Muddy Waters: Classic Concerts

How good is this compilation of three concerts by the immortal McKinley Morganfield, a.k.a. Muddy "Mississippi" Waters, arguably the greatest bluesman of all time? Put it this way: you could watch it with the sound off and still appreciate its essential coolness. Dig the clothes…the guitars…Muddy's processed hair…even the DVD design: the main menu for each concert includes not only song titles but also photos of the musicians appearing in succession in one corner. And then, of course, there is the music, about 90 minutes in all. The five tunes from the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival, especially "(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man" and "Got My Mojo Working," may be the best known, having appeared in truncated form elsewhere, but the DVD producers' choice to sync up the other three songs with stereo sound from the Chess Records album Muddy Waters at Newport has resulted in vastly improved audio (with James Cotton on harmonica and Otis Spann on piano). The eight-song Copenhagen show from 1968, a complete set seen here for the first time, is even better. The sound, featuring Muddy's inimitable slide guitar (he plays the exact same solo every time, yet it still sounds fresh), is remarkably clean, the band rocks, and although the Danish director occasionally seems a bit confused (while one cat solos, we're often looking at someone else), the many close-ups of Waters' wonderfully expressive face are a treat. By the time we get to the footage from Norway's Molde Jazz Festival in '77, the personnel have changed again (guitarist Bob Margolin, who wrote the DVD liner notes, and harmonica player Jerry Portnoy stand out), but Muddy, now in the more avuncular mode he adopted after medical problems confined him to a stool for much of the gig, sounds as strong as ever. DVD extras include a couple of brief interviews and one bonus performance. An entertaining, exceptionally well-presented DVD package, this is an essential purchase for blues collections. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (S. Graham)