According to the press kit that accompanied this CD set, it's the year of the blues, baby. As if the blues are restricted to a particular time and place, right? Lightning in a Bottle is a followup to the Grammy award winning box set called Martin Scorcese Presents the Blues. This time around, the double-CD set is the soundtrack to a concert film called (you guessed it!) Lightning in a Bottle. Director Antonie Fuqua (he of Training Day and King Arthur) captured performances at the "Salute to the Blues" concert held in February, 2003 at Radio City Music Hall.
The concert - and the CD set - feature a rogue's gallery of blues' greatest stars, like B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Ruth Brown, Mavis Staples, Gregg Allman, Bonnie Raitt, Jimmie Vaughn, and many more. The film was to be released October 15, but I must admit I haven't seen many signs of it (of course, I live in the northwoods of Wisconsin, so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised). In any event, the CD features 27 songs that showcase five generations of blues music and it is worth it simply for the historical retrospective. Beyond that, of course, the music rocks.
The house band kicked and they were joined by a host of others who get their licks on various songs. As Fuqua described the experience: "We transformed Radio City Music Hall into a juke joint." While it would be interesting to see the documentary simply to see all these musicians on the same stage together, ultimately everybody's there for the music. It starts with Angelique Kidjo on "Zelie," a powerful cry about the voice "they couldn't take away." Mavis Staples launches into "See that My Grave is Kept Clean," and then David "Homeboy" Edwards sings about how he's a "Gamblin' Man." Natalie Cole teams with Mavis Staples and Ruth Brown on "Men are Just Like Street Cars" (if you miss one, another will come along), and Buddy Guy sings "I Can't Be Satisfied." The first disc takes a melancholy turn with india.arie's rendition of "Strange Fruit" but then closes on a pounding note with Macy Gray's "Hound Dog" and John Fogerty singing the "Midnight Special."
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