Lightning In A Bottle | 
| Director: Antoine Fuqua
Actors: Ruth Brown, Natalie Cole, Dr. John, Buddy Guy, Levon Helm
Studio: Columbia TriStar
Category: DVD
List Price: CDN$ 14.95
Buy New: CDN$ 9.99
You Save: CDN$ 4.96 (33%)
New (14) Used (2) from CDN$ 8.99
Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 3670
Format: Ac-3, Dolby, Ntsc, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Subtitled)
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: COLD06918D
UPC: 043396069183
EAN: 0043396069183
ASIN: B00078RPGW
Theatrical Release Date: 2004
Release Date: March 8, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
From Amazon.com
Part concert, part history lesson, part summit meeting, and all blues, ILightning in a Bottle/I puts a bright spotlight on this quintessential American music. There are some heavy hitters at work here, both behind the camera (Martin Scorsese executive produced, while the film was directed by Antoine Fuqua of ITraining Day/I and IKing Arthur/I) and especially in front of it, with a superb house band and a mind-boggling array of musicians (including B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, Solomon Burke, Keb' Mo', Macy Gray, the Neville Brothers, Robert Cray, and John Fogerty, to name but a few) performing at New York's Radio City Music Hall in February, 2003. The idea was to trace the music from its beginnings; thus we get an African song (by Angelique Kidjo), some early gospel blues (the great Mavis Staples), acoustic Delta blues, and so on, right up to blues-drenched electric rock and even some rap (a riveting version of Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor" by Chuck D.). Virtually all of the immortals who defined the blues (Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, and even Jimi Hendrix, whose fiery style is re-enacted by Buddy Guy) enter the picture, either through vintage film clips or new performances of their songs. One might wish for more insight into the influence of the blues on jazz (Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit," sung here by India.Arie, is a fine song, but it's not a blues tune) or country, but overall, ILightning in a Bottle/I is an edifying and, most important, highly entertaining portrait of the music and its heritage. I--Sam Graham/I
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| Customer Reviews:
Amazing!! A MUST HAVE, if you love the blues! March 3, 2008
Paulie (Ontario,Canada)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Words fail to convey the passion, emotion and talent of these blues legends. It is however, portrayed and conveyed in raw form in this DVD that will leave you wanting more!!
Required Listening/Viewing December 16, 2007
will matt (memphis, tn)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I will admit/confess that I was never big on the blues. I'm more of a rock kind of guy, but all my heroes were so strongly influenced by the blues - I felt I owed it to myself and to them to listen to the roots of the music I love. I was so underwhelmed by the blues I would hear on record/cd (by the "masters", I simply didn't get it. I found the music to be badly recorded, dull, repetitive, somewhat lifeless. Then I saw this dvd for $10 in a wholesale club and decided to give it one more try. Frankly, I thought it was gonna be a BB King dominated show and wasn't expecting too much. But I finally got around to watching it. br / br /OH! Now I get it! Now I see! Now I understand! It's as if I had been listening to the blues on a transistor radio in 1964 and suddenly someone replaced it with an iPod with the best blues music ever performed - by the original artists! This concert "threw the switch" for me. I've watched this 10 times and each time it gets better and better and better. br / br /A reviewer previously said, "If you like Blues Music and at the same time, want to discover the roots of blues, this DVD is a must...". Good advice. But I would add: if you "DON'T like the blues", this might just change your mind! One of the best concert videos I own (and I own many).
An historic celebration of the blues July 12, 2006
Daniel Jolley (Shelby, North Carolina USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Billed as "a one night history of the blues," Lightning in a Bottle (with Martin Scorsese serving as executive producer) assembles a ton of great performers to retrace the steps of the blues from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago to the rest of the country. The concert took place in Radio City Music Hall in February 2003, and it packs a lot of music and history into a little less than two hours. Old clips, interviews, and snippets of rehearsal accompany the performances themselves, offering a blues history lesson of sorts. I won't pretend to be an expert on the blues; Muddy Waters is about the only blues singer I've ever spent time seriously listening to. That will probably change, now that I know a little more about the incredible music I've been missing out on all these years. br / br /It would be impossible to talk about every performance crammed into this concert - blues songs tend to be pretty short (especially when you don't include any jam session stuff), so an incredible number of songs were performed on this historic night. Go check out the soundtrack to see who performed what. All of the living legends were fantastic, and their vintage blues is still the best blues on earth. Mavis Staple really gets the ball rolling with her spiritual performance of Blind Lemon Jefferson's See That My Grave is Kept Clean. David "Honeyboy" Edwards (at 88) still shows the world what acoustic Delta blues was all about with his performance of Gamblin' Man. The incomparable Clarence "Gateway" Brown plays Okie Dokie Swamp like only he can. Hubert Sumlin, despite having recently lost a lung, pours great energy into Killing Floor (although I thought singer David Johansen came off as hopelessly contrived). Ruth Brown, Mavis Staple, and Natalie Cole (with a little help from Bill Cosby) make Men Are Just Like Streetcars one of the most entertaining songs of the night. Natalie Cole, I have to say, can sure 'nough sing the blues, as she proves with her version of W.C. Handy's classic St. Louis Blues. br / br /Robert Johnson is represented by Keb' Mo' performing Love in Vain, while Odetta wows the crowd with Lead Belly's Jim Crow Blues. James "Blood" Ulmer (with Allison Kraus) takes us all the way back to 1930 with The Mississippi Sheiks' Sitting on Top of the World. The incomparable Muddy Waters was well represented by Buddy Guy on I Can't Be Satisfied. Buddy Guy, as far as I'm concerned, stole the whole show. How important is this man to the blues and music in general? He's the very nexus between Muddy Waters and Jimi Hendrix. Later in the show, Guy returned to perform his own First Time I Met the Blues. Then, after giving us some riffs of Hendrix's Red House, he is compelled to come back out to perform Hendrix's Voodoo Child with Angelique Kidjo. Solomon Burke gets the crowd jumping with Turn on Your Love Light and Down in the Valley. Last but not least, B.B. King puts the final exclamation point on this historic night, making Lucille wail on his classic Sweet Sixteen. br / br /The younger performers feature some hits and misses. Shemekia Copeland, who performs I Pity the Fool with Robert Cray, is incredible. The Neville Brothers shine on Big Chief, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry bring their own style to I'm a King Bee, and Bonnie Raitt shows she belongs onstage with Coming Home. I didn't particularly care for John Fogerty's rocked-up performance of Midnight Special, though, and Macy Gray (after appearing quite clueless at rehearsal) had a little too much fun with Big Mamma Thornton's Hound Dog. I have nothing but disdain for Chuck D, I have to say; turning John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom into rap is bad enough, but this guy momentarily spoiled the whole evening by using the song to make a political statement. br / br /Don't think of this concert as the blues' funeral. Lightning in a Bottle is a celebration of all the greats who defined this uniquely American style of music. The blues will almost surely never return to the heights of the old Delta and Chicago eras, but the classics will always be a part of us, and there is at least some hope (Shemekia Copeland, for sure) on the horizon for its future. One of the problems with the blues is the fact that so many people still haven't experienced it for themselves. This DVD goes a long way toward solving that problem, and with any luck, it will inspire one or more young performers to follow in the giant footsteps of those celebrated here.
The best blues music DVD that I have ever heard October 15, 2005
Marielle Chevrier (Calgary, Canada)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
If you like Blues Music and at the same time, want to discover the roots of blues, this DVD is a must. The concert involves many great musicians singing many of the old new blues songs. In-between music sessions are commentary and old film excerpts -- only one song had commentary in the middle of the song.
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