The DNA of every song you love starts here — and Keith David's voice is *chef's kiss*.
Blues as a genre shaped the sound of jazz in the early 20th century and directly led to the creation of rock 'n' roll in the '50s. The scales, chords, and progressions of blues as a musical form can be found in styles from jazz to rock to contemporary R&B.
Acting
Keith David's narration — velvet gravel that makes history sexy.
Direction
Mandel weaves archive footage like a DJ scratching samples.
Production
Rare footage of Chuck Berry, Basie, and Satchmo — holy grail stuff.
Director
Ken Mandel
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Robert Palmer, who appears here, wrote 'Deep Blues' — still the definitive book on Delta blues.
This was one of the first documentaries to explicitly connect blues structure to rock's birth, predating Ken Burns' jazz series by nearly a decade.
No ratings yet
Sign in to join the discussion — comments are spoiler-gated to your watch progress.
Discussion starters
US
