For many, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" could shoot straight to the top of the (short) list of favorite films about the blues. We asked some St. Louis blues artists about their favorites.
Little Dylan, blues performer
"Bessie," 2015 HBO biopic starring Queen Latifah as Bessie Smith — "I thought they were really consistent with 'Bessie.' I really appreciated that movie in every aspect. The acting was really good, and the character development Queen Latifah went through, it showed."
Marquise Knox, blues performer
"The Life of Riley," 2014 documentary about B.B. King — "We've heard so much about the blues being this and being that and about the guys being great and all of this, but we never get the chance to see them as ourselves. B.B. had a point in there that I wouldn't have put in there, but it made me wanna be real with myself. He said, 'I'm a womanizer' and shows pics of women and what went down in his life. That was humbling. It was the first time a bluesman expressed himself in a way that didn't make himself sound flashy. And he talked about his mother, who died young. She had diabetes. I'm paraphrasing, but he talked about how it killed her and pointed back to himself and said now it's killing her baby."
Ms. Hy-C, blues performer
"Cadillac Records," 2008 biopic starring Adrian Brody as record executive Leonard Chess (with Jeffrey Wright, Columbus Short, Gabrielle Union, Beyoncé) — "I like it because it was able to take me back in the days before my time. It was telling a real-life story of how the music industry used to be. That's what I got out of it. I enjoyed the singing and the chance to see the pros and cons of how the business is. I could relate to that a little bit."
Jeremy Segel-Moss, blues performer, St. Louis Blues Society president
"Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll," 1987 documentary filmed at Chuck Berry's 60th birthday celebration at the Fox Theatre — "I know which one I like the least. I know I would send 'Crossroads' back to the cutting table. ... But my favorite documentary is 'Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll.' I can watch Johnnie Johnson play all day long. It's a true St. Louis story. I'd watch that multiple times."
Jeremiah Johnson, blues performer
"Crossroads," 1986 drama inspired by Robert Johnson (starring Ralph Macchio, Joe Seneca, Jamie Gertz, Steve Vai); "The Blues Brothers," 1980 comedy (starring John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, James Brown, Cab Calloway, Carrie Fisher, Aretha Franklin) — "Basically, when 'Crossroads' came out, I was learning to play guitar at the time. It really influenced me to play blues music. It had phenomenal blues players in it. Also, the original 'The Blues Brothers' made me feel really happy and positive about the blues in general and introduced me to a lot of people I didn't know. As the movie progresses, my father would say 'that's so-and-so, that's so-and-so,' and I can remember thinking 'that's incredible.'"
Roland Johnson, blues performer
"Crossroads," 1986 — "It was a good time. I enjoyed it, especially the transfer of the guitars, the battle they had going on over who was the baddest."
Alonzo Townsend, Townsendx3 Agency founder, son of Henry Townsend
"Hellhounds on My Trail," 2000 documentary about Robert Johnson — "It not only had my dad in it, but it's a who's who of legacy musicians from the Delta, telling their stories. Hollywood movies haven't done a good job telling what the blues is and what it represents."
'Big Mike' Aguirre, blues performer
"Wattstax," 1973 documentary about Stax Records' Watts Summer Festival — "Between performances by all of the prominent artists on my favorite American label at the time and the social and historical content of the event and production itself, not to mention seeing the seamless interaction between the performers onstage and the audience, this is No. 1 in my book. Little Milton's 'Walking the Backstreets and Crying' seals the deal."
