Topic: Rev. Gary Davis- Video Collection

[doctorpep]

Has anyone purchased the new Reverend Gary Davis dvd? It's a collection of all known video footage of the man. I feel that the performances for the Seattle Folklore Society and the two songs which follow it immediately after (the only footage in color) are worth the price of the dvd alone. The only drawback to the dvd is that the first half of it has Davis extending songs' lengths to the extent that they aren't merely songs, but more like opera performances in terms of their duration. To musicians, this is probably a positive, because they get to see Davis' finger work quite a bit. However, for people who are merely fans of the music and not musicians, or for those who don't know anything about acoustic Blues and Gospel music and are seeing and hearing this for the first time, sitting through a ten minute (or maybe longer) version of "Children of Zion" can be a bit difficult. Pete Seeger seems to feel the same way during the performance! In the end, I think this is definitely a dvd worth purchasing. It's put out by Stefan Grossman, just like the very good Mance Lipscomb- In Concert dvd. I'm really curious to read what everyone has to say about this dvd.

[Mr.OMuck]

Children of Zion keeps building in intensity throughout as though the depth of feeling he was tapping into kept unfolding and expanding. Its one for the ages in my opinion. I saw it when it was first broadcast in '65? and was awed. It was the first time I'd seen Gary Davis and it set me on the road to becoming one of his students.

[NevadaPic]

Children of Zion keeps building in intensity throughout as though the depth of feeling he was tapping into kept unfolding and expanding. Its one for the ages in my opinion.

Well put Mr. OMuck.  You are indeed fortunate to have been associated with him.

I have had the DVD for a couple of months now and have found it uneven at best.  It's a valuable resource to those of us who are interested, but I'm afraid the uninitiated might not appreciate it as you suggest Doc.  The final footage on the DVD might well  have been left off the collection in my opinion.  The video quality is terrible. 

It's a must have for any fan of the Reverend's in any case.  I find myself gravitating to 'Hard Walkin' Blues' more often than not.  The Reverend's commentary 'Talk on Death' is delivered to the listener's present as matter of fact and is heart wrenching.

Pic 

[dave stott]

Call it blasphemy, but a little RVG goes a long long way for me...

I much prefer the Ernie Hawkins Guitar Artistry DVD... Ernie plays a variety songs AND tells stories of his association with the Rev...


Dave

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I was sent this DVD recently to review for an upcoming issue of the "Old-Time Herald", and watched it hard to prepare for writing the review.  As with a lot of things pertaining to Rev. Gary Davis, it inspires a complex response.  I should say that I greatly admire Rev. Davis's music but am not a worshipper of him.  I think one of the serious difficulties with the DVD as a listening experience is that on virtually all of the tunes recorded at John Ullman's house for the University of Washington Anthropology Department, Rev. Davis's guitar is seriously out of tune, with a very flat low E string, a noticeably flat A string and a characteristically sharp high E string.  The combination of the very flat low E with the sharp high E is tough to take. 
That having been said, I particularly enjoyed seeing Rev. Davis's way of inhabiting himself while he played, a kind of rapt yet relaxed inwardness, apparently waiting to hear the connection to what he should play next.  And talk about an unimpeded relationship between musical impulse and musical execution!  It really appears that for him, to think of an idea was to execute it, practically.  I very much enjoyed seeing Rev. Davis joined by Larry Johnson, whose harmonica playing adds so much to the song they play together.  I also enjoyed the final footage of Rev. Davis playing at his former student's wedding, even though, as Nevada Pic noted, the footage is close to being a dead loss visually.  I just liked seeing the affection with which Rev. Davis and his music were received in the setting and the affection he felt for his student.  Watching the video also brought home again how much I prefer Rev. Davis's religious material to his secular material.  It just seems so much deeper and stronger and seems to mean so much more to him.  The ragtimey instrumentals soon become tedious for me.  There's nothing wrong with them, they're just not to my taste.
In general, I would say that I find the recent Document release of Rev. Davis playing at a concert in Manchester in 1964 much more satisfying musically than almost everything on the DVD, but that it is important to see the DVD if are a fan of Rev. Davis or curious about his music, because he really was phenomenal in so many ways, and at this point, it's the only way you are going to see him.
All best,
Johnm

[uncle bud]

I haven't seen this DVD yet, though have already seen a good portion of the footage collected on it. OMuck mentions Children of Zion from the Rainbow Quest show, and I always have loved the performance of O, Glory How Happy I Am that follows that as well. Just keeps going and going.

While I think the market for this DVD will be a little bigger than the usual blues guitar nerd audience, given the stature of Rev. Davis, it seems to me the DVD collection is Stefan Grossman doing the posterity thing: here's all the footage I can find of RGD and I think people should be able to see it all. In that respect it really is for the same kind of collector who goes for Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, warts and all, rather than a "Best of" compilation.

[Johnm]

I think your assessment of the DVD's nature and significance is dead on the money, Andrew.  For serious fans of this music, any performance footage of Rev. Davis is of interest and should be made available.  Good on Stefan Grossman for doing that.
All best,
Johnm

[doctorpep]

It's just interesting to me how the performances for the Seattle deal seem to be limited to 3 or 4 minutes a song, whereas the two songs he does with Seeger are extremely extended. Now that I think about it, many Bluesmen have said that they'd often play a single song for twenty minutes or more at a juke joint or country dance, though Davis' musical stylings seem to have been born before the Blues, and Gospel was a much bigger part of his repertoire. Given the fact that Led Zeppelin and King Crimson can stretch out their rock epics to 20 minutes or more, why shouldn't the same be true of Bluesmen? The goal was simply to keep a steady dance beat and keep the audience entertained. Anyway, I'm rambling on and on. To me, the dvd is worth it, even though it's uneven.