"On a Stage, Being Musicians, Being Indians, Being Americans, Playing Rock 'n' Roll"

"There's Mildred Bailey, who grew up on a Coeur D'Alene reservation in Idaho and became one of the greatest and most important vocalists in prewar American jazz. (Tony Bennett is featured in the film, proclaiming Bailey as one of his formative vocal influences.) There's Jesse Ed Davis, born in Oklahoma to a Comanche father and Kiowa mother, who would go on to become one of the most sought-after session guitarists of his generation, playing with John Lennon, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, and Jackson Browne. These figures are more than worthy of full documentaries entirely to themselves. Another artist featured in the film, Delta blues pioneer Charley Patton, whose grandmother was thought to be Cherokee, is quite simply one of the most important musicians of the 20^th century and probably worthy of at least a hundred such films."

Jack Hamilton at Slate reviews the new documentary Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World.