Cadillac Records. 2008 Sony Music Film & Parkwood Pictures; distributed by TriStar Pictures.
Starring: Adrien Brody, Beyoncé Knowles, Jeffrey Wright, Mos Def, Cedric the Entertainer, Columbus Short, Eamonn Walker, Gabrielle Union, Shiloh Fernandez, Jay O. Sanders, Eric Bogosian
Director: Darnell Martin
Buy Cadillac Records from Amazon, then visit the official site.
This is an excellent musical biopic (but it's not completely accurate) of Chicago-based record company executive Leonard Chess (Brody), who founded the great blues label Chess Record and ran it with help from his brother Phil (Fernandez). The brothers Chess originally sold records out of the trunk of Leonard's Cadillac. Chess either stumbled upon blues talent on the streets of Chicago, or he personally went down to rural Mississippi to find them.
Chess Records became the home of Muddy Waters (Wright) and his harp playin' sidekick Little Walter (Short), along with Willie Dixon (Cedric), Chuck Berry (Mos Def), as well as Etta James (Beyoncé) and Howlin' Wolf (Walker). Eric Bogosian also appears as legendary '50s disc jockey Alan Freed.
Highly recommended film, and one I wished I had gotten to see in the theaters last winter. The music in the film is great, but I should urge you to seek out the originals. Chess Records is now part of Universal Music Group, which has made sure that all of this great music is readily available today.
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