Nothing against Ken Burns, but this public-TV series looks about a hundred times more interesting than Jazz, which was earnest and informative but lacked that je ne sais quois you get when a documentarian knows and loves his subject long before he makes a movie about it. Here, that’s not a problem. Scorsese has a lifelong passion for this music, as do the six other directors involved in The Blues—including Wim Wenders, Clint Eastwood, and Mike Figgis. Rather than a broad historical overview—which someone really ought to do, but maybe next time—the series is a loose-linked collection of seven idiosyncratic trips through the music. We’re especially looking forward to Wenders’s segment, profiling three of the genre’s lesser-known geniuses: Blind Willie Johnson, Skip James, and J.B. Lenoir. The TV series is the flagship of a flotilla of ancillary releases, including a book, DVDs, and nearly two dozen compilation CDs including a five-disc box set; basically, if you have any interest in roots music (and you should), this is a golden opportunity to start exploring.
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