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Books > Arts & Architecture > Music > Contemporary popular music > Blues

Live from the Mississippi Delta (Hardcover): Panny Flautt Mayfield Live from the Mississippi Delta (Hardcover)
Panny Flautt Mayfield
R1,385 Discovery Miles 13 850 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Live from the Mississippi Delta showcases a rare collection of photographs and stories about musicians from Robert Plant, B. B. King, and ZZ Top to local guitarists playing gigs on the weekend. Panny Flautt Mayfield, a lifelong Delta resident from Tutwiler and an award-winning journalist, documents multiple decades of blues and gospel music in her native land. Her first book collects over two hundred black-and-white and color photographs from a long career of photographing live music. Featuring text by Robert Plant in honor of Mayfield, the book opens with him addressing senior citizens gathered in Tutwiler to honor their town as the birthplace of blues. From there, the book proceeds throughout the Delta from juke joints and festivals to blues markers and museums. Mayfield presents images and tales of local icons such as Early Wright, Wade Walton, and the Jelly Roll Kings, as well as international celebrities. She shares intimate photos, including Garth Brooks and Bobby Rush charming elementary school kids in West Tallahatchie, along with insider stories and photos of B. B. King's Homecoming, the Governor's Awards, the Delta Blues Museum, the Sunflower and King Biscuit festivals, and a fascinating side trip to Norway's Notodden Blues Festival, which has a rich sister-city relationship with Clarksdale and the Sunflower Festival. Years ago volunteer tour guide Shirley Fair announced to visitors that there is a church or a juke joint on every corner in Clarksdale. Those demographics are still mostly accurate. Igniting a high-octane finale are photographs taken at iconic juke joints such as Smitty's Red Top, the Bobo Grocery, the Rivermount Lounge, Po' Monkey's, Hopson, Shelby's Dew Drop Inn, the Rose, Ground Zero, Sarah's Kitchen, Margaret's Blue Diamond, and Red's.

John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson - The Blues Harmonica of Chicago's Bronzeville (Hardcover): Mitsutoshi Inaba John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson - The Blues Harmonica of Chicago's Bronzeville (Hardcover)
Mitsutoshi Inaba
R1,795 Discovery Miles 17 950 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson was one of the most popular blues harmonica players and singers from the late 1930s through the 1940s. Recording for the Bluebird Records and RCA Victor labels, Sonny Boy shaped Chicago's music scene with an innovative style that gave structure and speed to blues harmonica performance. His recording in 1937 of "Good Morning, School Girl," followed by others made him a hit with Southern black audiences who had migrated north. Unfortunately, his popularity and recording career ended on June 1, 1948, when he was robbed and murdered in Chicago, Illinois. In 1980, he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame. Mitsutoshi Inaba offers the first full-length biography of this key figure in the evolution of the Chicago blues. Taking readers through Sonny Boy's career, Inaba illustrates how Sonny Boy lived through the lineage of blues harmonica performance, drawing on established traditions and setting out a blueprint for the growing electric blues scene. Interviews with Sonny Boy's family members and his last harmonica student provide new insights into the character of the man as well as the techniques of the musician. John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson: The Blues Harmonica of Chicago's Bronzeville provides fans and musicians alike an invaluable exploration of the life and legacy of one the Chicago blues' founding figures.

Seasick Steve - Tales of a Travellin' Man (Paperback): Matthew Wright Seasick Steve - Tales of a Travellin' Man (Paperback)
Matthew Wright 1
R247 R226 Discovery Miles 2 260 Save R21 (9%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

It remains one of the most remarkable breakthroughs in music history. The nervous and dishevelled figure who played his punk-blues song 'Dog House Boogie' before Jools Holland and his dumbstruck Hootenanny audience that New Year's Eve 2006 seemed to have emerged from nowhere. Apparently a sixty-five-year-old former hobo, Steve played his trademark threestring guitar (aka The Three-String Trance Wonder) and stomped on a wooden box with a Mississippi motorcycle plate stuck on (aka The Mississippi Drum Machine). His Norwegian studio had recently failed, he'd had a heart attack, and he was only known among a tiny community of hardcore blues fans, yet by the next morning he was famous. His album Dog House Music, recorded in his kitchen, sold out overnight. 2007 brought a MOJO, Reading and Glastonbury, and 2008 worldwide success and his major label debut. The rest, they say, is history. Or perhaps not. Everyone loved the grit and authenticity of Steve's songs about life on the road. His roots in the Deep South were celebrated across the media, and BBC Four took Steve round Mississippi for a documentary. But look a little closer, and a very different musical - and personal - journey rears its head. In this groundbreaking new biography, Matthew Wright draws on new information and some musical collaborators to create a startling life story, teasing out crucial details to turn the regular story of a hobo's wanderings in the wilderness on its head and bring Seasick Steve's life in from the cold. The real Steve was not a blue-collar amateur who got lucky, but a committed professional, steeped in a variety of ever-changing, era-defining musical traditions throughout his life, from the moment his dad played him boogie-woogie piano as a baby. This is a career that's touched an astonishing range of lives, from Albert King and Lighnin' Hopkins to Jimi Hendrix, from Janis Joplin to Kurt Cobain and Slash of Guns N' Roses. Ramblin' Man tells the tale of the extraordinary life of this musical polymath, as he wound a course through some of the most epochal moments in music history of the twentieth century. The myth was astonishing; the real story is even better.

Blues, How Do You Do? - Paul Oliver and the Transatlantic Story of the Blues (Hardcover): Christian O'connell Blues, How Do You Do? - Paul Oliver and the Transatlantic Story of the Blues (Hardcover)
Christian O'connell
R2,306 Discovery Miles 23 060 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Recent revisionist scholarship has argued that representations by white "outsider" observers of black American music have distorted historical truths about how the blues came to be. While these scholarly arguments have generated an interesting debate concerning how the music has been framed and disseminated, they have so far only told an American story, failing to acknowledge that in the post-war era the blues had spread far beyond the borders of the United States. As Christian O'Connell shows in Blues, How Do You Do? Paul Oliver's largely neglected scholarship-and the unique transatlantic cultural context it provides-is vital to understanding the blues. O'Connell's study begins with Oliver's scholarship in his early days in London as a writer for the British jazz press and goes on to examine Oliver's encounters with visiting blues musicians, his State Department-supported field trip to the US in 1960, and the resulting photographs and oral history he produced, including his epic "blues narrative," The Story of the Blues (1969). Blues, How Do You Do? thus aims to move away from debates that have been confined within the limits of national borders-or relied on cliches of British bands popularizing American music in America-to explore how Oliver's work demonstrates that the blues became a reified ideal, constructed in opposition to the forces of modernity.

Big Mama Thornton - The Life and Music (Paperback): Michael Spoerke Big Mama Thornton - The Life and Music (Paperback)
Michael Spoerke
R941 Discovery Miles 9 410 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

You ain't nothing but a ""Hound Dog"" ... with these words shouted into the microphone she will always be remembered: Big Mama Thornton. Who is this woman who sang the megahit ""Hound Dog"" before Elvis Presley and who wrote ""Ball & Chain"", the song that catapulted Janis Joplin to sudden fame? The story begins with her first musical attempts in the Hot Harlem Revue as a girl of 14. Then the book follows her journey into the Mecca of Texas Blues, Houston, where Big Mama Thornton met Johnny Otis, with whom she recorded her greatest success-""Hound Dog"". With the slowdown of the blues in the early sixties this book follows Big Mama Thornton's way to California, discusses her struggle to survive and celebrates her grandiose musical comeback in the course of the blues revival and the hippie movement. With the end of the sixties, facing the declining interest in the old school blues, the book shows how Big Mama Thornton found her niche in clubs and festivals in the U.S. and Europe. The book then follows Big Mama Thornton through the seventies and eighties until her untimely death.

Pioneers of the Blues Revival (Hardcover): Steve Cushing Pioneers of the Blues Revival (Hardcover)
Steve Cushing; Introduction by Barry Lee Peterson
R2,906 Discovery Miles 29 060 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Steve Cushing, the award-winning host of the nationally syndicated public radio staple "Blues before Sunrise," has spent over thirty years observing and participating in the Chicago blues scene. In" Pioneers of the Blues Revival," he interviews many of the prominent white researchers and enthusiasts whose advocacy spearheaded the blues' crossover into the mainstream starting in the 1960s.
Opinionated and territorial, the American, British, and French interviewees provide fascinating first-hand accounts of the era and movement. Experts including Paul Oliver, Gayle Dean Wardlow, Sam Charters, Ray Flerledge, Paul Oliver, Richard K. Spottswood, and Pete Whelan chronicle in their own words their obsessive early efforts at cataloging blues recordings and retrace lifetimes spent loving, finding, collecting, reissuing, and producing records. They and nearly a dozen others recount relationships with blues musicians, including the discoveries of prewar bluesmen Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Skip James, and Bukka White, and the reintroduction of these musicians and many others to new generations of listeners. The accounts describe fieldwork in the South, renew lively debates, and tell of rehearsals in Muddy Waters's basement and randomly finding Lightning Hopkins's guitar in a pawn shop.
Blues scholar Barry Lee Pearson provides a critical and historical framework for the interviews in an introduction.

Experiencing Jazz - Online Access to Music Token (Paperback, 2nd edition): Richard J. Lawn Experiencing Jazz - Online Access to Music Token (Paperback, 2nd edition)
Richard J. Lawn
R1,207 Discovery Miles 12 070 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This token provides access to the companion website and streaming audio anthology for Richard J. Lawn's Experiencing Jazz. Course components The complete course comprises the textbook and Online Access to Music token, which are available to purchase separately. The textbook and Online Access to Music Token can also be purchased together in the Experiencing Jazz Book and Online Access to Music Pack. Book and Online Access to Music Pack: 978-0-415-65935-2 (Paperback and Online Access to Music) Book Only: 978-0-415-69960-0 (please note this does not include the Online Access to Music) Online Access to Music Token: 978-0-415-83735-4 (please note this does not include the textbook) eBook and Online Access to Music Pack: 978-0-203-37981-3 (available from the Taylor & Francis eBookstore) ebook: 978-0-203-37985-1 (please note this does not include the audio and is available from the Taylor & Francis eBookstore)

Blues in Black and White - The Landmark Ann Arbor Blues Festivals (Paperback): Michael Erlewine Blues in Black and White - The Landmark Ann Arbor Blues Festivals (Paperback)
Michael Erlewine; Illustrated by Stanley Livingston
R831 Discovery Miles 8 310 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

In 1969 and 1970, the first Ann Arbor Blues Festivals brought together the greatest-ever selection of blues performers - an enormous blues party that seemed to feature every big name in the world of blues. The Ann Arbor Blues Festival was just that: a festival and celebration of city blues. It helped to mark the discovery of modern blues music (and the musicians who made that music) by a much larger audience. The festival, however, was something more than just a White audience discovering Black music. Never before had such a far-reaching list of performers been assembled including the grandfathers of southern country blues and the hottest electric bands from Chicago. These groundbreaking festivals were the seed that grew into the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, which was continued annually for many years.To name just a few of the dozens of artists who performed at the festival: Luther Allison, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, Hound Dog Taylor, Big Mama Thorton, T-Bone Walker, Sippie Wallace, Junior Wells, and Mighty Joe Young, among many others. Stanley Livingston, a professional photographer from Ann Arbor, captured these legendary performances onstage - as well as the goings-on backstage. Livingston's thousands of photographs from these festivals - previously unpublished and known only to a few - are among the finest candid blues shots ever taken. Together with editor and archivist Michael Erlewine's text accompaniments, these photographs comprise a visual history and important keepsake for blues aficionados everywhere.

Long Lost Blues - Popular Blues in America, 1850-1920 (Paperback): Peter C Muir Long Lost Blues - Popular Blues in America, 1850-1920 (Paperback)
Peter C Muir
R922 Discovery Miles 9 220 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Mamie Smith's 1920 recording of "Crazy Blues" is commonly thought to signify the beginning of commercial attention to blues music and culture, but by that year more than 450 other blues titles had already appeared in sheet music and on recordings. In this examination of early popular blues, Peter C. Muir traces the genre's early history and the highly creative interplay between folk and popular forms, focusing especially on the roles W. C. Handy played in both blues music and the music business. Long Lost Blues exposes for the first time the full scope and importance of early popular blues to mainstream American culture in the early twentieth century. Closely analyzing sheet music and other print sources that have previously gone unexamined, Muir revises our understanding of the evolution and sociology of blues at its inception. An internationally recognized pianist, composer, scholar, and conductor, Peter C. Muir is the cofounder and codirector of the Institute for Music and Health in Verbank, New York.

Texas Blues - The Rise of a Contemporary Sound (Hardcover): Alan B Govenar Texas Blues - The Rise of a Contemporary Sound (Hardcover)
Alan B Govenar
R1,468 R1,364 Discovery Miles 13 640 Save R104 (7%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Texas Blues allows artists to speak in their own words, revealing the dynamics of blues, from its beginnings in cotton fields and shotgun shacks to its migration across boundaries of age and race to seize the musical imagination of the entire world.Fully illustrated with 495 dramatic, high-quality color and black-and-white photographs - many never before published - ""Texas Blues"" provides comprehensive and authoritative documentation of a musical tradition that has changed contemporary music. Award-winning documentary filmmaker and author Alan Govenar here builds on his previous groundbreaking work documenting these musicians and their style with the stories of 110 of the most influential artists and their times.From Blind Lemon Jefferson and Aaron ""T-Bone"" Walker of Dallas, to Delbert McClinton in Fort Worth, Sam ""Ligntnin'"" Hopkins in East Texas, Baldemar (Freddie Fender) Huerta in South Texas, and Stevie Ray Vaughan in Austin, ""Texas Blues"" shows the who, what, where, and how of blues in the Lone Star State.

Blues Empress in Black Chattanooga - Bessie Smith and the Emerging Urban South (Paperback): Michelle R. Scott Blues Empress in Black Chattanooga - Bessie Smith and the Emerging Urban South (Paperback)
Michelle R. Scott
R681 Discovery Miles 6 810 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

As one of the first African American vocalists to be recorded, Bessie Smith is a prominent figure in American popular culture and African American history. Michelle R. Scott uses Smith's life as a lens to investigate broad issues in history, including industrialization, Southern rural to urban migration, black community development in the post-emancipation era, and black working-class gender conventions.

Arguing that the rise of blues culture and the success of female blues artists like Bessie Smith are connected to the rapid migration and industrialization in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Scott focuses her analysis on Chattanooga, Tennessee, the large industrial and transportation center where Smith was born. This study explores how the expansion of the Southern railroads and the development of iron foundries, steel mills, and sawmills created vast employment opportunities in the postbellum era. Chronicling the growth and development of the African American Chattanooga community, Scott examines the Smith family's migration to Chattanooga and the popular music of black Chattanooga during the first decade of the twentieth century, and culminates by delving into Smith's early years on the vaudeville circuit.

American Popular Music - Rhythm and Blues, Rap, and Hip-Hop (Paperback): Frank Hoffmann American Popular Music - Rhythm and Blues, Rap, and Hip-Hop (Paperback)
Frank Hoffmann; Foreword by Albin J. Zak
R715 Discovery Miles 7 150 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Influenced by the blues as well as West African and African-American sounds, rhythm and blues, rap, and hip-hop have become popular and influential forms of music around the world. Featuring soulful lyrics, hard-driving beats, and infectious rhythms, these genres form a rich branch of America's musical culture. From artists such as Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin to LL Cool J and Dr. Dre, the performers who pioneered and perfected these musical forms have become household names. ""Rhythm and Blues, Rap, and Hip-Hop"" explores the characteristics and importance of each of these types of music and its history and evolution. This in-depth volume combines 52 photographs, a glossary, discography, and chronology to create an ideal go-to reference for music lovers everywhere. The entries include: Herb Abramson; Ray Charles; Sam Cooke; Doo wop; Dr. Dre; Earth, Wind, and Fire; Eminem; Aretha Franklin; Funk; Marvin Gaye; The Isley Brothers; Etta James; Little Richard; LL Cool J; The Memphis Horns; Motown; Teddy Pendergrass; Otis Redding; Tupac Shakur; Sugarhill Gang; Donna Summer; Luther Vandross; and many others.

American Popular Music - Blues (Paperback): Dick Weissman American Popular Music - Blues (Paperback)
Dick Weissman
R714 Discovery Miles 7 140 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This is a comprehensive A-to-Z guide to the blues - from its roots to the present. Born out of the field hollers, work songs, and spirituals sung by African-American slaves and tenant farmers as they were forced to work in the fields of the South, blues music often speaks of oppression, sadness, and love - topics that transcend racial and ethnic boundaries. Early musicians such as Blind Lemon Jefferson and W.C. Handy established the standards of the genre, with the hit songs ""See That My Grave Is Kept Clean"" and ""Memphis Blues,"" respectively. Their affecting lyrics later served as inspiration for future blues performers such as Muddy Waters, Lead Belly, and John Lee Hooker. The blues became the foundation for nearly every form of American music created in the 20th century, especially jazz, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and hip-hop. ""American Popular Music: Blues"", in more than 450 entries, brings together in a single volume all the aspects of this musical genre, creating an essential resource for music lovers everywhere, as well as those interested in the historical roots of an American legacy.

Blue Monday - Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock 'n' Roll (Paperback, New Ed): Rick Coleman Blue Monday - Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock 'n' Roll (Paperback, New Ed)
Rick Coleman
R680 R601 Discovery Miles 6 010 Save R79 (12%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

While many think of Elvis Presley as rock 'n' roll's driving force, the truth is that Fats Domino, whose records have sold more than 100 million copies, was the first to put it on the map with such hits as "Ain't That a Shame" and "Blueberry Hill." In "Blue Monday," acclaimed R&B scholar Rick Coleman draws on a multitude of new interviews with Fats Domino and many other early musical legends to create a definitive biography of not just an extraordinary man but also a unique time and place: New Orleans at the birth of rock 'n' roll. Coleman's groundbreaking research makes for an immense cultural biography, and is the first to convey the full scope of Fats Domino's impact on the popular music of the twentieth century.

Broadcasting the Blues - Black Blues in the Segregation Era (Hardcover): Paul Oliver Broadcasting the Blues - Black Blues in the Segregation Era (Hardcover)
Paul Oliver
R3,914 Discovery Miles 39 140 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

"Broadcasting the Blues: Black Blues in the Segregation Era "is based on Paul Oliver's award-winning radio broadcasts from the BBC that were created over several decades. It traces the social history of the blues in America, from its birth in the rural South through the heyday of sound recordings. Noted blues scholar Paul Oliver draws on decades of research and personal interviews with performers -- some of whom he "discovered" and recorded for the first time -- to draw a picture of how the blues aesthetic developed, giving new insights into the role blues played in American society before racial integration.
The book begins by outlining the history of the blues from African music through country stomps, ragtime songs, and field hollers. From the heroic figures of black folksong -- including the steel-driving railroad worker John Henry and the destructive Boll Weevil -- to the content of the emerging blues, the author discusses the "meaning" behind the often coded words of the blues, evoking topics such as playful sexuality, magic and medicine, the stresses of segregation, and commentary on national events. Finally, the author traces the history of blues documentation, showing how our views of the early blues have been shaped through a complex interplay of social forces, and indicating possible lines for future research.

Jook Right On - Blues Stories and Blues Storytellers (Paperback): Barry Pearson Jook Right On - Blues Stories and Blues Storytellers (Paperback)
Barry Pearson
R827 Discovery Miles 8 270 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Jook Right On: Blues Stories and Blues Storytellers is what author and compiler Barry Lee Pearson calls a "blues quilt." These blues stories, collected by Pearson for thirty years, are told in the blues musicians' own words. The author interviewed over one hundred musicians, recording and transcribing their stories. These are stories from well-known musicians such as John Lee Hooker, Koko Taylor, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, and Little Milton, and from more obscure artists such as Big Luck Carter, Henry Dorsey, Joseph Savage, and J. T. Adams. Pearson provides an introduction to the world of the blues and the genre of blues stories as well as brief biographies of the musicians. Divided into five sections--Blues Talk, Living the Blues, Learning the Blues, Working the Blues, and The Last Word--the book provides an overview of the inner workings of the blues tradition from the artist's point of view. Wordsmiths by trade, the storytellers bring to their tales qualities also found in blues song performance and philosophical perspectives characteristic of the blues tradition such as improvisation, ironic humor, ambivalence, and a life-affirming sense of hope in the face of adversity. Pitched somewhere between story and song, this remarkable chorus of voices provides concrete illustrations of what it means to live the blues, to feel the blues, and to play the blues. Taken together, these artists provide a collective history of one of America's most influential art forms. Blues fans and those interested in African American music, folklore, American music history, popular culture, and southern history will want to read Jook Right On: Blues Stories and Blues Storytellers.

The Cambridge Companion to Blues and Gospel Music - Cambridge Companions to Music (Book): Allan Moore The Cambridge Companion to Blues and Gospel Music - Cambridge Companions to Music (Book)
Allan Moore
R821 R675 Discovery Miles 6 750 Save R146 (18%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

From Robert Johnson to Aretha Franklin, Mahalia Jackson to John Lee Hooker, blues and gospel artists play significant roles in twentieth-century culture. This overview of these genres provides an expression of the twentieth-century black American experience. Histories are questioned; songs and lyrical imagery are analyzed; perspectives are presented from the standpoint of voice, guitar, piano, and working musician. A concluding chapter discusses the impact that the genres have had on mainstream musical culture.

Yonder Come the Blues - The Evolution of a Genre (Book, 2nd Revised edition): Paul Oliver, Tony Russell, Robert M. W. Dixon,... Yonder Come the Blues - The Evolution of a Genre (Book, 2nd Revised edition)
Paul Oliver, Tony Russell, Robert M. W. Dixon, John Godrich, Howard Rye
R995 R816 Discovery Miles 8 160 Save R179 (18%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

This book combines three influential and much-quoted books Savannah Syncopators; Blacks, Whites and Blues and Recording the Blues, updated with additional new essays, which collectively confront the problem of how, when and from where the blues emerged and developed. It emphasizes the significance of the African heritage, the mutuality of much white and black music and the role of recording in consolidating the blues. Redressing some of the misconceptions that persist in writing on African-American music, it will be essential reading for all enthusiasts of blues, jazz and country music.

Josh White - Society Blues (Hardcover): Elijah Wald Josh White - Society Blues (Hardcover)
Elijah Wald
R1,315 R1,076 Discovery Miles 10 760 Save R239 (18%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

A gifted and charismatic entertainer, Josh White (1914-1969) was a blues star of the 1930s, a cabaret star of the 1940s, and a folk star of the 1950s and 1960s. In 1963, a Billboard magazine poll ranked him America's third most popular male folksinger, surpassed only by Pete Seeger and Harry Belafonte, and ahead of Bob Dylan. White brought American folk and blues to audiences around the world and released several dozen albums, all featuring his distinctive guitar style, supple voice, and unique showmanship.

In this compelling biography, Elijah Wald traces White's journey from a childhood leading blind singers on the streets of Greenville, South Carolina, to the heights of Manhattan cafe society. He explores the complexities of White's music, his struggles with discrimination and stereotypes, his political involvements, and his sometimes raucous personal life.

White was always drawn to music and made his first recordings at age fourteen. By the 1930s he had become a recording star, with equally strong careers in blues and gospel. In the 1940s he was discovered by white audiences and regularly appeared in New York cabarets alongside such artists as Billie Holiday. He also became an outspoken proponent of civil rights and frequently appeared at rallies and benefits, as well as at the Roosevelt White House, becoming known as "the Presidential Minstrel". He was one of the few black figures to star on Broadway and appear in Hollywood films, the only black solo performer to have his own national tour, and a daring sex symbol with adoring fans on both sides of the color line.

In the 1950s, White won acclaim in Europe, then saw his achievements collapse in the polarized political fermentof the McCarthy era. Attempting to strike a balance that would keep his career afloat, he instead ended up alienating both political camps. Although still a star in England, he became the forgotten man at home until his resurrection during the folk revival.

Listen To The Stories - Nat Hentoff On Jazz And Country Music (Paperback, 1st Da Capo Press Ed): Nat Hentoff Listen To The Stories - Nat Hentoff On Jazz And Country Music (Paperback, 1st Da Capo Press Ed)
Nat Hentoff
R526 R461 Discovery Miles 4 610 Save R65 (12%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Here is Nat Hentoff's deeply felt exploration of jazz, blues, country, and gospel--and the musicians who bring the music to life. Hentoff has not only loved music all his life, he has lived it by being friends with many of the musicians he writes about in this collection. Hentoff poignantly describes the early days of Roy Eldridge and the last years of Billie Holiday and Bird. He tells amazing stories of the Count, Duke, and Dizzy. "Full of insightful behind-the-scenes encounters" ("San Francisco Chronicle"), "Listen to the Stories" covers new recordings and old legends, remarkable lives and unforgettable music.

Lady Day - The Many Faces Of Billie Holiday (Paperback, Revised): Robert O'Meally Lady Day - The Many Faces Of Billie Holiday (Paperback, Revised)
Robert O'Meally
R518 R464 Discovery Miles 4 640 Save R54 (10%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

"Billie Holiday deserves a biography in which her musicianship isn't overshadowed by the tragic events of her life. O'Meally has written that book," says "Entertainment Weekly" about this absorbing and authoritative account of the greatest jazz singer in history. O'Meally emphasizes Holiday's artistry and training rather than her personal miseries, and he uses voluminous archival material to correct common myths about Holiday. Chronicling her rigorous musical apprenticeship in Baltimore, her reception in New York by Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington, and her work with various musicians, particularly Lester Young, "Lady Day" is an impassioned testament to Holiday's genius that confirms her place in American jazz.

Blue - The Murder Of Jazz (Paperback, 1st Da Capo Press ed): Eric Nisenson Blue - The Murder Of Jazz (Paperback, 1st Da Capo Press ed)
Eric Nisenson
R689 Discovery Miles 6 890 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Once a thriving body of innovative and fluid music, jazz is now the victim of destructive professional and artistic forces, says Eric Nisenson. Corruption by marketers, appropriation by the mainstream, superficial media portrayal, and sheer lack of skill have all contributed to the demise of this venerable art form. Nisenson persuasively describes how the entire jazz "industry" is controlled by a select cadre with a choke hold on the most vital components of the music. As the listening culture has changed, have spontaneity and improvisation been sacrificed? You can agree or disagree with Nisenson's thesis and arguments, but as "Booklist" says, "his passion is engrossing."

Just My Soul Responding - Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness, and Race Relations (Paperback, New): Brian Ward Just My Soul Responding - Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness, and Race Relations (Paperback, New)
Brian Ward
R1,293 Discovery Miles 12 930 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

One of the most innovative and ambitious books to appear on the civil rights and black power movements in America, "Just My Soul Responding" also offers a major challenge to conventional histories of contemporary black and popular music. Brian Ward explores in detail the previously neglected relationship between Rhythm and Blues, black consciousness, and race relations within the context of the ongoing struggle for black freedom and equality in the United States. Instead of simply seeing the world of black music as a reflection of a mass struggle raging elsewhere, Ward argues that Rhythm and Blues, and the recording and broadcasting industries with which it was linked, formed a crucial public arena for battles over civil rights, racial identities, and black economic empowerment.
Combining unrivalled archival research with extensive oral testimony, Ward examines the contributions of artists and entrepreneurs like Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Berry Gordy to the organized black struggle, explaining what they did for the Movement and--just as important--why they and most of their peers failed to do more. In the process, he analyses the ways in which various groups, from the SCLC to the Black Panthers, tried--with very mixed results--to use Rhythm and Blues and the politics of celebrity to further their cause. He also examines the role that black-oriented radio played in promoting both Rhythm and Blues and the Movement, and unravels the intricate connections between the sexual politics of the music and the development of the black freedom struggle.
This richly textured study of some of the most important music and complex political events in America since World War II challenges the belief that white consumption of black music necessarily helped eradicate racial prejudice. Indeed, Ward argues that the popularity of Rhythm and Blues among white listeners sometimes only reinforced racial stereotypes, while noting how black artists actually manipulated those stereotypes to increase their white audiences. Ultimately, Ward shows how the music both reflected and affected shifting perceptions of community, empowerment, identity, and gender relations in America during the civil rights and black power eras.

Feel Like Going Home - Portraits in Blues and Rock 'n' Roll (Paperback, 1st Back Bay pbk. ed): Peter Guralnick Feel Like Going Home - Portraits in Blues and Rock 'n' Roll (Paperback, 1st Back Bay pbk. ed)
Peter Guralnick
R577 R505 Discovery Miles 5 050 Save R72 (12%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

This vivid celebration of blues and early rock 'n' roll includes some of the first and most illuminating profiles of such blues masters as Muddy Waters, Skip James, and Howlin' Wolf; excursions into the blues-based Memphis rock 'n' roll of Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Rich, and the Sun record label; and a brilliant depiction of the bustling Chicago blues scene and the legendary Chess record label in its final days. With unique insight and unparalleled access, Peter Guralnick brings to life the people, the songs, and the performance that forever changed not only the American music scene but America itself.

The Life And Legend Of Leadbelly (Paperback, New Ed): Charles Wolfe, Kip Lornell The Life And Legend Of Leadbelly (Paperback, New Ed)
Charles Wolfe, Kip Lornell
R718 Discovery Miles 7 180 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Huddie Ledbetter (1889-1949), known to millions of fans simply as Leadbelly, was arguably the most famous black singer in American history. His close musical associations included such towering figures as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and John and Alan Lomax. He helped lay the foundations for blues, modern folk music, and rock 'n' roll. This definitive biography draws on a wealth of new archival material, interviews, and previously unknown recordings to detail Leadbelly's proud, tumultuous, and often violent life.

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