Lightning in a Bottle (2004)

Lightning in a Bottle: Directed by Antoine Fuqua. With Aerosmith, Gregg Allman, India Arie, James Blood Ulmer. Antoine Fuqua’s documentary on the blues, shot at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

“The thing that separates the Blues from many other types of music is that it is an art born of pain and suffering, of a collective experience that includes slavery, Jim Crow laws, segregation, discrimination and poverty. With all that to face, who wouldnu0026#39;t be singing the blues? Yet, as with any great art form, the suffering is only a part of the story. For the Blues derives its true energy and strength from the optimism and hope it exudes, that hope for a better future that resides in the human spirit even in the darkest of times. Through the years, the Blues has given voice to the powerless and helped change the world in ways that one never could have imagined a hundred years ago. That is its true legacy.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAll of this has been effectively captured in u0026quot;Lightning in a Bottle,u0026quot; a documentary about a concert held at Radio City Music Hall to commemorate one hundred years of the Blues. The concert organizers gathered some of the greatest legends still alive today – far too numerous to mention – to play and sing together and to pay tribute to the musical trailblazers who went ahead of them (artists like Leadbelly, Billie Holliday etc.). The concert itself has an almost u0026quot;survey courseu0026quot; feel to it, charting the development and growth of the Blues from its roots in Africa to its flowering as the premiere art form and avenue of expression for millions of oppressed blacks in 20th Century America. The performances are accompanied by behind-the-scenes interviews with some of the artists present at the event as well as by old audio and film clips of many of the seminal performers from the past doing their thing in the recording studio or on stage. Thus, we are given a nicely balanced view of the Blues both past and present.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe musical performances are all first rate, although, in the interest of time, the sets are much shorter than any real Blues fan would probably like them to be. Still, itu0026#39;s great to hear the old standards being performed by world-renowned artists at the peak of their form. If youu0026#39;re a devotee, check out u0026quot;Lightning in a Bottle.u0026quot; And if youu0026#39;re not a blues fan, check the film out anyway. You might just learn something and have a terrific time listening to all that great music at one and the same time.”