Robert Mugge

A tribute to the influence of Delta Blues legend Robert Johnson and the effect that he has had on today's music. Chronicles the legacy of Robert Johnson through interviews and speeches by a number of musicologists and through the performances of Robert Johnson's work by a number of fairly popular contemporary artists. Featuring performances by Rob Wasserman and Bob Weir from the Grateful Dead; Keb' Mo; Robert Lockwood Jr.; G Love and Special Sauce; Gov't Mule; and more.

A documentary featuring live performance footage and interviews with eight contemporary female blues' artists including Mavis Staples, Denise LaSalle, Irma Thomas, Odetta, Deborah Coleman, Bettye LaVette, Ann Peebles and Renee Austin.

Robert Mugge filmed jazz great Sun Ra on location in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. between 1978 and 1980. The resulting 60-minute film includes multiple public and private performances, poetry readings, a band rehearsal, interviews, and extensive improvisations. Transferred to HD from the original 16mm film and lovingly restored for the best possible viewing experience.

The story of R&B singer Al Green, who gave up a successful singing career to become a gospel minister.

Begun as the official chronicle of a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bus tour through New Orleans and southwestern Louisiana, it turns into a more informal, out-of-the-way journey to blues and zydeco clubs, gospel churches and radio stations, and musical family gatherings in backwater bayous.

Tenor saxophone master Sonny Rollins has long been hailed as one of the most important artists in jazz history, and still, today, he is viewed as the greatest living jazz improviser. In 1986, filmmaker Robert Mugge produced Saxophone Colossus, a feature-length portrait of Rollins, named after one of his most celebrated albums.

This is the 1983 edition of Jamaica’s annual Reggae Sunsplash in Montego Bay, a week-long showcase for some of the greatest names in reggae, ska, funk and dub poetry.

This warm 90 minutes documentary shows us unknown blues musicians from Mississippi. They play everywhere : on the streets, in dirty little bars, in a barber shop, in big clubs. The film really captures the true faces of blues and shows us that this music had nothing to do with nostalgia or record company hypes. Documentary on the Delta blues.

Gil Scott-Heron, one of rap's earliest (and unfortunately unknown) pioneers, gets his full due in Black Wax, the 1982 documentary recently reissued on video. Interspliced between performance footage of Scott-Heron and his Midnight Band are vignettes of him walking around Washington D.C., spouting his views on then-President Reagan (dubbed "Ray-Gun") and generally dropping knowledge. The live performance features many of Scott-Heron's best-known hits, including "Johannesburg," "Winter in America," and "Angel Dust," among others. Warm, intelligent, and insightful throughout, Scott-Heron is clearly enjoying himself and the opportunity to espouse his views. A must for any fan of Scott-Heron's, and definitely worth a look for fans of the funkier jazz music of the mid to late 1970's.

Documentary about Gil Scott-Heron.

Robert Mugge's 1986 film provides a full-blooded portrait of the Latino singer, actor, bandleader, and composer. Blades' Panama homeland, his Harvard Master's degree, and a New York performance with his band Seis de Solar all serve as stops on this biographical journey.

Documentary about the many well-known New Orleans musicians who were forced to leave the city by Hurricane Katrina, where they wound up, how (and if) they plan to return to the city. Also shown are many landmark nightclubs and other well-known spots that were damaged or destroyed by Katrina.

In 1971, Bruce Iglauer founded Alligator Records, the most successful modern blues label. In early 1992, Iglauer staged the Alligator Records 20th Anniversary Tour starring Koko Taylor, Elvin Bishop, Katie Webster, Lonnie Brooks (w/Ronnie Baker Brooks), and Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials. Director Robert Mugge's film, PRIDE AND JOY: THE STORY OF ALLIGATOR RECORDS, documents that exciting tour.

Attempting to name a new "king of zydeco" in the mid 1990s, The Kingdom of Zydeco looks at the Black Creole music scene of Southwest Louisiana.

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Portrait of the January 2007 legendary rhythm & blues cruise to the Caribbean.

A 54-minute portrait of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Crumb featuring a performance of his "Vox Balaenae for Three Masked Players."

GATHER AT THE RIVER points Mugge's cameras (and his sharply recorded sound) at the ongoing evolution of bluegrass, the 'high lonesome' music that is celebrated each year at the World of Bluegrass Festival in Owensboro, Ky. The 1993 event constitutes the entirety of Mugge's film, a generous feast of performance by the finest bluegrass musicians, punctuated by authoritative commentary about the past, present and future of bluegrass music… Pure magic.

An intimate musical portrait of the New Orleans roots rock band working on their 1996 album "Super Ball,” and discussing the songs’ meanings.

A film about the art of the hula explores Hawaiian dance traditions going back to 500AD when Polynesians first arrived in the islands. Those traditions have been passed along from generation to generation by kahuna (priests and sages) and kumu hula (master teachers). In this film, shot at exotic locations throughout the islands, Vicky Holt Takamine and other respected kumu hula reveal ancient traditions that have survived, flourished, and (where appropriate) evolved in spite of attempts by Nineteenth Century missionaries, plantation owners and US Marines to repress Hawai'i's indigenous culture. Together, these two films present Hawaiian art and life as few outsiders have seen it: rich, expressive, colorful and utterly unique. In 2015, both films were transferred to HD video from their original 16mm and stereo audio masters and lovingly restored.