by saying:

People like to think of the great blues singers as raw, instinctive, with talent and genius flowing from their fingertips. But John Lee Hooker, Bessie Smith, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and so many other amazing talents, more names than I have space for here, are some of the greatest artists America has ever had. When you listen to Lead Belly, or Son House, or Robert Johnson, or John Lee Hooker, or Charley Patton, or Muddy Waters, you're moved, your heart is shaken, you're carried and inspired by its visceral energy, and its rock solid emotional truth. You go right to the heart of what it is to be human, the condition of being human. That's the blues.

"Some of the greatest artists America has ever had." That's pretty high praise. Think about it. You don't have to agree. Just think about it.