Music Docs by Robert Mugge

Hawaiian Rainbow is "music filmmaker" pioneer Robert Mugge 1987 film about Hawaiian music, examining Hawaii's traditional chants, percussion, ukulele, slack-key and steel guitar, male and female falsetto, and the lush vocal harmonies, many of them accompanied by authentic Hawaiian dance styles.

BLACK WAX is a musical-political entertainment film produced and directed by Robert Mugge in 1982. It was the first American film to be fully funded by Britain's then-brand-new Channel 4 Television and also likely the first film to use Steadicam from first frame to last. BLACK WAX centers on the late African American poet-singer-songwriter Gil Scott-Heron - the man Melody Maker called "the most dangerous musician alive" and many dubbe...Read More

Like their neighbors, members of the legendary New Orleans music community were devastated by Hurricane Katrina and its tragic aftermath. With NEW ORLEANS MUSIC IN EXILE, noted music documentarian Robert Mugge (DEEP BLUES, GOSPEL ACCORDING TO AL GREEN, THE KINGDOM OF ZYDECO, RHYTHM 'N' BAYOUS) creates an emotional portrait of horror, heartbreak, and hope as the musicians who lived through the disaster pick up the pieces and try to reb...Read More

Director Robert Mugge, having recently made the film DEEP BLUES (1991) about the blues traditions of Mississippi, decided to follow up with a tribute to Alligator and its roster of top contemporary blues artists from Chicago and elsewhere. The resulting film, PRIDE AND JOY: THE STORY OF ALLIGATOR RECORDS, presents musical highlights from one of the 4-plus-hour concerts (March 12th at Philadelphia's Chestnut Cabaret) that made up the ...Read More

In 1976, "music filmmaker" Robert Mugge created his first music-related film. Titled GEORGE CRUMB: VOICE OF THE WHALE, it was this dazzling, 54-minute portrait of Pulitzer Prize-winning and Grammy-winning composer George Crumb. The film was funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and makes innovative use of color and a dialectical structure to reveal Crumb's life (green-tinted-footage), his work (blue-tinted footage...Read More

Since the 1960s, generations of fans have adopted outdoor festivals as the ideal place to experience live musical performances. But in recent years, the best American music festivals have moved onboard specially chartered cruise ships sailing from the U.S. to the Caribbean, Mexico, and elsewhere. One of the first and most successful of these, Roger Naber's Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise, is now considered the true "Woodstock of the W...Read More

In 2014 & 2015, filmmaker Robert Mugge assisted Philadelphia public radio station WXPN in its exploration of the Creole culture of Southwest Louisiana via its yearlong Zydeco Crossroads project. The resulting film features performances by C.J. Chenier, Rosie Ledet, Buckwheat Zydeco, Nathan Williams, Chubby Carrier, Rockin' Dopsie, Jr., Major Handy, Vasti Jackson, Creole United, and Soul Creole.

"THE KINGDOM OF ZYDECO is both a cunning little comedy of manners and a sweet-tempered celebration of American roots music. The Chavis-Jocque tussle is prototypical American status buffoonery painted in folk-miniature. Both these men kick out the jams in thrilling performances filmed with blissful authority by Mugge, a specialist in roots music documentaries." - Gene Seymour, New York Newsday

Robert Mugge's 2003 music documentary, LAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI JUKES, explores the fading traditions of rural Mississippi juke joints. The blues was first played by itinerant musicians in juke joints on the edge of cotton plantations, later migrating into so-called urban lounges, and regional musicians still practice their craft and entertain their fans in both, as well as in modern blues clubs and casino lounges. The film focuses, in...Read More

"In his new film, RHYTHM 'N' BAYOUS, Mr. Mugge returns to the South (this time to Louisiana) to compile a singing dictionary of the state's roots music styles and assorted hybrids, from the blues to 'swamp pop' to the fusion of Cajun, Creole and rock 'n' roll known as zydeco. Part musical travelogue, part anthology, part archival document, RHYTHM 'N' BAYOUS is a rambling journey loosely divided into four sections. Begun as the officia...Read More