Seattle Folklore society blues videos

Subject: Seattle Folklore society blues videos
From: GUEST,Jim Clark..London.England
Date: 03 Sep 03 - 05:25 AM

I've just commited the Seattle folklore videos of Son House, big Joe etc etc to dvd.......That video tape was the very first video tape I ever owned ..Paul Vernon (who called himself "Sailor Vernon") no relation to any other Vernons of blues noteworthieness in Mill Hill northwest London used to publish a rather smutty blues magazine called "Sailors delight" it was rather like a college rag and always managed to give me a realy good giggle.....in it he would also run auctions for blues records and sell videos and it was from him I got that and several other wonderful tapes of the blues originals......that was 1982...and I rushed over to see my brother Paddy who was living in his first house here in Plaistow east London and bunged it on his video recorder.....being a printer brother Paddy always had money to burn so could afford a video recorder when they were still several hundred pounds each......I was over the moon about seeing virtualy all my blues heroes there in front of me on the telly ....I still am over the moon about that tape.....its what more than anything made me want to make videos of musicians and since then I've lived out most of my video making dreams....

I dont think that video cassette was brand new when I got it ......and its still going strong 21 years later..which rather proves the durability of good old magnetic recording tape.....

I wonder are there any others out there who have seen this wonderful series of videos...they were all filmed around the mid sixties using what must have been early video equipment....my tape has Son House,Bukka White,Big Joe Williams, Brownie Mcgee,Lightning Hopkins,Reverand Gary Davis,and finishes with a very nervous looking Robert Pete Williams playing some great numbers despite looking like a fish out of water in a television studio....I'd love to know more about this series if anybody knows anything...I wonder were there any more bluesmen filmed for the series.?????

Regards.

Jim Clark...London ..England
acoustic musicians and poets sound archive


Regards.

Jim......

Subject: RE: Seattle Folklore society blues videos
From: GUEST,Reggie Miles
Date: 03 Sep 03 - 05:41 AM

Have you tried contacting the Seattle Folklore Society?

Subject: RE: Seattle Folklore society blues videos
From: GUEST,Jim Clark..London.England
Date: 03 Sep 03 - 05:46 AM

No I wasnt sure if they still exist ????.....I'm hopeful others out there in Mudcat land can help with my requested info.....

Jim..

Subject: RE: Seattle Folklore society blues videos
From: GUEST,Jim Clark..London.England
Date: 03 Sep 03 - 05:50 AM

I see they have a website...

Seattle folklore society

But I'd appreciate whatever info/feedback others who have seen these tapes has to give.

Regards.

Jim Clark

Subject: RE: Seattle Folklore society blues videos
From: GUEST,Jim Clark..London.England
Date: 03 Sep 03 - 01:59 PM

Before I let this thread die I wonder if any lateshift Mudcatters have seen this amazing set of video recordings ?????

Regards.

Jim Clark..

Subject: RE: Seattle Folklore society blues videos
From: johnross
Date: 03 Sep 03 - 04:07 PM

Those videos were created in the studio of Seattle's public TV station, KCTS, with John Ullman in the control room calling camera shots. They were intended to document the players' style ond technique, rather than "good pictures". That's why they things avoid the "dramatic" shots that make no sense musically -- the bead of sweat on the musician's forehead, and the tight closeups of the strumming hand, but never the fingerboard.

I've forgotten whether the originals were two-inch video tape or 16-millimeter film.

They were made in the late 1960's, when those musicians did concerts in Seattle that were produced and sponsored by the Seattle Folklore Society.

Subject: RE: Seattle Folklore society blues videos
From: GUEST,Jim Clark..London.England
Date: 03 Sep 03 - 05:15 PM

Thanx John,

Yes what you say corresponds with the info in the titles.....my copies seem to have been made from the virtualy unedited video tapes...they were definitely video not celluoid.....Yes I think they were trying to show some of the players tricks and technique...

I just love the no nonsense way they are filmed....unlike several up the nostril films i've seen of bluesmen filmed around the same time....Its just the performers doing their stuff with a very spartan backdrop and a couple of cameras trying qiute succesfully to capture the most important aspects of their performance without trying to be arty...These are something of a definitive snapshot in video form of these great acoustic bluesmen...

Todays equipment is obviously infinitely easier to use,but given the technology of the time a great job was done....

Thanx for explaining the Seattle folklore society connection...with the project.

Regards.

Jim....

Subject: RE: Seattle Folklore society blues videos
From: masato sakurai
Date: 03 Sep 03 - 09:59 PM

Paul Vernon's African-American Blues, Rhythm and Blues, Gospel and Zydeco on Film and Video, 1926-1997 was published by Ashgate in 1999.

Subject: RE: Seattle Folklore society blues videos
From: GUEST,Jim Clark..London.England
Date: 04 Sep 03 - 05:08 AM

Thanx Masato,

Are you sure its the same Paul Vernon....I see theres a site for guitarist of the same name,and i've emailed him to see if they are the person I knew..

I was told qiute a few years back Paul "Sailor" Vernon had emigrated to the states...He was such a brilliant guy..It would be great to know whats become of him....

Regards.

Jim...

Subject: RE: Seattle Folklore society blues videos
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Sep 03 - 05:31 AM

I'm not sure at all. Anyway, THIS is the book, with some sample pages.

Subject: RE: Seattle Folklore society blues videos
From: GUEST,Jim Clark..London.England
Date: 04 Sep 03 - 05:42 AM

Dear Masato,

Thanx for the link....I hadnt managed to find a working link for the book at all....

Gosh what an incredibly detailed book (Dreadful front cover though) It certainly looks like it must by Paul "Sailor" Vernon....He used to run incredibly good record auctions and I can testify for how dazzling his video collection was....so he does appear to be the likely author....

Regards.

Jim..

Subject: RE: Seattle Folklore society blues videos
From: GUEST,Jim Clark..London.England
Date: 04 Sep 03 - 05:46 AM

By the way I missed off John Lee Hooker from the list of bluesmen filmed in this series....he was in menacingly fantastic form ha ha...

Regards.

Jim....

Subject: RE: Seattle Folklore society blues videos
From: johnross
Date: 05 Sep 03 - 12:11 AM

They were very definitely intended to be ethnographic documentation rather than artistic production. And that's what makes them so valuable today--all the other film of those guys was much more heavily produced. There is a film called "Blues Masters" that includes some of that footage along with a lot of supporting material, but I don't know if it's in circulation.

Subject: RE: Seattle Folklore society blues videos
From: nager
Date: 05 Sep 03 - 01:29 AM

I have one of the videos and it has Rev Gary plus a brilliant solo performance from Sonny Terry.
Great stuff.

Subject: RE: Seattle Folklore society blues videos
From: GUEST,Jim Clark..London.England
Date: 05 Sep 03 - 04:28 AM

Yes even after having first seen these videos some 21 years ago I am still transfixed by them...

Their strength is that they just allow the performers to be their unadorned selves and pack in a few of their best tunes into the approximate 20 minutes of each programme....

They also seem to have caught these fathers of country blues whilst they were still at the peak of their powers....

Yes I've got a video of Sonny Terry playing solo,but I dont think its part of the same series...It seems from what John has said that the performers in the Seattle folklore series were traveling together in one of those mind boggling blues package concert tours of the time...

I've got a pretty good collection of video recordings of the acoustic bluesmen,and another that realy sets my heart racing is the 1963 British Granada television 30 minute show "I hear the blues" which featured Willie Dixon,Memphis Slim,Matt guitar Murphy, Victoria Spivey,Sonny boy Williamson(no2),and most excitingly for me "Big Joe Williams" who was in dazzlingly good form and playing with all the brilliance captured the same year on the Swedish "Storyville" LP..which I class as one of Big Joe's finest albums..

The Seattle folklore series remains my template by which I video musicians....my aim remains to capture without distraction as much of the musicians repertoire as I can and the essence of their personality and background.....Today video being a much simpler and cheaper process I have been less restricted by cost of tapes or the need to meet broadcast time slots have managed to record several musicians at numerous sessions and give an even fuller presentation of some very interesting performers for future reference

Regards.

Jim Clark.....