Maxwell Street on Sundays drew hundreds of blues performers, folk singers, and gospel singers including some of the most famous names in the blues.
Carey Bell, Mike Bloomfield, Robert Nighthawk, Big John Wrencher, Johnny Young...and rarely recorded singers Jimmy Brewer and Arvella Gray and others
were captured in the filming of "And This is Free."
"The [recently discovered]
'And This is Maxwell Street' tapes
should require a major
re-write of blues history."--Cub KodaOne of Mike Shea's original boxes of tape All of the recordings were edited for use in the film. There is not a single uninterrupted performance in the film. Miraculously, all of the original Nagra sound recordings exist in their uncut form, although the unused video portions of the film are presumed lost. An unauthorised version of a portion of the music from copies of the original tapes was released in 1980 (Robert Nighthawk: Live on Maxwell Street--1964, Rounder 2022). (Nagra still makes sound recording equipment. Visit the Nagra site for historical information.)
The superior sound of all of the originals is available again for the first time since 1964.