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Books > Music > Contemporary popular music > Blues
Who was the greatest of all American guitarists? You probably
didn't name Gary Davis, but many of his musical contemporaries
considered him without peer. Bob Dylan called Davis "one of the
wizards of modern music." Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead--who took
lessons with Davis--claimed his musical ability "transcended any
common notion of a bluesman." And the folklorist Alan Lomax called
him "one of the really great geniuses of American instrumental
music." But you won't find Davis alongside blues legends Robert
Johnson and Muddy Waters in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Despite
almost universal renown among his contemporaries, Davis lives today
not so much in his own work but through covers of his songs by
Dylan, Jackson Browne, and many others, as well as in the untold
number of students whose lives he influenced. The first biography
of Davis, Say No to the Devil restores "the Rev's" remarkable
story. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with many of
Davis's former students, Ian Zack takes readers through Davis's
difficult beginning as the blind son of sharecroppers in the Jim
Crow South to his decision to become an ordained Baptist minister
and his move to New York in the early 1940s, where he scraped out a
living singing and preaching on street corners and in storefront
churches in Harlem. There, he gained entry into a circle of
musicians that included, among many others, Lead Belly, Woody
Guthrie, and Dave Van Ronk. But in spite of his tremendous musical
achievements, Davis never gained broad recognition from an American
public that wasn't sure what to make of his trademark blend of
gospel, ragtime, street preaching, and the blues. His personal life
was also fraught, troubled by struggles with alcohol, women, and
deteriorating health. Zack chronicles this remarkable figure in
American music, helping us to understand how he taught and
influenced a generation of musicians.
It's impossible to think of the heritage of music and dance in the
United States without the invaluable contributions of African
Americans. Those art forms have been touched by the genius of
African American culture and have helped this nation take its
important and unique place in the pantheon of world art. Steppin'
on the Blues explores not only the meaning of dance in African
American life but also the ways in which music, song, and dance are
interrelated in African American culture. Dance as it has emanated
from the black community is a pervasive, vital, and distinctive
form of expression--its movements speak eloquently of African
American values and aesthetics. Beyond that it has been, finally,
one of the most important means of cultural survival. Former dancer
Jacqui Malone throws a fresh spotlight on the cultural history of
black dance, the Africanisms that have influenced it, and the
significant role that vocal harmony groups, black college and
university marching bands, and black sorority and fraternity
stepping teams have played in the evolution of dance in African
American life. From the cakewalk to the development of jazz dance
and jazz music, all Americans can take pride in the vitality,
dynamism, drama, joy, and uncommon singularity with which African
American dance has gifted the world.
John Coltrane was a key figure in jazz, a pioneer in world music,
and an intensely emotional force whose following continues to grow.
This new biography, the first by a professional jazz scholar and
performer, presents a huge amount of never-before-published
material, including interviews with Coltrane, photos, genealogical
documents, and innovative musical analysis that offers a fresh view
of Coltrane's genius.
Compiled from scratch with the assistance of dozens of Coltrane's
colleagues, friends, and family, "John Coltrane: His Life and
Music" corrects numerous errors from previous biographies. The
significant people in Coltrane's life were reinterviewed, yielding
new insights; some were interviewed for the first time ever.
The musical analysis, which is accessible to the nonspecialist,
makes its own revelations--for example, that some of Coltrane's
well-known pieces are based on previously unrecognized sources. The
Appendix is the most detailed chronology of Coltrane's performing
career ever compiled, listing scores of previously unknown
performances from the 1940s and early 1950s.
Coltrane has become a musical inspiration for thousands of fans and
musicians and a personal inspiration to as many more. For all of
these, Porter's book will become the definitive resource--a
reliable guide to the events of Coltrane's life and an insightful
look into his musical practices.
." . . well researched, musically knowledgeable, and enormously
interesting to read. Porter is a jazz scholar with deep knowledge
of the tradition he is studying, both conceptually and
technically." --Richard Crawford, University of Michigan
"Lewis Porter is a meticulous person with love and respect
forAfro-American classical music. I applaud this definitive study
of my friend John Coltrane's life adn achievements." --Jimmy Heath,
jazz saxophonist, composer, educator
Lewis Porter is Associate Professor of Music, Rutgers University in
Newark. A leading jazz scholar, he is the author of "Jazz Readings
from a Century of Change" and coauthor of "Jazz: From Its Origins
to the Present," He was a project consultant on "The Complete
Atlantic Recordings of John Coltrane," which was nominated for a
Grammy Award for Best Historical Reissue, and an editor and
assisting author of the definitive Coltrane discography by Y.
Fujioka.
This stunning book charts the rich history of the blues, through
the dazzling array of posters, album covers, and advertisements
that have shaped its identity over the past hundred years. The
blues have been one of the most ubiquitous but diverse elements of
American popular music at large, and the visual art associated with
this unique sound has been just as varied and dynamic. There is no
better guide to this fascinating graphical world than Bill Dahl a
longtime music journalist and historian who has written liner notes
for countless reissues of classic blues, soul, R&B, and rock
albums. With his deep knowledge and incisive commentary
complementing more than three hundred and fifty lavishly reproduced
images the history of the blues comes musically and visually to
life. What will astonish readers who thumb through these pages is
the amazing range of ways that the blues have been represented
whether via album covers, posters, flyers, 78 rpm labels,
advertising, or other promotional materials. We see the blues as it
was first visually captured in the highly colorful sheet music
covers of the early twentieth century. We see striking and
hard-to-find label designs from labels big (Columbia) and small
(Rhumboogie). We see William Alexander's humorous artwork on
postwar Miltone Records; the cherished ephemera of concert and
movie posters; and Chess Records' iconic early albums designed by
Don Bronstein, which would set a new standard for modern album
cover design. What these images collectively portray is the
evolution of a distinctively American art form. And they do so in
the richest way imaginable. The result is a sumptuous book, a
visual treasury as alive in spirit as the music it so vibrantly
captures.
Artists like Bill Robinson, King Rastus Brown, John Bubbles, Honi
Coles and others who speak to us in this book, are our Nijinskys,
Daighilevs, Balanchines, and Grahams. There are so many books on
ballet and modern dance. There are still a few on tap dance and
they are so cavalierly allowed to go out of print even though the
interest in them is so deep and sustaining.
This comprehensive guide is a must-have for the legions of fans of
the beloved and perennially popular music known as soul and rhythm
& blues. The latest in the definitive All Music Guide series,
the All Music Guide to Soul offers entertaining and informative
reviews that lead readers to the best recordings by their favorite
artists and help them find new music to explore. Informative
biographies, essays, and "music maps" trace R&B's growth from
its roots in blues and gospel and its flowering in Memphis and
Motown, to its many branches today. Complete discographies note
bootlegs, important out-of-print albums, and import-only releases.
Beginning in the late 1950s, an influential cadre of young, white,
mostly middle-class British men were consuming and appropriating
African-American blues music, using blues tropes in their own music
and creating a network of admirers and emulators that spanned the
Atlantic. This cross-fertilization helped create a commercially
successful rock idiom that gave rise to some of the most famous
British groups of the era, including The Rolling Stones, The
Yardbirds, Eric Clapton, and Led Zeppelin. What empowered these
white, middle-class British men to identify with and claim aspects
of the musical idiom of African-American blues musicians? The
British Blues Network examines the role of British narratives of
masculinity and power in the postwar era of decolonization and
national decline that contributed to the creation of this network,
and how its members used the tropes, vocabulary, and mythology of
African-American blues traditions to forge their own musical
identities.
Notes and Tones is one of the most controversial, honest, and
insightful books ever written about jazz. As a black musician
himself, Arthur Taylor was able to ask his subjects hard questions
about the role of black artists in a white society. Free to speak
their minds, these musicians offer startling insights into their
music, their lives, and the creative process itself. This expanded
edition is supplemented with previously unpublished interviews with
Dexter Gordon and Thelonious Monk, a new introduction by the
author, and new photographs. Notes and Tones consists of
twenty-nine no-holds-barred conversations which drummer Arthur
Taylor held with the most influential jazz musicians of the '60s
and '70s,including:
(The Little Black Songbook). This pocket-sized collection is packed
with over 80 songs arranged for guitar in the same key as the
original recordings, with complete lyrics, chord names & chord
boxes. Includes: Born Under a Bad Sign * Cross Road Blues
(Crossroads) * Dust My Broom * Fever * Hey Joe * How Long Blues
(How Long, How Long Blues) * I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man * Kind
Hearted Woman Blues * La Grange * Nobody Knows You When You're down
and Out * Pride and Joy * Statesboro Blues * Sweet Home Chicago *
That's All Right Mama * Tuff Enuff * Who Do You Love * and more.
Over the course of his long career, legendary bluesman William
""Big Bill"" Broonzy (1893@-1958) helped shape the trajectory of
the genre, from its roots in the rural Mississippi River Delta,
through its rise as a popular genre in the north, to its eventual
international acclaim. Along the way, Broonzy adopted an evolving
personal and professional identity, tailoring his self-presentation
to the demands of the place and time. His remarkable professional
fluidity mirrored the range of expectations from his audiences,
whose ideas about race, national belonging, identity, and the blues
were refracted through Broonzy as if through a prism. Kevin D.
Greene argues that Broonzy's popular success testifies to his
ability to navigate the cultural expectations of his different
audiences. However, this constant reinvention came at a personal
and professional cost. Using Broonzy's multifaceted career, Greene
situates blues performance at the center of understanding African
American self-presentation and racial identity in the first half of
the twentieth century. Through Broonzy's life and times, Greene
assesses major themes and events in African American history,
including the Great Migration, urbanization, and black expatriate
encounters with European culture consumers. Drawing on a range of
historical source materials as well as oral histories and personal
archives held by Broonzy's son, Greene perceptively interrogates
how notions of race, gender, and audience reception continue to
shape concepts of folk culture and musical authenticity.
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.
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Chicago Blues
(Paperback)
Mike Rowe, Ronald Radano
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R395
R332
Discovery Miles 3 320
Save R63 (16%)
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Chicago has always had a reputation as a "wide open town" with a
high tolerance for gangsters, illegal liquor, and crooked
politicians. It has also been the home for countless black
musicians and the birthplace of a distinctly urban blues,more
sophisticated, cynical, and street-smart than the anguished songs
of the Mississippi delta,a music called the Chicago blues. This is
the history of that music and the dozens of black artists who
congregated on the South and Near West Sides. Muddy Waters, Big
Bill Broonzy, Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James, Tampa Red, Little Walter,
Jimmy Reed, Otis Rush, Sonny Boy Williamson, Junior Wells, Eddie
Taylor,all of these giants played throughout the city and created a
musical style that had imitators and influence all over the world.
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