Latest news with #blues
CBC
2 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Mississippi town at heart of Sinners refused to be left out of the movie's success
The Mississippi town of Clarksdale is, in many ways, the heart and soul of the movie Sinners. But, until this week, its residents had no way to benefit from the film's massive success at the box office. In fact, many of them couldn't even see it, because the town doesn't have a movie theatre. That all changed when community members joined forces to organize a local screening of the film, featuring filmmaker Ryan Coogler and other members of the cast and crew. "We had people from all over the world that came into Clarksdale to experience our culture," business owner Dave Houston, who helped organize the event, told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. "It was a great thing for our city." 'The birthplace of blues' Sinners, a blues-infused vampire horror starring Michael B. Jordan and set in Jim Crow-era Mississippi, has grossed $339 million US at the box office so far. It's set in Clarksdale, a town of roughly 14,000 people in the Mississippi Delta, an area widely known as the " birthplace of blues." Jordan plays twin brothers hustling to open a juke joint where Black residents can eat, drink, gamble, and most of all, enjoy live music. But they face violent opposition from monstrous villains, both human and supernatural. "The juke joints still live on in Clarksdale as we speak," Houston said. "So to see that being on a big screen, man, it makes you feel great about your city." But while Clarksdale is the soul of Sinners, the movie was filmed in neighbouring Louisiana, as Mississippi lacked the necessary infrastructure. And when Sinners hit theatres, Clarksdale residents who wanted to see their town portrayed on screen had to drive more than 130 kilometres to the nearest cinema in Tennessee. "To use a likeness of Clarksdale and not acknowledge Clarksdale, that didn't sit well with me," said Brenda Luckett, a retired teacher, historian, and local tour guide. Seizing an opportunity As Sinners generated more and more buzz, Houston couldn't let this opportunity to shine a light on Clarksdale slip by. He teamed up with community organizer Tyler Yarbrough, who wrote an open letter and petition addressed to Coogler, Jordan and the rest of the film's cast and crew, inviting them to collaborate on a public screening of Sinners. "We know that Sinners was born from a deeply personal place, inspired by your uncle, a Mississippi native, who often played blues music and told you stories about Mississippi," Yarbrough wrote to Coogler. "Just as your uncle's blues music and making this film lit a fire in you, we believe a visit to Clarksdale from you could light an even bigger one for the next generation." It worked. The petition garnered thousands of signatures. The town's mayor joined the effort. And, eventually, Coogler got wind of the campaign. On Thursday, the director, along with Sinners actor Miles Canton, composer Ludwig Göransson and others, were on hand for the first of six screenings at the Clarksdale Civic Auditorium, which Warner Brothers outfitted with a big screen, projector and sound system. Local vendors and food trucks were on site, local musicians performed, and Coogler did a Q&A with the audience. "We had a lot of emotions pouring out," Houston said. "We had a line all the way out around the building yesterday, and we're expecting the same thing today." Shelby Simes arrived at 7 a.m. from nearby West Helena, Ark., earning first place in a line that had grown to hundreds by the time the doors opened a few hours later. She said Sinners, which she had already seen seven times, was particularly important in an era where the U.S. President Donald Trump is actively silencing Black history in schools, targeting what he sees as "anti-American ideology." Brandice Brown Williams, a theatre teacher, brought two of her students to the screening. "Anytime that filmmakers take the time out to pay homage to the Delta, especially, because we're the root of music, the blues culture, that means a lot," Williams said. Clarksdale is 'open for business' During Thursday's screening, Coogler shouted out the people of Clarksdale for having the organizing skills and entrepreneurial spirit to bring the event to life. "The thing that you guys have is a thing that can't be taught," he said. The next day, Houston spoke to CBC Radio from Dooney's Barbershop, one of several Clarksdale businesses he runs. In the background, his customers, some of them musicians, were still buzzing about the previous evening. One of them, blues singer Jaye Hammer, performed at the event, and even hopped on the phone with Köksal to croon for CBC listeners and plug his newest single, Turn This Party Out. Houston says the town has fallen on hard times in recent years, but he knows Clarksdale is full of talent, and he believes the future looks bright. "If we get the eye on Clarksdale, I think the people will invest," he said. "We're open for business."
Reuters
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Reuters
Coogler's 'Sinners' brings cinematic spotlight to Clarksdale, Mississippi
CLARKSDALE, Mississippi, May 30 - Clarksdale didn't just provide history and blues for director and writer Ryan Coogler's hit movie about art, Jim Crow and vampires. One of the Mississippi Delta town's musicians contributed to the "Sinners" script. After a special screening in the town, which has no cinema, Coogler told the audience gathered in a community hall about the first time he described the movie's plot to a group of Clarksdale blues musicians he had asked to contribute to the score. He said he hesitated when he got to the part about the vampires. He went ahead. Then, Grammy winner Bobby Rush filled the silence. "I had a girl once that was a vampire," the musician joked. The line was given to Delta Slim, played by Delroy Lindo, a piano-playing character who brings both comic relief and depth to the movie. Thursday's screening and discussion came after Tyler Yarbrough, a community organizer and movie buff in Clarksdale, wrote an open letter asking Coogler and Warner Brothers to bring the movie to a town where people drive 80 miles (130 km) to Memphis, Tennessee to get to a cinema. Warner Brothers outfitted the Clarksdale Civic Auditorium with a big screen, projector and sound system. There was even popcorn. "Sinners" has been widely acclaimed by reviewers and moviegoers, who praised the film for its stars' performances, its showcasing of African American art, and its wrestling with painful history and big ideas. According to Variety, by the end of its opening month of April "Sinners" had grossed $122.5 million in North America and $161.6 million worldwide. At what was billed as a community screening, it was apparent the community was not just the geographical entity of Clarksdale. The audience came together around art and American history, including Jim Crow, the legal and often brutally policed racial hierarchy that subjugated Black people in America's South. Shelby Simes arrived at 7 a.m. from nearby West Helena, Arkansas, earning first place in a line that had grown to hundreds by the time the doors opened about an hour before Thursday's 11 a.m. screening, the first of six scheduled over three days. Simes said Coogler's film, which she had already seen seven times, was particularly important at a time when what many see as the truth about the Black American experience has been criticized by President Donald Trump as "improper, divisive or anti-American ideology." "They're taking books off shelves," Simes said. "They're not teaching us properly in the schools." She said with "Sinners," which is fiction but offers a realistic portrayal of the Jim Crow era, Coogler and his team made the past tangible. "I love how they were able to create a path to talk to our ancestors," she said, echoing the reaction of other Black viewers. Michael Johansson, who has worked with community members to memorialize lynchings in the county where the University of Mississippi is located, said it made sense for Coogler to weave vampire folklore into his storyline. "The horror genre is appropriate for the damage, the cruelty, the barbarism of what has been done to Blacks in this nation," said Johansson, who came from Jackson to see the movie on Thursday. Andrea Driver, who supports library sciences students at the University of Mississippi in Jackson, was touched on a personal level. She cried when she saw that a young character had survived horror and reached old age. "He somehow carried that experience with him for years and didn't perish, didn't take his own life. I don't know that I could live with those memories my whole life," she said, saying it spoke to the experience of many Black Americans. Poet C. Liegh McInnis, who was born and raised in Clarksdale, noted the hometown audience recited the Lord's Prayer along with a character during a tense moment in the film. He said Coogler had drawn from history, folklore and religion. "I love the fact that Coogler gave us a three-dimensional film," he said. "Sinners" is set at a time when Clarksdale was a bustling agricultural center in which Black residents were exploited. Many fled north, bringing the blues to cities such as Chicago and Kansas City. While Coogler set his movie in Clarksdale, he filmed it in neighboring Louisiana, in part because Mississippi lacked infrastructure such as the soundstages he needed. Clarksdale Mayor Chuck Espy said the attention "Sinners" had brought could help revive his majority Black town of about 14,000, where 40% live under the poverty line. He hoped to capitalize on Clarksdale's status as a cultural capital by expanding performance and educational opportunities. Coogler saw a future for Clarksdale because of the entrepreneurial spirit that led residents to reach out for Thursday's screening, and its cultural resources. "The thing that you guys have is a thing that can't be taught," he said.
BBC News
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Beverley Knight recording again after return to Wolverhampton
Beverley Knight has said she is planning to record more music after performing in her hometown the first time in 40 years, the artist is treading the boards in Wolverhampton this week for a production of Marie & work features music celebrating the legacy of gospel and blues singer Rosetta Tharpe in the development of rock 'n' said "expect to hear some really bluesy vocals going down, some really earthy sounding stuff" in the music she would record. The singer told BBC Radio WM this would take place "in the short period" after finishing in Wolverhampton and before doing her first show with Take That's Gary Barlow. Asked what kind of material would be recorded, she said for her "it's always a hybrid" before mentioning the "blues and that kind of sound" in her current show and the film Sinners "and that proper fusion of modern blues and that"."I've just been living for it," added Knight, who said she did not know when it would be last performed on stage at the Grand four decades ago in a theatrical production of West Side Story, the singer previously stated. Knight, widely regarded as one of Britain's greatest soul singers, has said to be cast as Sister Rosetta in this week's production was a "great honour".Marie & Rosetta tells the story of Tharpe and her protege, Marie Knight, played by Ntombizodwa Ndlovu. It is on at the Grand Theatre until Saturday. It is set in 1946 in Mississippi and Beverley Knight said it was "right up my street... the gospel, of course, I was born into that whole tradition myself".She added: "I'm so happy I'm home. I'm gonna be in my old bedroom."More or less it looks the same as it was. [The] bed's in the same place... [the] fitted wardrobe's in the same place."Knight said her favourite place in the city "just to zone out and just chill out" was Bantock Park."I love Bantock Park. You've got the lovely cafe there and they do a really good tea and cake and... I go for lovely runs around there in the morning." Follow BBC Wolverhampton & Black Country on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Wall Street Journal
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘Shades of Sound' by Ryan Truesdell and the Gil Evans Project Review: A Jazz Arranger's Artistry
There's an upbeat and comical side to the blues, which comes out in the music of Louis Jordan. There's a sophisticated and sensual side to the blues, which we hear in the singing of Nat King Cole and Dinah Washington. And there's a dark, mysterious and even sinister side to the blues, which was expressed better than anyone by Howlin' Wolf, particularly in his classic 1960 recording of Willie Dixon's 'Spoonful,' in which he threatens, 'one spoon of lead from 45 / Save you from another man.' When the great jazz arranger and composer Gil Evans orchestrated 'Spoonful' for his 17-piece big band in 1964, he encapsulated all the different aspects of the blues into one epic 14-minute performance. His legacy is celebrated on a new release, 'Shades of Sound (Live at Jazz Standard Vol. 2)' (Outside in Music, out May 30), by Ryan Truesdell and the Gil Evans Project.
New York Times
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
How Grace Potter Lost (and Found) a Solo Album, and a New Life
In May 2009, Hollywood Records announced that T Bone Burnett — the producer of the Robert Plant and Alison Krauss LP 'Raising Sand,' which dominated the Grammys earlier that year — had recently entered the studio with Grace Potter and the Nocturnals to produce the band's new album. The LP, which would be the Vermont-based bluesy roots-rock group's third, was slated to come out that fall. The label didn't mention that the album was in fact a solo vehicle for Potter, then 25, that she recorded with a team of renowned session musicians: the drummer Jim Keltner, the guitarist Marc Ribot, the bassist Dennis Crouch and the keyboardist Keefus Ciancia. 'She was like a ball of fire,' Keltner recalled of Potter in a phone call, 'and she was really fun to follow.' During an interview in March at her eclectically decorated villa in Topanga, Calif., Potter — a multi-instrumentalist whose soulful voice has earned her comparisons to Bonnie Raitt, Janis Joplin and 'a grittier Patty Griffin' — recounted her sense of anticipation over the release of the LP, 'Medicine.' 'It really felt like something exciting on the horizon,' Potter said, sitting on the couch in her living room dressed in a stylish forest-green jumpsuit. 'It was like the secret that we got to keep until it all came out.' Sixteen years earlier, she had described the record as 'more of a storyteller, kind of tribal, Motown, voodoo thing' than her earlier output. Then Hollywood shelved the album. The label wanted Potter and the Nocturnals to rerecord the songs with the producer Mark Batson, known for his work with Alicia Keys, the Dave Matthews Band and Dr. Dre. Potter blamed an A&R executive, whom she declined to name, for the decision. She also said that Bob Cavallo, then the chair of the Disney Music Group, which distributes the Hollywood label, was 'concerned that the record would age me.' She added, 'I'm a young, hot thing. He was like, 'We don't want her to seem like she's 46.'' (In a phone interview, Cavallo, now 85 and retired, couldn't recall the particulars of the label's move, but expressed regret that he couldn't help Potter 'get a giant career, because I thought she deserved one.') The switch-up blindsided Potter. 'I was totally heartbroken,' said the musician, who turns 42 next month. 'And I thought about T Bone and our connection and the triangulation of our creativity.' She added, 'Like, was it all for nothing? That seems crazy.' Grace Potter and the Nocturnals ended up working with Batson. The resulting 2010 self-titled record featured new versions of eight songs from the 'Medicine' sessions. It debuted at No. 19 on the Billboard 200, and included perhaps the band's most enduring single, 'Paris (Ooh La La),' a supercharged version of a 'Medicine' track. The band released one more LP, 'The Lion the Beast the Beat' from 2012, before breaking up three years later. Potter said the Nocturnals' dissolution was the result of intraband strife and her desire to go solo, not, as is widely believed, her divorce from the group's drummer, Matt Burr. And now, one decade, another marriage and three solo albums later, Potter's 'Medicine' is finally getting a proper release, via Hollywood, on May 30. Burr, who today runs a music studio in Puerto Rico and goes by Matteo, said that he'd always known that the record, with its 'mystical T Bone Americana magic,' was timeless: 'It was going to be something that you could grab a shovel and dig it up and put it out, and it would be as fresh as it sounded the day it was mastered.' Over the course of nearly four hours, Potter discussed the drama surrounding 'Medicine,' and chatted about her other musical endeavors and her colorful personal life. The singer, who occasionally sneaked a hit from her vape, proved as charismatic as she was voluble — 'endless fun,' as one of Potter's past collaborators, the country star Kenny Chesney, put it in an email: 'She sees every day, every moment, every little thing she's doing as a bottomless adventure.' Potter grew up in Waitsfield, Vt., the middle child of Peggy and Sparky, artisans who helped found Dream On Productions, which traveled the world putting on photo slide shows accompanied by music. Potter recalled a bohemian youth, which included dropping acid and two arrests for public nudity, none of which fazed her folks. 'The hardest thing about having really cool parents is that you can't out-cool your parents,' she said. Potter had a natural affinity for music, and it gave her a way to differentiate herself. 'I just wanted to be famous,' she said. 'Sounds so crass and weird to say, but at the heart of it, I really feel like it was the only thing my parents chose not to do.' Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, which she helped found at St. Lawrence University in upstate New York in 2002, was her ticket to that life. She dropped out after her sophomore year to focus on the group, but by the time Burnett expressed interest in working with her, Potter was yearning to strike out on her own, much to the chagrin of her bandmates: 'They would always say, 'Don't go Gwen Stefani on us.'' For years after recording 'Medicine,' Potter resisted that urge. In 2014, she and the Nocturnals began working with the producer Eric Valentine, and over time, she and Valentine developed feelings for one another. 'I really enjoyed hanging out with Grace and making music with Grace,' said Valentine, who by this point in the interview had joined her on the couch. 'But I wouldn't let my brain make that leap to, like, 'OK, I think I'm in love with this person.'' Potter, who had been married to Burr since 2013, said she was similarly reluctant when it came to Valentine, who is 14 years her senior and was also in a long-term relationship. After much angst and deliberation, she and Valentine ultimately hooked up. Potter was eight-and-a-half months pregnant when she married Valentine in December 2017. Valentine has produced all of his wife's post-Nocturnals solo records, including her most recent, the twangy and soulful 'Mother Road,' which came out in 2023 and Potter described as 'an original motion picture soundtrack to an invisible movie.' When Potter decided she wanted to make 'Mother Road' into a 'visible movie' — she is now in the pitching stage — she got to thinking about the 'Medicine' album. 'That record has so many cinematic gems,' she said. 'So much of it is a sonic movie.' So she had her manager reach out to Hollywood, which still had a digital recording in the vault. 'It was so good,' Potter said of listening to 'Medicine' again after so many years. 'I was like, 'This is wild that this didn't get out.'' Hollywood, she said, readily agreed to release it. Potter, who sang the national anthem at the Kentucky Derby earlier this month and will open for Chris Stapleton at Madison Square Garden in July, said she intended to tour behind 'Medicine.' She described the impending release of the long-shelved album — which strikes a moody, more ethereal tone — in empowering terms. 'I don't owe anybody loyalty to stick around or not stick around,' Potter said. 'I don't owe people a well-behaved or an ill-behaved version of me. I don't owe it to myself to do my makeup and look beautiful for the world or gain or lose weight or have a baby or not have a baby.' Those were all choices she had the power to make, she added. 'But the choice I didn't get to make about 'Medicine,' I now do, and that feels very — I can't say it's enriching or comforting, but it's important,' Potter said. 'It's like, don't pretend it didn't happen,' she continued. 'Don't sweep it under the rug. Why would you? It's such a beautiful piece of broken glass.'
