«The Blues Brothers», the new book by Daniel de Visé to rediscover the cult

Antonello Catacchio MILAN

In Italy, few people know Daniel de Visé, a multi-award-winning journalist, including the Pulitzer Prize, who is also committed to freeing innocent convicts from prison. When he is about to write a biography of BB King, he, from Chicago, asks himself why the great musician had not participated in the making of John Landis' film The Blues Brothers , which also features James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and John Lee Hooker.

AND THEN he calls Landis who answers as if it were a choice of the manager who thought he was busy. In reality, Ray Charles aside, the others were all in a moment of weakness, very happy to participate in the film. Also because the Blues brothers, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, are truly two enthusiasts of that musical genre, and contribute decisively to its rebirth. It all started with Jake and Elwood the two Blues brothers who first invented the thing, then, not without difficulty, bring it to Saturday Night Live and finally to the big screen. So de Visé turns to writing another book, The Blues Brothers, the story of an epic friendship and the behind the scenes of a cult (Sagoma publisher). In a video conference from Washington he retraced some events related to the book, while the historical memory lived was up to Blue Lou Marini, the saxophonist of the band. Which tells how they were supposed to perform at SNL, after two weeks of rehearsals, but Lorne Michaels, the producer, was not into it. And here comes the case, the broadcast was live and they had to fill a void, so the band arrives and overturns everything. According to de Visé instead it was all planned. The rest is history, first the concerts, then the movie. A cult.

But at the time it was not a success, boycotted by a chain of theaters (they didn't want to show it in white neighborhoods so as not to attract African-American audiences, and in their opinion there were too many blacks to interest whites). And for the first time a Hollywood film grossed more abroad than at home. Dan and John couldn't be more different, Lou points out, John charismatic, spontaneous, empathetic, emotional, Dan intellectual, super intelligent, but crazy, de Visé comments, from the outside they looked like Laurel and Hardy. But the real great story is precisely that of their friendship, born in Second City, strengthened by an improvised and often transgressive comedy, emphasized by that brilliant look, and above all by that great blues heart that continues to beat and that has stimulated an infinite number of musicians and made them discover Chicago. And that perhaps we will be able to rediscover again thanks to a documentary that it seems will be made with unreleased material.