Product Description
-------------------
1. (I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man / Live at Newport Jazz
Festival 1960
1 Interview 'Old Grey Whistle Test' / Classic Concerts DVD
2. So It Goes / Victoria Theatre 1977
2 Tiger In Your Tank / Live at Newport Jazz Festival 1960
3. Rollin' Stone / Live at Newport Jazz Festival 1960
3 The Blues Had A Baby And They Named It Rock N Roll
4. Got My Mojo Working / Live at Newport Jazz Festival 1960
4 Interview at Molde Jazz Festival 1977
5. Mean Mistreater/Going To Chicago Blues Medley / Live at
Newport Jazz Festival 1960
6. Back At The Chicken Shack / Live at Copenhagen Jazz Festival
1968
7. Train Fare Blues / Live at Copenhagen Jazz Festival 1968
8. (I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man / Live at Copenhagen Jazz
Festival 1968
9. Long Distance Call / Live at Copenhagen Jazz Festival 1968
10. Nobody Knows My Trouble / Live at Copenhagen Jazz Festival
1968
11. Cold Cold Feeling / Live at Copenhagen Jazz Festival 1968
12. Got My Mojo Working / Live at Copenhagen Jazz Festival 1968
13. Tiger In Your Tank / Live at Copenhagen Jazz Festival 1968
14. Evan's Shuffle / Live at Molde Jazz Festival 1977
15. Prison Bound Blues / Live at Molde Jazz Festival 1977
16. Blow Wind Blow / Live at Molde Jazz Festival 1977
17. (I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man / Live at Molde Jazz Festival
1977
18. Baby Please Don't Go / Live at Molde Jazz Festival 1977
19. Can't Get No Grindin' / Live at Molde Jazz Festival 1977
20. You Don't Have To Go / Live at Molde Jazz Festival 1977
21. Got My Mojo Working / Live at Molde Jazz Festival 1977
.com
----
Anyone who calls the late McKinley Morganfield, aka Muddy
Waters, the greatest of all bluesmen isn't likely to get a whole
lot of argument. But just in case, Classic Concerts offers a
handy rebuttal to any doubters. The approximately 90 minutes of
music here were drawn from three separate Waters concerts,
spanning some 17 years. The five tunes from the 1960 Newport Jazz
Festival include two, "(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man" and "Got
My Mojo Working," that will no doubt have been seen by many Muddy
fans before now. Yet while the grainy black & white visuals still
leave something to be desired, the producers' choice to sync up
three songs with stereo sound from the Chess album Muddy Waters
at Newport has resulted in vastly improved audio, all the better
to appreciate Waters and his superb band's (with James Cotton on
harmonica and Otis Spann on piano; also look for blues shouter
Jimmy Rushing and other guests, including a couple of
delightfully entertaining dancers, on the show-closing medley)
now legendary performance. The eight-song Copenhagen show from
1968, a complete set seen here for the first time, may be even
better; the audio, featuring Muddy's inimitable slide guitar, is
astonishingly clean, the band rocks (this set's version of "Mojo"
is the finest this reviewer has seen), and although the Danish
director seems a bit lost (as swell as drummer S.P. Leary is, do
we really want to see close-ups of his hands while someone else
is soloing?), the many s of Waters' wonderfully expressive
face are a treat. By the time we get to the footage from Norway's
Molde Jazz Festival in '77, the personnel have changed again
(guitarist Bob Margolin, who wrote the DVD liner notes, and
harmonica player Jerry Portnoy stand out, but they're all aces),
but Waters, now in the more avuncular mode he adopted after
medical problems confined him to a stool for much of the gig,
sounds as strong as ever. A couple of brief interviews and one
bonus performance fill out a thoroughly entertaining,
exceptionally well-presented DVD package. --Sam Graham