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Vintage Apollo Theater Rhythm and Blues Revue - Starrring Willie Bryant, Freddie Robinson, Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Herb Jeffries, Sarah Vaughan, Nipsey Russell, Big Joe Turner, Martha Davis, Little Buck, Nat 'King' Cole, Cab Calloway and More
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Product Description
1955 Musical variety show filmed at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York City featuring a cast of popular African-American performers: Willie Bryant, Freddie Robinson, Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Faye Adams, Bill Bailey, Herb Jeffries, Amos Milburn, Sarah Vaughan, Nipsey Russell, Big Joe Turner, Martha Davis, Little Buck, Nat 'King' Cole, Mantan Moreland, Cab Calloway and Ruth Brown.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #47691 in DVD
Customer Reviews
The Roots of Rock
One of the questions that I have been posing to myself over the past several months as I trace the roots of rock `n' rock, the music of my youth is to see what prior musical trend was most influential in its development. An argument can be made for old country black blues, for black city blues and for white rockabilly. However I am coming more and more to a view that rhythm and blues of the late 1940's and early 1950's was critical. Furthermore, one of the performers here, Big Joe Turner and his Shake, Rattle and Roll of 1954 was probably the most influential in driving that form of music. Thus, there is no accident in the fact that Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley, Elvis and many others covered the song.
So much for that. Here we have an all-star cast of jazz, rhythm and blues and just plain blues artists at New York City's fame black musical Mecca- The Apollo Theater. We get full-bore performances from Big Joe, Dinah Washington and the legendary Ruth Brown, among others. A little old time humor is thrown in by the Emcee and some novelty songs as one would expect in a variety musical show. One interesting sidelight is that repeated scans of the audience show it is to an integrated but from the looks of it mainly white. This white component is to the good here- that is the transmission belt to bringing that taste for black music to white audiences on an expanded basis later when the geenrationof '68 was about to "discover" black music. If you need to see one aspect of the history of our common musical experiences look here. Rock on.
