As hot as Muddy gets

Any lover of jazz and blues — and some hard-boiled haters too — has heard Muddy Waters. But how many have seen Waters shake his large torso like Elvis on fire? Well, here’s your chance to savour the moment, which came at the Newport Jazz Fest, 1960.

Muddy: Classic concerts
Universal, Rs 495
Rating: *****

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Any lover of jazz and blues — and some hard-boiled haters too — has heard Muddy Waters. But how many have seen Waters shake his large torso like Elvis on fire? Well, here’s your chance to savour the moment, which came at the Newport Jazz Fest, 1960. Stomping to an encore of ‘Got my Mojo working’, Waters brings on stage his guru Jimmy Rushing and a couple of
dancers. The inspired shake that results in would have put Shammi Kapoor to shame.

The DVD also features a quieter Waters at the 1968 Copenhagen fest and the 1977 Molde fest.

The quirkiest moment comes in one of the bonus features. An interviewer asks Waters about his “politics”. Waters puts him off balance by shooting back: “What do you mean by politics? Speak straight!” The liner notes reveal that there was a running joke on when an interviewer would ask the artist about the origin of his name. Thankfully, the moment doesn’t come.

And McKinley Morganfield, a.k.a. Muddy Waters, just holds his ground.