'Mo' Better Blues': backstage with Spike Lee and the cast

Ebony, Sept, 1990 by Lynn Norment

PHOTO : Daughtry. Below, Lee's character interacts with a jazz musician played by Giancarlo

PHOTO : Esposito, who has appeared in three of Lee's four films.

PHOTO : Cynda Williams, a recent graduate of Ball State University, makes her film debut as an

PHOTO : ambitious singer. In this scene she sings "Harlem Blues," a previously unrecorded W. C.

PHOTO : Handy '20s tune that Lee discovered. The late comic Robin Harris (below) gives another

PHOTO : memorable performance as "Butterbean," a nightclub comic and emcee. Lee dedicates Mo'

PHOTO : Better Blues to Harris.