Review: ‘The Torch’ struggles in framing Buddy Guy’s mentoring of a young blues guitarist

That Buddy Man, now 85, lives for the blues is an understatement, as anybody conversant in his impulsive, magnetic approach with chords, lyrics and stage presence can attest. That the Chicago guitar legend additionally must see the blues reside on is on the heart of “The Torch,” a documentary by Jim Farrell.

However to take the film’s phrase for it, that information — the affect of Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, filtered into Man’s freewheeling, before-its-time fashion — will reside on in a pale, sweet-faced, blues-loving teen named Quinn Sullivan from New Bedford, Mass. Sullivan was 8 when he was first invited onto a stage with Man, who was duly impressed by the traditional licks popping out of a prodigy with old-soul chops. The 2 have toured ceaselessly collectively ever since, and Sullivan is now a recording artist in his personal proper.

It’s a pleasant story of grasp and protégé, and in lots of scenes the bond between the irrepressible, humorous Man and the quiet, observant Sullivan appears real. After all, there’s loads of music to take pleasure in too in moments of Man tearing up the stage at his Chicago membership. However Sullivan’s teenage development, a key thread, isn’t practically as fascinating as listening to Man inform tales in regards to the laborious highway from Louisiana sharecropper’s son to recording with giants, and nonetheless having to carry down a job to make ends meet.

Plus, the contextual framing feels problematic when nearly all of non-Man display screen time addressing the legacy of this African American-created artwork kind, as personified in its oldest surviving commonplace bearer, is given to white interviewees. Nothing towards these Man worshippers’ dedication to the blues, however the dearth of Black voices in “The Torch” — as performers, consultants or followers — appears in poor health thought-about, to say the least.