This was the UK premier of Harlem Street Singer, a film about guitar/singer the Reverend Gary Davis who, for 55 years, busked on the streets of North Carolina and New York City.
Hopefully this inspiring 80-minute documentary will be snapped up by the BBC so more people can be introduced to this extraordinary talent. Davis’s musical legacy can be heard in the playing of his more famous disciples – Steffan Grossman, Bob Weir (Grateful Dead), Jorma Kaukunen (Jefferson Airplane), and Woody Mann who was the co-producer of the film.
In the second half Mann himself performed a set of technically dazzling guitar pieces covering a wide range of styles, a good deal of it improvised, just as his teacher taught him. He constantly referenced Davis and gave further insight into the life of a black man, born blind in the Deep South of America at the end of the 19th century.
Mann told of how a record company had struggled to market his own music, finally inventing a new genre – Triple A – adult alternative acoustic. Some things just won’t fit nicely into a category and Harlem Street Singer is a testament to that.
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