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Books > Arts & Architecture > Music > Contemporary popular music > Blues
To fans of sassy and savvy urban music, the name Rick James will
forever be associated with the mainstream emergence of funk--that
bottom-heavy blend of rock and soul that sparked a multiracial
musical revolution in the 1970s and 1980s and has since influenced
everything from rap to raves, punk to progressive rock. Along with
the fame, the Grammy Award, and superstardom came drug abuse and
even felony convictions, all of which are chronicled in this
gripping, posthumous tell-all of the funk revolution.
The philosophy of the blues
From B.B. King to Billie Holiday, Blues music not only sounds
good, but has an almost universal appeal in its reflection of the
trials and tribulations of everyday life. Its ability to powerfully
touch on a range of social and emotional issues is philosophically
inspiring, and here, a diverse range of thinkers and musicians
offer illuminating essays that make important connections between
the human condition and the Blues that will appeal to music lovers
and philosophers alike.
Taking in the jazz and blues icons whom Jefferson idolised as a
child in the 1950s, ideas of what the female body could be - as
incarnated by trailblazing Black dancers and athletes - Harriet
Beecher Stowe's Topsy reimagined in the artworks of Kara Walker,
white supremacy in the novels of Willa Cather, and more, this
breathtakingly eloquent account is both a critique and a
vindication of the constructed self.
Keil's classic account of blues and its artists is both a guide to
the development of the music and a powerful study of the blues as
an expressive form in and for African American life. This updated
edition explores the place of the blues in artistic, social,
political, and commercial life since the 1960s. "An achievement of
the first magnitude...He opens our eyes and introduces a world of
amazingly complex musical happening."--Robert Farris Thompson,
Ethnomusicology
Experience a cool splash of music history from the Bayou State!
This intensely personal and entertaining account is a snapshot of
Blues from an outsider welcomed into the inner circles of Southern
Blues icons. Englishman Julian C. Piper spent a year abroad at
Louisiana State University and played blues primarily at the Blues
Box in Baton Rouge. There he met many of the musicians with whom he
conducted interviews between 1987 and 1988. Those interviews form
the basis of this book. Through his close friendship with Blues Box
owner Tabby Thomas and his son Chris, Piper collected stories of
blues luminaries including Silas Hogan, Robert Pete Williams,
Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter, Lonesome Sundown, Chris Thomas King,
Lightening Slim, and many more.
Peter Guralnick's writings on music and musicians are unique in the literature of American popular culture. His first three books, Feel Like Going Home, Lost Highway, and Sweet Soul Music-which together form a sort of trilogy that has achieved classic status-trace twentieth-century American popular music to its roots by bringing to life the people, the songs, and the performances that forever changed not only the American music scene but America itself. Here, in a narrative that captures all the tumult and liberating energy of a nation in transition, is the story of the legendary performers-among them Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, James Brown, Solomon Burke, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and Al Green-who merged gospel and rhythm-and-blues to create sweet soul music.
From Queen Latifah to Count Basie, Madonna to Monk, "Hole in our
soul: the loss of beauty and meaning in American popular music"
traces popular music back to its roots in jazz, blues, country, and
gospel through the rise in rock'n'roll and the emergence of heavy
metal, punk, and rap. Yet despite the vigour and balance of these
musical origins, Martha Bayles argues, something has gone seriously
wrong, both with the sound of popular music and the sensibility it
expresses. Bayles defended the tough, affirmative spirit of
Afro-American music against the strain of artistic modernism she
calls"perverse". She describes how perverse modernism was grafted
onto popular music in the late 1960s, and argues that the result
has been a cult of brutality and obscenity that is profoundly
anti-musical. Unlike other recent critics of popular music, Bayles
does not blame the problem on commerce. She argues that culture
shapes the market and not the other way around. Finding censorship
of popular music "both a practical and a constitutional
impossibility", Bayles insists that "an informed shift in public
tastes may be our only hope of reversing the current malignant
moods".
"New Musical Figurations" exemplifies a dramatically new
way of configuring jazz music and history. By relating
biography to the cultural and musical contours of contemporary
American life, Ronald M. Radano observes jazz practice as part
of the complex interweaving of postmodern culture--a
culture that has eroded conventional categories defining jazz
and the jazz musician. Radano accomplishes all this by
analyzing the creative life of Anthony Braxton, one of the
most emblematic figures of this cultural crisis.
Born in 1945, Braxton is not only a virtuoso jazz
saxophonist but an innovative theoretician and composer of
experimental art music. His refusal to conform to the
conventions of official musical culture has helped unhinge
the very ideologies on which definitions of "jazz,"
"black music," "popular music," and "art music" are founded.
"New Musical Figurations" gives the richest view
available of this many-sided artist. Radano examines
Braxton's early years on the South Side of Chicago, whose
vibrant black musical legacy inspired him to explore new
avenues of expression. Here is the first detailed history of
Braxton's central role in the Association for the Advancement
of Creative Musicians, the principal musician-run institution
of free jazz in the United States. After leaving Chicago,
Braxton was active in Paris and New York, collaborating with
Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Frederic Rzewski, and other
composers affiliated with the experimental-music movement.
From 1974 to 1981, he gained renown as a popular jazz
performer and recording artist. Since then he has taught at
Mills College and Wesleyan University, given lectures on his
theoretical musical system, and written works for chamber
groups as well as large, opera-scale pieces.
The neglect of radical, challenging figures like Braxton
in standard histories of jazz, Radano argues, mutes the
innovative voice of the African-American musical tradition.
Refreshingly free of technical jargon, "New Musical Figurations"
is more than just another variation on the same jazz theme.
Rather, it is an exploratory work as rich in theoretical
vision as it is in historical detail.
Although many bluesmen began leaving the Magnolia State in the
early twentieth century to pursue fortune and fame in Chicago, many
others stayed home. These musicians remained rooted to the
traditions of their land, which came to define a distinctive
playing style unique to Mississippi. They didn't simply play the
blues, they lived it. Travel through the hallowed juke joints and
cotton fields with author Roger Stolle as he recounts the history
of Mississippi blues and the musicians who have kept it alive. Some
of these bluesmen remain to carry on this proud legacy, while
others have passed on, but Hidden History of Mississippi Blues
ensures none will be forgotten.
Francis Davis's The History of the Blues is a ground-breaking
rethinking of the blues that fearlessly examines how race relations
have altered perceptions of the music. Tracing its origins from the
Mississippi Delta to its amplification in Chicago right after World
War II, Davis argues for an examination of the blues in its own
right, not just as a precursor to jazz and rock'n' roll. The lives
of major figures such as Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, and
Leadbelly, in addition to contemporary artists such as Stevie Ray
Vaughan and Robert Cray, are examined and skillfully woven into a
riveting, provocative narrative.
For over three decades R. Crumb has shocked, entertained,
titillated and challenged the imaginations (and the inhibitions) of
comics fans the world over. The acknowledged father of "underground
comix," Crumb is the single greatest influence on the alternative
comics of today. The three companion sets of trading cards - Heroes
of the Blues, Early Jazz Greats, and Pioneers of Country Music -
have all been sought by collectors. Although, they were rereleased
in print as individual card sets, this is the first time they are
being published together in book form. A biography of each musician
is provided, along with a full colour original illustration by
underground cartoonist and music historian R. Crumb.
In this "expertly researched, elegantly written, dispassionate yet
thoughtful history" (Gary Giddins), award-winning author Ted Gioia
gives us "the rare combination of a tome that is both deeply
informative and enjoyable to read" (Publishers Weekly, starred
review). From the field hollers of nineteenth-century plantations
to Muddy Waters and B.B. King, Delta Blues delves into the uneasy
mix of race and money at the point where traditional music became
commercial and bluesmen found new audiences of thousands. Combining
extensive fieldwork, archival research, interviews with living
musicians, and first-person accounts with "his own calm,
argument-closing incantations to draw a line through a century of
Delta blues" (New York Times), this engrossing narrative is
flavored with insightful and vivid musical descriptions that ensure
"an understanding of not only the musicians, but the music itself"
(Boston Sunday Globe). Rooted in the thick-as-tar Delta soil, Delta
Blues is already "a contemporary classic in its field" (Jazz
Review).
This text, the first of its kind, deals with some of the problems
to be faced. It discusses the new trend of musical thought that
jazz has brought about--the new combinations of instruments, a
different harmonic and melodic language, a new and an intriguing
approach to ensemble writing.
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50 Women in the Blues
(Hardcover)
Jennifer Noble; Interview of Kyla Brox, Shemekia Copeland, Dana Gillespie, Connie Lush, …
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R748
Discovery Miles 7 480
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Women have been at the dawn of the blues since Bessie Smith and Ma
Rainey were singing about hard knocks and tough love in smoky bars.
This book gives an overview of the early days of the blues and its
development from the Mississippi Delta to the hometown of electric
blues, Chicago, to becoming the vibrant global musical movement it
is today. Features over 30 exclusive interviews with the amazing
female musicians leading the Blues to new heights today. Includes
selected highlights from Chicago blues photographer Jennifer
Noble's extensive colour collection.
According to Eric Clapton, John Mayer, and the late Stevie Ray
Vaughn, Buddy Guy is the greatest blues guitarist of all time. An
enormous influence on these musicians as well as Jimi Hendrix,
Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck, he is the living embodiment of Chicago
blues. Guy's epic story stands at the absolute nexus of modern
blues. He came to Chicago from rural Louisiana in the fifties,the
very moment when urban blues were electrifying our culture. He was
a regular session player at Chess Records. Willie Dixon was his
mentor. He was a sideman in the bands of Muddy Waters and Howlin'
Wolf. He and Junior Wells formed a band of their own. In the
sixties, he became a recording star in his own right. When I Left
Home tells Guy's picaresque story in his own unique voice, that of
a storyteller who remembers everything, including blues masters in
their prime and the exploding, evolving culture of music that
happened all around him.
'Without a doubt the most important artist the blues has ever
produced' Eric Clapton 'No one did more to spread the gospel of the
blues' President Barack Obama 'One part of me says, "Yes, of course
I can play." But the other part of me says, "Well, I wish I could
just do it like B.B. King."' John Lennon Riley 'Blues Boy' King
(1925-2015) was born into deep poverty in Mississippi. Wrenched
away from his sharecropper father, B.B. lost his mother at age ten,
leaving him more or less alone. Music became his emancipation from
exhausting toil in the fields. Inspired by a local minister's
guitar and by the records of Blind Lemon Jefferson and T-Bone
Walker, B.B. taught his guitar to sing in the unique solo style
that, along with his relentless work ethic and humanity, became his
trademark. In turn, generations of artists claimed him as
inspiration, from Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton to Carlos Santana
and the Edge. King of the Blues presents the vibrant life and times
of a trailblazing giant. Witness to dark prejudice and lynching in
his youth, B.B. performed incessantly (more than fifteen thousand
concerts in ninety countries over nearly sixty years) - in some
real way his means of escaping his past. His career roller-coasted
between adulation and relegation, but he always rose back up. At
the same time, his story reveals the many ways record companies
took advantage of artists, especially those of colour. Daniel de
Vise has interviewed almost every surviving member of B.B. King's
inner circle - family, band members, retainers, managers and more -
and their voices and memories enrich and enliven the life of this
Mississippi blues titan, whom his contemporary Bobby 'Blue' Bland
simply called 'the man.'
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Deep blues
(Paperback)
Robert Palmer
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R461
R347
Discovery Miles 3 470
Save R114 (25%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Winner, Best History, 2012 Association for Recorded Sound
Collections Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound
Research. When Mississippi John Hurt (1892-1966) was
""rediscovered"" by blues revivalists in 1963, his musicianship and
recordings transformed popular notions of prewar country blues. At
seventy-one he moved to Washington, D.C., from Avalon, Mississippi,
and became a live-wire connection to a powerful, authentic past.
His intricate and lively style made him the most sought after
musician among the many talents the revival brought to light.
Mississippi John Hurt provides this legendary creator's life story
for the first time. Biographer Philip Ratcliffe traces Hurt's roots
to the moment his mother Mary Jane McCain and his father Isom Hurt
were freed from slavery. Anecdotes from Hurt's childhood and
teenage years include the destiny-making moment when his mother
purchased his first guitar for $1.50 when he was only nine years
old. Stories from his neighbors and friends, from both of his
wives, and from his extended family round out the community picture
of Avalon. US census records, Hurt's first marriage record in 1916,
images of his first autographed LP record, and excerpts from
personal letters written in his own hand provide treasures for
fans. Ratcliffe details Hurt's musical influences and the origins
of his style and repertoire. The author also relates numerous
stories from the time of his success, drawing on published sources
and many hours of interviews with people who knew Hurt well,
including the late Jerry Ricks, Pat Sky, Stefan Grossman and Max
Ochs, Dick Spottswood, and the late Mike Stewart. In addition, some
of the last photographs taken of the legendary musician are
featured for the first time in Mississippi John Hurt.
Blues history is steeped in Chicago's sidewalks; it floats out of
its restaurants, airport lounges and department stores. It is a
fundamental part of the city's heritage that every resident should
know and every visitor should be afraid to miss. Allow Rosalind
Cummings-Yeates to take you inside the Checkerboard and Gerri's
Palm Tavern, where folks like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Willie
Dixon and Ma Rainey transformed Chicago into the blues mecca.
Continue on to explore the contemporary blues scene and discover
the best spots to hear the purest sounds of Sweet Home Chicago.
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