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Books > Arts & Architecture > Music > Contemporary popular music > Blues
The 1920s were not called the Jazz Age for nothing. Celebrated by writers from Langston Hughes to Gertrude Stein, jazz was the dominant influence on American popular music, despite resistance from whites who distrusted its vibrant expression of black culture and by those opposed to the overt sexuality and raw emotion of the `devil's music'. As Kathy Ogren shows, the breathless pace and syncopated rhythms were as much a part of twenties America as Prohibition and the economic boom, which enabled millions throughout the states to enjoy the latest sounds on radios and phonographs.
Here is the book jazz lovers have eagerly awaited, the second volume of Gunther Schuller's monumental The History of Jazz. When the first volume, Early Jazz, appeared two decades ago, it immediately established itself as one of the seminal works on American music. Nat Hentoff called it "a remarkable breakthrough in musical analysis of jazz," and Frank Conroy, in The New York Times Book Review, praised it as "definitive.... A remarkable book by any standard...unparalleled in the literature of jazz." It has been universally recognized as the basic musical analysis of jazz from its beginnings until 1933. The Swing Era focuses on that extraordinary period in American musical history--1933 to 1945--when jazz was synonymous with America's popular music, its social dances and musical entertainment. The book's thorough scholarship, critical perceptions, and great love and respect for jazz puts this well-remembered era of American music into new and revealing perspective. It examines how the arrangements of Fletcher Henderson and Eddie Sauter--whom Schuller equates with Richard Strauss as "a master of harmonic modulation"--contributed to Benny Goodman's finest work...how Duke Ellington used the highly individualistic trombone trio of Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton, Juan Tizol, and Lawrence Brown to enrich his elegant compositions...how Billie Holiday developed her horn-like instrumental approach to singing...and how the seminal compositions and arrangements of the long-forgotten John Nesbitt helped shape Swing Era styles through their influence on Gene Gifford and the famous Casa Loma Orchestra. Schuller also provides serious reappraisals of such often neglected jazz figures as Cab Calloway, Henry "Red" Allen, Horace Henderson, Pee Wee Russell, and Joe Mooney. Much of the book's focus is on the famous swing bands of the time, which were the essence of the Swing Era. There are the great black bands--Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, Earl Hines, Andy Kirk, and the often superb but little known "territory bands"--and popular white bands like Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsie, Artie Shaw, and Woody Herman, plus the first serious critical assessment of that most famous of Swing Era bandleaders, Glenn Miller. There are incisive portraits of the great musical soloists--such as Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Bunny Berigan, and Jack Teagarden--and such singers as Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, and Helen Forest.
Early Jazz is one of the seminal books on American jazz, ranging
from the beginnings of jazz as a distinct musical style at the turn
of the century to its first great flowering in the 1930s. Schuller
explores the music of the great jazz soloists of the
twenties--Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke, Bessie Smith, Louis
Armstrong, and others--and the big bands and arrangers--Fletcher
Henderson, Bennie Moten, and especially Duke Ellington--placing
their music in the context of the other musical cultures of the
twentieth century and offering analyses of many great jazz
recordings.
Early Jazz provides a musical tour of the early American jazz
world. A classic study, it is both a splendid introduction for
students and an insightful guide for scholars, musicians, and jazz
aficionados.
Other people locked themselves away and hid from their demons.
Townes flung open his door and said 'Come on in.' So writes Harold
Eggers Townes Van Zandt's longtime road manager and producer in EMy
Years with Townes Van Zandt: Music Genius and RageE a a gripping
memoir revealing the inner core of an enigmatic troubadour whose
deeply poetic music was a source of inspiration and healing for
millions but was for himself a torment struggling for dominance
among myriad personal demons.THTownes Van Zandt often stated that
his main musical mission was to write the perfect song that would
save someone's life. However his life was a work in progress he was
constantly struggling to shape and comprehend. Eggers says of his
close friend and business partner that like the master song
craftsman he was he was never truly satisfied with the final
product but always kept giving it one more shot one extra tweak one
last effort. THA vivid firsthand account exploring the source of
the singer's prodigious talent widespread influence and relentless
path toward self-destruction EMy Years with Townes Van ZandtE
presents the truth of that all-consuming artistic journey told by a
close friend watching it unfold.
"From Buddy Collette's brilliant ruminations on Paul Robeson to
Horace Tapscott's extraordinary insights about artistic production
and community life . . . this collection of oral testimony presents
a unique and memorable portrait of the 'Avenue' and of the artists
whose creativity nurtured and sustained its golden age."--George
Lipsitz, author of "Dangerous Crossroads
"If ever the West Coast enjoyed its own equivalent of the Harlem
Renaissance, it was here on Central Avenue. This too-often
forgotten setting was nothing less than a center of cultural
ferment and a showplace for artistic achievement. Finally its story
has been told, with a richness of detail and vitality of
expression, by those who helped make it happen."--Ted Gioia, author
of "West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California
"What a wonderful, comprehensive volume, full of knowledge and
insight about an important time and place in jazz history. This
book is a needed and welcomed addition on the rich African-American
musical heritage of Los Angeles. It is well written and edited by
people who were actually involved in the creation of the music,
along with others who have a deep concern for preserving that
legacy. This work gives the reader a truly in-depth look at the
musicians, the music, and the social and political climate during
that important development in American culture."--Kenny Burrell,
jazz guitarist and Director of the Jazz Studies Program and
Professor of Music and Ethnomusicology at the University of
California, Los Angeles
Beginning with the African musical heritage and its fusion with European forms in the New World, Marshall Stearns's history of jazz guides the reader through work songs, spirituls, ragtime, and the blues, to the birth of jazz in New Orleans and its adoption by St Louis, Chicago, Kansas City, and New York. From swing and bop to the early days of rock, this lively book introduces us to the great musicians and singers and examines jazz's cultural effects on American and the world.
Literacy in a Long Blues Note: Black Women's Literature and Music
in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries traces the
evolution of Black women's literacy practices from 1892 to 1934. A
dynamic chronological study, the book explores how Black women
public intellectuals, creative writers, and classic blues singers
sometimes utilize singular but other times overlapping forms of
literacies to engage in debates on race. The book begins with Anna
J. Cooper's philosophy on race literature as one method for social
advancement. From there, author Coretta M. Pittman discusses women
from the Woman's and New Negro Eras, including but not limited to
Angelina Weld Grimke, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, and Zora Neale Hurston.
The volume closes with an exploration of Victoria Spivey's blues
philosophy. The women examined in this book employ forms of
transformational, transactional, or specular literacy to challenge
systems of racial oppression. However, Literacy in a Long Blues
Note argues against prevalent myths that a singular vision for
racial uplift dominated the public sphere in the latter decade of
the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth
century. Instead, by including Black women from various social
classes and ideological positions, Pittman reveals alternative
visions. Contrary to more moderate predecessors of the Woman's Era
and contemporaries in the New Negro Era, classic blues singers like
Mamie Smith advanced new solutions against racism. Early
twentieth-century writer Angelina Weld Grimke criticized
traditional methods for racial advancement as Jim Crow laws
tightened restrictions against Black progress. Ultimately, the
volume details the agency and literacy practices of these
influential women.
Wasn't That a Mighty Day: African American Blues and Gospel Songs
on Disaster takes a comprehensive look at sacred and secular
disaster songs, shining a spotlight on their historical and
cultural importance. Featuring newly transcribed lyrics, the book
offers sustained attention to how both Black and white communities
responded to many of the tragic events that occurred before the
mid-1950s. Through detailed textual analysis, Luigi Monge explores
songs on natural disasters (hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and
earthquakes); accidental disasters (sinkings, fires, train wrecks,
explosions, and air disasters); and infestations, epidemics, and
diseases (the boll weevil, the jake leg, and influenza). Analyzed
songs cover some of the most well-known disasters of the time
period from the sinking of the Titanic and the 1930 drought to the
Hindenburg accident, and more. Thirty previously unreleased African
American disaster songs appear in this volume for the first time,
revealing their pertinence to the relevant disasters. By comparing
the song lyrics to critical moments in history, Monge is able to
explore how deeply and directly these catastrophes affected Black
communities; how African Americans in general, and blues and gospel
singers in particular, faced and reacted to disaster; whether these
collective tragedies prompted different reactions among white
people and, if so, why; and more broadly, how the role of memory in
recounting and commenting on historical and cultural facts shaped
African American society from 1879 to 1955.
'Ghost notes' is a musical term for sounds barely audible, a wisp
lingering around the beat, yet somehow driving the groove. The
Texas musicians profiled here, ranging from 1920s gospel performers
to the first psychedelic band, are generally not well known, but
the impact of their early contributions on popular music is
unmistakable. This beautiful Tim Kerr-illustrated collection
provides more background on the Texas from which these artists
sprang, fully formed. Readers will learn about the black gay couple
from Houston who inspired the creation of rock 'n' roll, as well as
the true story of the origin of Western Swing. They will learn
about - the first family of Texas music - and the birth of
boogie-woogie, the dirt-poor singers and the ballad collectors who
saved folk songs during the Depression, and the accordeonista whose
musical legacy was never contained on recordings but was passed on
by his protEgE. The pioneers of modern times include the Dallas
rapper who became the wordsmith of gangsta rap, the sheriff's son
from Dumas who produced the signature tunes of Frank Sinatra and
Dean Martin, and the blind lounge singer Kenny Rogers called the
greatest musician he's ever known.
As Louis Armstrong forever tethered jazz to New Orleans and Clifton
Chenier fixed Lafayette as home to zydeco, Slim Harpo established
Baton Rouge as a base for the blues. In the only complete biography
of this internationally renowned blues singer and musician, Martin
Hawkins traces Harpo's rural upbringing near Louisiana's capital,
his professional development fostered by the local music scene, and
his national success with R&B hits like Rainin' in My Heart,
Baby Scratch My Back, and I'm A King Bee, among others. Hawkins
follows Harpo's global musical impact from the early 1960s to today
and offers a detailed look at the nature of the independent
recording business that enabled his remarkable legacy. With new
research and interviews, Hawkins fills in previous biographical
gaps and redresses misinformation about Harpo's life. In addition
to weaving the musician's career into the lives of other Louisiana
blues players-including Lightnin' Slim, Lazy Lester, and Silas
Hogan-the author discusses the pioneering role of Crowley,
Louisiana, record producer J. D. Miller and illustrates how Excello
Records in Nashville brought national attention to Harpo's music
recorded in Louisiana. This engaging narrative examines Harpo's
various recording sessions and provides a detailed discography, as
well as a list of blues-related records by fellow Baton Rouge
artists. Slim Harpo: Blues King Bee of Baton Rouge will stand as
the ultimate resource on the musician's life and the rich history
of Baton Rouge's blues heritage.
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