Latest news with #DeltaBlues
San Francisco Chronicle
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Morgan Freeman to bring ‘Symphonic Blues Experience' to the Bay Area
Morgan Freeman wants to immerse Bay Area music fans in the sounds of his home state of Mississippi. The actor, who turns 88 on Sunday, June 1, is bringing 'Morgan Freeman's Symphonic Blues Experience' to several Northern California venues this year, beginning with an evening at San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall on July 25. The shows feature Freeman as host and narrator during a program of Delta Blues music by musicians from Clarksdale, Miss.'s Ground Zero Blues Club, which Freeman co-founded, in collaboration with local symphony orchestras. Thirteen dates have been announced so far, with more to come. Other Northern California stops on the tour include Stanford's Bing Auditorium on Nov. 19, Gallo Center for the Arts in Modesto on Nov. 21 and Sonoma State University's Green Music Center in Rohnert Park on Nov. 22. 'The Blues is not just music, it's history wrapped in rhythm, the echoes of lives lived and lost; heartache and hope all tangled together,' Freeman says in a trailer for the tour posted on YouTube. 'This is the story of people who turned hardship into something powerful, who found beauty in their sorrows, and who sang out loud when the world tried to keep them quiet.' The San Francisco performance kicks off the tour, which is presented in partnership with Visit Mississippi, Visit Clarksdale and Memphis Tourism. Tickets range from $79 to $300 and are on sale at The other local venues will make tickets available in June. 'This experience gives the blues its rightful place on the world's stage and ensures its legacy continues to echo through future generations,' Freeman said in a statement announcing the tour. Freeman, who won the best supporting actor Oscar for his role in Clint Eastwood's best picture-winning boxing drama ' Million Dollar Baby ' (2004), has been a ubiquitous presence in film and television since the 1970s, when he was a regular on PBS' 'The Electric Company.' Memorable films include the best picture-winning films 'Driving Miss Daisy' (1989) and 'Unforgiven' (1992) as well as beloved films such as 'The Shawshank Redemption' (1994), 'Se7en' (1995), ' The Bucket List ' (2007) and his role as Lucius Fox in Christopher Nolan's ' Dark Knight ' trilogy. Trained as both an actor and a dancer, Freeman was a member of the Opera Ring musical theater group in San Francisco in the early 1960s.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
10 Blues Documentaries to Watch After ‘Sinners'
Ryan Coogler's box-office hit 'Sinners' is steeped in the blues, its folklore and legends. People can't get enough of the movie or its songs, but if you want a deeper dive into the bluesmen who shaped the genre, queue up these documentaries and learn more about Buddy Guy (who plays older Sammie Moore), Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Charley Patton and more. You can also buy the incredible score by Ludwig Göransson, who was also an executive producer on the movie and on location for the shoot in New Orleans. Special edition LPs will be out on August 29 from Made by Mutant. This 2021 documentary follows the nearly 70-year career of the blues master, who plays the older version of Sammie Moore in 'Sinners. It's not streaming for free, but you can watch select clips at PBS. This 2016 documentary from Sam Pollard and narrated by Common, tells how two different sets of white music fans tracked down nearly forgotten 1930s blues legends Skip James and Son House in 1964 at the same time that white civil rights activists headed to Mississippi to help support the burgeoning movement. The rediscovery of these underappreciated artists led to landmark concerts at the Newport Folk Festival and a massive revival for the genre. Watch on Tubi The Red Top Lounge (AKA Smitty's), was the last juke joint in Mississippi. Sadly, it was demolished in 2004, but it lives on in this documentary made the year before. Clarksdale, Mississippi was ground central for Delta Blues and the site where Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads. Morgan Freeman appears in the film to describe his father, a 'hustler of the first order' who ran a gambling parlor in the same town back in the day. And yes, they served catfish. Watch on YouTube or Tubi This Mississippi musician changed the course of the blues with his Chicago-based band. Here, he is remembered by among, others, guitarist Keith Richards: The Rolling Stones took their name from one of Waters' best-known songs. Bonnie Raitt and Public Enemy frontman Chuck D also appear in this episode of PBS' 'American Masters.' Watch on YouTube This 1992 British TV documentary finds host John Hammond traveling through Mississippi trying to find people who knew the late bluesman. Johnson died in 1938 when he was only 27. It ends at the posthumous marker erected for him in Morgan City, one of at least three grave sites in the state. Watch on the Internet Movie Archive In 'Sinners,' the guitar Sammie plays is said to have been owned by the great Charley Patton. Learn more about this lesser-known musician, often called 'Father of the Delta Blues,' in this episode of the BBC's 'American Epic' series. Watch on YouTube Howlin' Wolf, one of the most iconic voices in blues history, is known for classics including 'Smokestack Lightning,' 'I Ain't Superstitious,' and 'Wang Dang Doodle.' In this 2003 documentary, we learn his mother kicked him out of the house when he was about 13 years old. Years later when he was dying, he wanted to reconcile with her, but she refused because he 'sang the devil's music.' Watch on Prime Video Part of Martin Scorsese's 2003 PBS series 'The Blues,' this segment directed by Wim Wenders explores the careers of Delta blues artist Skip James, gospel blues musician Blind Willie Johnson and Chicago blues guitarist J. B. Lenoir. Watch on YouTube This 1979 doc delves into the musicians of the area, their often DIY instruments and how farming and homesteading the land informed their songs. Watch on PBS or Facebook The renewed interested for blues musicians of the 1920s and '30s in the 1960s led to historic tours, including the line-up featured here: Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson. Watch on Dailymotion The post 10 Blues Documentaries to Watch After 'Sinners' appeared first on TheWrap.
Gulf Today
20-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
How Ryan Coogler structured ‘Sinners' like Metallica song
Ryan Coogler only makes personal movies. 'Fruitvale Station' was set in his hometown of Oakland, California, and explored the last day of Oscar Grant. 'Creed' was dreamed up for his father, who loved 'Rocky' unabashedly. And 'Black Panther' let him grapple with the idea of what it means to be African. In just four features, he'd established himself as one of the top filmmakers working today. It hardly mattered if it was based on a real-life incident, or part of the Marvel machine: Coogler made the movies his own and audiences followed. But one thing he hadn't yet done was a movie that came entirely from his own imagination. 'Sinners,' which Warner Bros. releases in theatres nationwide this weekend, is just that: Coogler's first original film, blends elements of supernatural horror, gangster drama, romance, blues music and action across one eventful day in Clarksdale, Mississippi in, 1932 in which a community opens a juke joint and then has to defend it from a vampire army growing outside. It's something that needs to be seen to be believed, right down to Coogler's longtime collaborator Michael B. Jordan playing identical twins. And it's already a critical hit. 'Jurassic Park' is probably not a film that anyone would categorize first as horror, Coogler knows, but there were terrifying moments that imprinted on his consciousness. Films like 'Get Out' and 'The Shining' did the same. He wanted to give audiences that feeling too and threw everything he loved into 'Sinners.' 'I pulled from a lot of films that inspired me,' Coogler said. 'I wanted to pay back the theatrical audience the same things that I feel were poured into me.' The setting of the film was also inspired by his family's ties to a Mississippi of the past. One was his maternal grandfather who originated from Merrill, Mississippi, and moved to Oakland, where the family remains. The other was the man who introduced him to blues music, his Uncle James, who died while Coogler was making 'Creed.' Fitting for the scale of the story, 'Sinners' was shot on large format film including IMAX 65 mm and Ultra Panavision 70 (65 mm film shot on Panavision lenses in the widest aspect ratio, which Quentin Tarantino famously resurrected for 'The Hateful Eight'). 'I knew it would be a period piece and a horror movie, so I knew film made the most sense for that,' Coogler said. 'But after getting into the research of the project and learning the epic scale of the contribution of Delta Blues when it comes to global popular culture, how this music kinda launched pop music as we know it ... I realized that this was a larger-than-life story.' Coogler called on Jordan, who has appeared in all of his films, to play the identical twins Smoke and Stack. Their characters served in the war and worked with Chicago gangsters, but have come back to Mississippi with plans to open a juke joint. Though having Jordan as twins was great in theory and even final product, the execution was challenging. On some days, both felt like they were making a movie for the first time. Some scenes were shot traditionally, while others used cutting edge technology called the halo rig that allowed them to digitally place Jordan's head on the body of a double. Jordan might have looked a bit like 'RoboCop' on set while in the contraption, but the end result is seamless even on unforgiving large format film. For the performance, it required a certain nimbleness to be able to switch back and forth. Jordan had fun with both characters but said that a preference for one over the other, 'really depended on how tired I was that day.' It won't take audiences long to distinguish between the two: Smoke is a little grumpier, a little more serious and haunted by a loss. Stack is a little lighter — a charmer who smiles through the pain. Jordan gave both different postures, mannerisms and even slightly different voices to help. And he praised his co-stars Hailee Steinfeld, who plays Stack's ex Mary, and Wunmi Mosaku who plays Smoke's longtime love Annie for dealing with his 'crazy ass personalities and mood swings.' Associated Press
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Sinners' mixes blues, vampires and the Mississippi Delta into Ryan Coogler's 1st original film
Ryan Coogler only makes personal movies. 'Fruitvale Station' was set in his hometown of Oakland, California, and explored the last day of Oscar Grant. 'Creed' was dreamed up for his father, who loved 'Rocky' unabashedly. And 'Black Panther' let him grapple with the idea of what it means to be African. In just four features, he'd established himself as one of the top filmmakers working today. It hardly mattered if it was based on a real-life incident, or part of the Marvel machine: Coogler made the movies his own and audiences followed. But one thing he hadn't yet done was a movie that came entirely from his own imagination. 'Sinners,' which Warner Bros. releases in theaters nationwide this weekend, is just that: Coogler's first original film, blends elements of supernatural horror, gangster drama, romance, blues music and action across one eventful day in Clarksdale, Mississippi in, 1932 in which a community opens a juke joint and then has to defend it from a vampire army growing outside. It's something that needs to be seen to be believed, right down to Coogler's longtime collaborator Michael B. Jordan playing identical twins. And it's already a critical hit. An IMAX-sized love letter to the movies and people who shaped him 'Jurassic Park' is probably not a film that anyone would categorize first as horror, Coogler knows, but there were terrifying moments that imprinted on his consciousness. Films like 'Get Out' and 'The Shining' did the same. He wanted to give audiences that feeling too and threw everything he loved into 'Sinners.' 'I pulled from a lot of films that inspired me,' Coogler said. 'I wanted to pay back the theatrical audience the same things that I feel were poured into me.' The setting of the film was also inspired by his family's ties to a Mississippi of the past. One was his maternal grandfather who originated from Merrill, Mississippi, and moved to Oakland, where the family remains. The other was the man who introduced him to blues music, his Uncle James, who died while Coogler was making 'Creed.' Fitting for the scale of the story, 'Sinners' was shot on large format film including IMAX 65 mm and Ultra Panavision 70 (65 mm film shot on Panavision lenses in the widest aspect ratio, which Quentin Tarantino famously resurrected for 'The Hateful Eight'). 'I knew it would be a period piece and a horror movie, so I knew film made the most sense for that,' Coogler said. 'But after getting into the research of the project and learning the epic scale of the contribution of Delta Blues when it comes to global popular culture, how this music kinda launched pop music as we know it … I realized that this was a larger-than-life story.' Why have one Michael B. Jordan when you can have two? Coogler called on Jordan, who has appeared in all of his films, to play the identical twins Smoke and Stack. Their characters served in the war and worked with Chicago gangsters, but have come back to Mississippi with plans to open a juke joint. Though having Jordan as twins was great in theory and even final product, the execution was challenging. On some days, both felt like they were making a movie for the first time. Some scenes were shot traditionally, while others used cutting edge technology called the halo rig that allowed them to digitally place Jordan's head on the body of a double. Jordan might have looked a bit like 'RoboCop' on set while in the contraption, but the end result is seamless even on unforgiving large format film. For the performance, it required a certain nimbleness to be able to switch back and forth. Jordan had fun with both characters but said that a preference for one over the other, 'really depended on how tired I was that day.' It won't take audiences long to distinguish between the two: Smoke is a little grumpier, a little more serious and haunted by a loss. Stack is a little lighter — a charmer who smiles through the pain. Jordan gave both different postures, mannerisms and even slightly different voices to help. And he praised his co-stars Hailee Steinfeld, who plays Stack's ex Mary, and Wunmi Mosaku who plays Smoke's longtime love Annie for dealing with his 'crazy ass personalities and mood swings.' Mosaku said the times he was Smoke and the times he was Stack felt 'clear as day' to her. 'There was no confusion when he was Smoke. He was so Smoke and he was mine' said Mosaku. 'We would just kind of gravitate towards each other. And when he was Stack, he was so Mary's.' Miles Caton, Hailee Steinfeld and a mix of new and veteran talent One of the things Coogler always loved about going to the movies was the feeling of discovering a fresh face. Here, he hopes that comes in the form of Miles Caton, a 19-year-old newcomer who's essentially third lead to Jordan's twins as Sammie (or Preacher Boy), a blues prodigy who wants to play music and not follow his father to the church. Caton was singing backup for H.E.R when she told him about the top-secret role, and he made an audition tape. It was, he laughed, bad, but Coogler saw something in him. 'Ryan had sent me an essential blues playlist and that's where I started to discover some of the great blues artists that we know today,' Caton said. 'I learned about Howlin' Wolf and Charlie Patton, Buddy Guy. Those were the guys I kind of studied for this role.' Delroy Lindo is the other side of the blues spectrum as Delta Slim, an older man in town who he said recognizes Sammie as the future, 'not just musically, but of our culture.' The film's ensemble is vast, with some faces you know and others you might be meeting for the first time, including Jayme Lawson as a local singer, Omar Miller as a sharecropper, and Jack O'Connell as, well, an Irish vampire. 'Sinners' also presents a more accurate version of the Deep South at the time than audiences may be used to seeing in Hollywood films, with Li Jun Li and Yao as Asian American shop owners. All seemed to learn a bit about themselves in the process, including Steinfeld whose character is biracial but 'passing' as white. 'This film brought me closer to my family and my family history,' said Steinfeld, whose grandfather was half-Black and half-Filipino. 'I think that it will serve as such an amazing conversation starter for people and maybe encourage them to look into their genealogy.' The Ryan Coogler effect There was a shared sense of purpose on 'Sinners' that no wool costumes in 100+ degree temperatures, chiggers or stray alligators wandering onto the Louisiana set could spoil. The cast and crew, many of whom Coogler's worked with before including composer Ludwig Göransson, costume designer Ruth E. Carter, production designer Hannah Beachler and cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw, knew they were part of something special. 'When this man picks up the phone says you want to come play? You sort of don't give it a second thought,' said Lindo. 'This is a particular cat, this is particular filmmaker, this is the particular storyteller in our culture and in world culture because it's cinema and cinema is international' Miller took it a step further. He said it's working with an auteur at the height of his powers. 'This is the first fully original piece that Ryan has written and produced, and he made that clear to us at the beginning how much that meant to him,' Miller said. 'This was his big swing for an original piece and man, did he hit the home run. This is Shohei Ohtani out the park for a walk off homer.'
The Independent
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
'Sinners' mixes blues, vampires and the Mississippi Delta into Ryan Coogler's 1st original film
Ryan Coogler only makes personal movies. 'Fruitvale Station' was set in his hometown of Oakland, California, and explored the last day of Oscar Grant. 'Creed' was dreamed up for his father, who loved 'Rocky' unabashedly. And 'Black Panther' let him grapple with the idea of what it means to be African. In just four features, he'd established himself as one of the top filmmakers working today. It hardly mattered if it was based on a real-life incident, or part of the Marvel machine: Coogler made the movies his own and audiences followed. But one thing he hadn't yet done was a movie that came entirely from his own imagination. 'Sinners,' which Warner Bros. releases in theaters nationwide this weekend, is just that: Coogler's first original film, blends elements of supernatural horror, gangster drama, romance, blues music and action across one eventful day in Clarksdale, Mississippi in, 1932 in which a community opens a juke joint and then has to defend it from a vampire army growing outside. It's something that needs to be seen to be believed, right down to Coogler's longtime collaborator Michael B. Jordan playing identical twins. And it's already a critical hit. An IMAX-sized love letter to the movies and people who shaped him 'Jurassic Park' is probably not a film that anyone would categorize first as horror, Coogler knows, but there were terrifying moments that imprinted on his consciousness. Films like 'Get Out' and 'The Shining' did the same. He wanted to give audiences that feeling too and threw everything he loved into 'Sinners.' 'I pulled from a lot of films that inspired me,' Coogler said. 'I wanted to pay back the theatrical audience the same things that I feel were poured into me.' The setting of the film was also inspired by his family's ties to a Mississippi of the past. One was his maternal grandfather who originated from Merrill, Mississippi, and moved to Oakland, where the family remains. The other was the man who introduced him to blues music, his Uncle James, who died while Coogler was making ' Creed.' Fitting for the scale of the story, 'Sinners' was shot on large format film including IMAX 65 mm and Ultra Panavision 70 (65 mm film shot on Panavision lenses in the widest aspect ratio, which Quentin Tarantino famously resurrected for 'The Hateful Eight'). 'I knew it would be a period piece and a horror movie, so I knew film made the most sense for that,' Coogler said. 'But after getting into the research of the project and learning the epic scale of the contribution of Delta Blues when it comes to global popular culture, how this music kinda launched pop music as we know it … I realized that this was a larger-than-life story.' Why have one Michael B. Jordan when you can have two? Coogler called on Jordan, who has appeared in all of his films, to play the identical twins Smoke and Stack. Their characters served in the war and worked with Chicago gangsters, but have come back to Mississippi with plans to open a juke joint. Though having Jordan as twins was great in theory and even final product, the execution was challenging. On some days, both felt like they were making a movie for the first time. Some scenes were shot traditionally, while others used cutting edge technology called the halo rig that allowed them to digitally place Jordan's head on the body of a double. Jordan might have looked a bit like 'RoboCop' on set while in the contraption, but the end result is seamless even on unforgiving large format film. For the performance, it required a certain nimbleness to be able to switch back and forth. Jordan had fun with both characters but said that a preference for one over the other, 'really depended on how tired I was that day.' It won't take audiences long to distinguish between the two: Smoke is a little grumpier, a little more serious and haunted by a loss. Stack is a little lighter — a charmer who smiles through the pain. Jordan gave both different postures, mannerisms and even slightly different voices to help. And he praised his co-stars Hailee Steinfeld, who plays Stack's ex Mary, and Wunmi Mosaku who plays Smoke's longtime love Annie for dealing with his 'crazy ass personalities and mood swings.' Mosaku said the times he was Smoke and the times he was Stack felt 'clear as day' to her. 'There was no confusion when he was Smoke. He was so Smoke and he was mine' said Mosaku. 'We would just kind of gravitate towards each other. And when he was Stack, he was so Mary's.' Miles Caton, Hailee Steinfeld and a mix of new and veteran talent One of the things Coogler always loved about going to the movies was the feeling of discovering a fresh face. Here, he hopes that comes in the form of Miles Caton, a 19-year-old newcomer who's essentially third lead to Jordan's twins as Sammie (or Preacher Boy), a blues prodigy who wants to play music and not follow his father to the church. Caton was singing backup for H.E.R when she told him about the top-secret role, and he made an audition tape. It was, he laughed, bad, but Coogler saw something in him. 'Ryan had sent me an essential blues playlist and that's where I started to discover some of the great blues artists that we know today,' Caton said. 'I learned about Howlin' Wolf and Charlie Patton, Buddy Guy. Those were the guys I kind of studied for this role.' Delroy Lindo is the other side of the blues spectrum as Delta Slim, an older man in town who he said recognizes Sammie as the future, 'not just musically, but of our culture.' The film's ensemble is vast, with some faces you know and others you might be meeting for the first time, including Jayme Lawson as a local singer, Omar Miller as a sharecropper, and Jack O'Connell as, well, an Irish vampire. 'Sinners' also presents a more accurate version of the Deep South at the time than audiences may be used to seeing in Hollywood films, with Li Jun Li and Yao as Asian American shop owners. All seemed to learn a bit about themselves in the process, including Steinfeld whose character is biracial but 'passing' as white. 'This film brought me closer to my family and my family history,' said Steinfeld, whose grandfather was half-Black and half-Filipino. 'I think that it will serve as such an amazing conversation starter for people and maybe encourage them to look into their genealogy.' The Ryan Coogler effect There was a shared sense of purpose on 'Sinners' that no wool costumes in 100+ degree temperatures, chiggers or stray alligators wandering onto the Louisiana set could spoil. The cast and crew, many of whom Coogler's worked with before including composer Ludwig Göransson, costume designer Ruth E. Carter, production designer Hannah Beachler and cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw, knew they were part of something special. 'When this man picks up the phone says you want to come play? You sort of don't give it a second thought,' said Lindo. 'This is a particular cat, this is particular filmmaker, this is the particular storyteller in our culture and in world culture because it's cinema and cinema is international' Miller took it a step further. He said it's working with an auteur at the height of his powers. 'This is the first fully original piece that Ryan has written and produced, and he made that clear to us at the beginning how much that meant to him,' Miller said. 'This was his big swing for an original piece and man, did he hit the home run. This is Shohei Ohtani out the park for a walk off homer.'
