Re: Billy Bizor?

[sawyer@xxxxxxx]

KPGraham@xxxxxxx writes:
 > There's a video with LH that appears on PBS from time to time. It
 > has Lightnin' jamming with a harp play that I think is Billy Bizor
 > (sp?). The video is OK for one viewing, but I didn't record it
 > because Lightnin and Billy were so drunk throughout the show that
 > I think that the music suffered. There were lots of interesting
 > moments in the show, but no really great music.
 >        Keith
 > 

The film is called "Blues According to Lightning", from Flower Films,
made by Les Blank.  I agree with Keith that Billy is too blasted in
one scene to play decent music.  But I this didn't lower my overall
opinion of the film, which I consider a master piece.  It is full of
good music, some of it positively inspired, and it gives a glimpse
into the life of poor rural blacks of the South.  We all wish we could
sit on the back porch with the likes of Lighting, Mance Lipscomb and
Billy Bizor, and listen to what they play for themselves, and this
film does just that.  The photography is among the best documentary
footage of the time and place.

Les Blank has made several other films, including portraits of Mance
Lipscomb and Clifton Chenier, and a feature length documentary on the
making of Werner Herzog's monumental Fiztcaraldo, filmed in the
jungles of South America.  It reveals Herzog as more possessed that
his maniacal fictional hero.  I'll always remember Herzog's comment on
working in the jungle: "In the jungle even the stars in the sky are
fucked up." [Thanks to list members for tolerating this digression.]

	--Charlie