Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 7, 2019

Note: This film is available as part of Les Blank: Always for Pleasure.

Chances are that unless you have a specialized interest in some of the indigenous folk music(s) of the United States, your recognition of the name Les Blank, if indeed you recognize it at all, may well come courtesy of Burden of Dreams (note that the link points to a DVD, not a Blu-ray), Blank’s fascinating documentary about the filming of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo. That piece was actually kind of an outlier in Blank’s oeuvre, a large body of work that otherwise tended to focus primarily on musicians (though there are a couple of exceptions in this set). Criterion’s collection of fourteen Blank documentaries may understandably be thought of as a niche product, but for those interested in this subject, it’s a virtual smorgasbord of great performances and at least some biographical data.

While not really "Brazilian" in any major way, Sworn to the Drum may evoke memories of Marcel Ophuls' beautiful Black Orpheus for some, not only because of its relentless percussion based music, but also for its intriguing analysis of Yoruba culture and some Santeria rituals. Blank ostensibly focuses on Francisco Aguabella, but there are some other notable musicians here (including father and daughter Pete Escovedo and Sheila E).

Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of the Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1.

Criterion's insert booklet has the following information on the transfers in this set:

All fourteen films are presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right side of the image to maintain the proper screen format. These new digital transfers were created in 2K resolution on a Scanity film scanner from internegatives at Technicolor Los Angeles. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI's DRS and Pixel Farm's PFClean, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, and noise management.

Despite coming out in 1995, like The Maestro (one of the better looking documentaries in the Blank set), this has a pretty rough and uneven looking appearance. Unfortunately the IMDb is completely lacking in technical specs for this film, and so I can't definitively state whether it was shot on 35mm or 16mm, but a lot of this transfer suggest a smaller format. Detail is pretty variable, and grain can appear pixellated, something that can tend to mask fine detail. The palette looks slightly anemic at times and to my eyes seemed tilted toward the blue end of things on occasion.

Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Criterion's insert booklet has the following information on the soundtracks:

The original monaural soundtracks for The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins; A Well Spent Life; Dry Wood; Always for Pleasure; Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers; Sprout Wings and Fly; In Heaven There is No Beer?; Gap-Toothed Women; Yum, Yum, Yum! A Taste of Creole and Cajun Cooking; and The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists were remastered at 24-bit from 35 mm full-coat magnetic tracks. The original monaural soundtrack for Hot Pepper was remastered at 24-bit from the original 16 mm full-coat magnetic track. The original monaural soundtrack for God Respects Us When We Work, but Loves Us When We Dance was remastered at 24-bit from a restored DA-98 tape and the restored 35 mm full-coat magnetic track. The original monaural soundtrack for Spend It All was remastered at 24-bit from a restored WAV file. And the original stereo soundtrack for Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella was remastered at 24-bit from the original 16 mm full-coat magnetic track. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD, AudioCube's integrated workstation, and iZotope RX3.

This is the sole entry in the Blank set with a stereo soundtrack, delivered via LPCM 2.0, and the bracing sounds of batteries of percussion instruments really resonate with force and authority throughout the presentation. Spoken elements are also delivered without any issues whatsoever on this very enjoyable and energetic track.

Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Master Percussionist (1080p; 10:13) features 2014 interviews with producer Tom Luddy and Chris Simon.

Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Regular readers of my reviews may be aware that I'm a bit obsessive about Latin and Afro-Cuban music, and so I found this documentary to be absolutely wonderful. Video is problematic, but audio is fine, and the supplementary interviews very enjoyable. Recommended.