Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: Piano Blues [Soundtrack]

Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues (Series) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 8, 2011)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Columbia/Legacy
• ASIN: B0000A0AZ8
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #87,866 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #33 in Music > Jazz > Traditional Jazz & Ragtime > Stride Piano
  • #34 in Music > Jazz > Traditional Jazz & Ragtime > Ragtime
  • #44 in Music > Jazz > Traditional Jazz & Ragtime > Boogie-Woogie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This Is Not the Soundtrack, October 15, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: Piano Blues (Audio CD)

While this is a fine album, it is not the soundtrack of the TV show. On the show, Dave Brubeck played a breath-taking blues about twenty minutes into the program. Marcia Ball played an incredible solo piano and vocal of Red Beans. Duke Ellington was featured on tape playing a rousing CJam Blues with Mingus and Roach. These artists are on the CD, but NOT playing what we saw and heard. I bought the CD because of them and feel a little cheated. If they were to re-release this album with the original soundtrack numbers, it would be a major improvement.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Piano Blues - A Film by Clint Eastwood, September 13, 2003

By 

J. B. Trask (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: Piano Blues (Audio CD)

This wonderful CD was just released and is a companion to the PBS series airing in September. A powerful collection of blues pianists that will satisfy every taste. Jimmy Yancey, Thelonius Monk, Art Tatum, Otis Spann, Big Joe Turner, A. Ammons round out an all-star cast of boogie, stride, left and right hand romps and just plain ole good-time piano. Piano lovers - Take Note!

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit of a misnomer, December 9, 2003

By 

Docendo Discimus (Vita scholae) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: Piano Blues (Audio CD)

"Piano blues"? Hm, yes, and some jazz and R&B and a little bit of soul.

Most of this is fine music, no doubt about that, but it's not a very good overview of piano blues. Mac Rebennack (Dr John) is a fine R&B pianist, but he is not a bluesman, and neither are Ray Charles or Fats Domino or Thelonious Monk or even the great Count Basie.
And even though the juxtaposing of Jimmy Yancey's primitive version of "How Long Blues" against the harmonically sophisticated reading of the song by Count Basie and his orchestra is interesting in principle, the song was written and composed by one of the best blues pianists of all time, the great Leroy Carr. Why isn't his original version here?

As I said, good music, but a pretty bad overview of piano blues. You can't really take a collection of piano-based blues music seriously when it doesn't include a single track by Memphis Slim, Roosevelt Sykes, Big Maceo Merriweather, Sunnyland Slim, or "Champion" Jack Dupree. And Lafayette Leake's superb instrumental "Slow Leake" would have been a perfect addition - why isn't it here?

If you are already an experienced blues fan, this CD does provide an interesting insight into how the blues has permeated soul, jazz and R&B, but for a relative newcomer, "Piano Blues" doesn't cut it. It fails to introduce the listener to some of the best and most influential blues pianists of the past hundred years.