The Making of Rock and Roll

CAST: Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Gabrielle Union, Cedric the Entertainer, Mos Def, Beyonce Knowles, Columbus Short

WRITTEN by Darnell Martin

DIRECTED by Darnell Martin

Beyonce as Etta James in Cadillac Records

It’s probably safe to say that the history of Rock and Roll is not something that the majority of music listeners have taken the time to consider. If asked to identify the legends of the genre, most would easily identify the likes of Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and the Rolling Stones.

It has long been accepted as fact that Rock and Roll is the invention of these great musical legends. And although their musical genius is without debate, ignoring the influence of black blues, gospel, and r&b musicians in the development of Rock and Roll is just another example of how America’s racial past has contributed to the inaccurate transcription of our country’s musical history.

Cadillac Records brings this history to the screen by telling the story of one of the famed pioneering record labels responsible for bringing “race” music to the masses.

Without formally taking on the responsibility of “righting the wrongs” of historical inaccuracy, the film Cadillac Records introduces its audience to the story of  the legendary Chess Records and the many artists who helped the label garner its success as well as take the first steps towards bringing the Rock and Roll sound into the homes of Americans everywhere. The film subtly uses this fascinating musical storyline to explore the relationship between the evolution of black music and the evolution of blacks into American society.

Cadillac Records is told from the perspective of Willie Dixon (Cedric the Entertainer) an accomplished musician, songwriter, and producer who worked with Chess Records co-founder Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody) to create a treasure chest of musical gems for their talented yet troubled stable of musical statesmen.

Adrien Brody as Leonard Chess & Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters

Although the names of Chess legends, such as Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Chuck Berry, Howlin Wolf, and Etta James, may be familiar to some, this film offers a deeper look into the troubles that faced these black musicians in an era of legal discrimination and social segregation.

Jeffrey Wright gives a stellar performance in his role as the legendary Muddy Waters. Cadillac Records presents an even-keeled Waters as he goes from being a Mississippi sharecropper to a chart topping performer for the record label. But the film gives subtle attention to the disturbing similarities between life as a black recording artists and life in the sharecropping South.

Though Waters and the other black artists were the source of the label’s success, they seem to find themselves perpetually indebted to the label and unable to enjoy the wealth of their success as they receive pennies on the dollar for their musical contributions. And like Southern Sharecroppers, black artist of this era found themselves in a perpetual dependency on the record label that kept them from truly experiencing the freedom and wealth that experienced by their white musical counterparts.

In Hollywood films, A-list entertainers are cast primarily to provide the film with a boost in box-office ticket sales. But the film’s casting of Beyonce as the legendary songstress Etta James, adds more than just box-office appeal to the film.

As she adeptly displays her improved acting skills in this role, she manages to capture the pains of a person whose life was stained by a lifetime of rejection, brokeness, and the pursuit of something more than just commercial success. Although there are more than a few times when Beyonce’s singing  and acting sounds more like herself than the character she is portraying, she manages to distance herself  from her pop iconic persona to embody the soul of the pioneering blues legend, at the times when it is most critical to the film.

Actor Columbus Short holds nothing back in his role as the troubled Little Walter. The 26 year old entertainer took this role serious by learning how to play the harmonica, authenticating a Creole dialect, and losing 20 pounds in two weeks.

From the moment his character appears on screen he captures his audience with the complexities and challenges of his character. Like so many pioneering black entertainers of the era, the film displays the challenges that Little Walter faces as he is trying to balance becoming a popular musical entertainer with trying to maintain his identity as a black man.

Actor and Hip Hop performer Mos Def is able to find the perfect project to advance the message that he has been sharing through his music in his role as legendary musician Chuck Berry. Mos Def has used his own music career to ensure that his listeners understand that blacks played a pivotal role in the invention of Rock and Roll.

Chuck Berry’s influence on the creation of rock and roll is widely accepted amongst music historians and musicians alike, and the film goes as far as it can in such a short span of time to underscore this significance.

Cadillac Records provides a window into the complex nature that black musicians faced in their quest for musical representation in the midst of American segregation.

Where white entertainers may have enjoyed the luxury of performing their music as a beloved past-time, black entertainers were never offered the opportunity to explore their craft with that sort of comfort and mindlessness. The music of black entertainers was birthed out of the trials and circumstances of the times.

The film reminds its audience that for black musicians of the era, a move out of the Southern fields into the music studios of Northern cities and into the homes of white radio listeners and television audiences, most often symbolized  nothing more than a new way of sharecropping and offering ones labor for the benefactors that continued to own their livelihood and define their humanity.

For the black artist who participated in the making of Rock and Roll, they learned that it being accepted as an entertainer was permitted, while the real challenge lay in being accepted as a human being.