Author: Daniel Beaumont
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199753121
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 217
Book Description
In June of 1964, three young, white blues fans set out from New York City in a Volkswagen, heading for the Mississippi Delta in search of a musical legend. So begins Preachin' the Blues, the biography of American blues signer and guitarist Eddie James "Son" House, Jr. (1902 - 1988). House pioneered an innovative style, incorporating strong repetitive rhythms with elements of southern gospel and spiritual vocals. A seminal figure in the history of the Delta blues, he was an important, direct influence on such figures as Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson. The landscape of Son House's life and the vicissitudes he endured make for an absorbing narrative, threaded through with a tension between House's religious beliefs and his spells of commitment to a lifestyle that implicitly rejected it. Drinking, womanizing, and singing the blues caused this tension that is palpable in his music, and becomes explicit in one of his finest performances, "Preachin' the Blues." Large parts of House's life are obscure, not least because his own accounts of them were inconsistent. Author Daniel Beaumont offers a chronology/topography of House's youth, taking into account evidence that conflicts sharply with the well-worn fable, and he illuminates the obscurity of House's two decades in Rochester, NY between his departure from Mississippi in the 1940s and his "rediscovery" by members of the Folk Revival Movement in 1964. Beaumont gives a detailed and perceptive account of House's primary musical legacy: his recordings for Paramount in 1930 and for the Library of Congress in 1941-42. In the course of his research Beaumont has unearthed not only connections among the many scattered facts and fictions but new information about a rumoured murder in Mississippi, and a charge of manslaughter on Long Island - incidents which bring tragic light upon House's lifelong struggles and self-imposed disappearance, and give trenchant meaning to the moving music of this early blues legend.
Preachin' the Blues
Author: Daniel Beaumont
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199753121
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 217
Book Description
In June of 1964, three young, white blues fans set out from New York City in a Volkswagen, heading for the Mississippi Delta in search of a musical legend. So begins Preachin' the Blues, the biography of American blues signer and guitarist Eddie James "Son" House, Jr. (1902 - 1988). House pioneered an innovative style, incorporating strong repetitive rhythms with elements of southern gospel and spiritual vocals. A seminal figure in the history of the Delta blues, he was an important, direct influence on such figures as Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson. The landscape of Son House's life and the vicissitudes he endured make for an absorbing narrative, threaded through with a tension between House's religious beliefs and his spells of commitment to a lifestyle that implicitly rejected it. Drinking, womanizing, and singing the blues caused this tension that is palpable in his music, and becomes explicit in one of his finest performances, "Preachin' the Blues." Large parts of House's life are obscure, not least because his own accounts of them were inconsistent. Author Daniel Beaumont offers a chronology/topography of House's youth, taking into account evidence that conflicts sharply with the well-worn fable, and he illuminates the obscurity of House's two decades in Rochester, NY between his departure from Mississippi in the 1940s and his "rediscovery" by members of the Folk Revival Movement in 1964. Beaumont gives a detailed and perceptive account of House's primary musical legacy: his recordings for Paramount in 1930 and for the Library of Congress in 1941-42. In the course of his research Beaumont has unearthed not only connections among the many scattered facts and fictions but new information about a rumoured murder in Mississippi, and a charge of manslaughter on Long Island - incidents which bring tragic light upon House's lifelong struggles and self-imposed disappearance, and give trenchant meaning to the moving music of this early blues legend.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199753121
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 217
Book Description
In June of 1964, three young, white blues fans set out from New York City in a Volkswagen, heading for the Mississippi Delta in search of a musical legend. So begins Preachin' the Blues, the biography of American blues signer and guitarist Eddie James "Son" House, Jr. (1902 - 1988). House pioneered an innovative style, incorporating strong repetitive rhythms with elements of southern gospel and spiritual vocals. A seminal figure in the history of the Delta blues, he was an important, direct influence on such figures as Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson. The landscape of Son House's life and the vicissitudes he endured make for an absorbing narrative, threaded through with a tension between House's religious beliefs and his spells of commitment to a lifestyle that implicitly rejected it. Drinking, womanizing, and singing the blues caused this tension that is palpable in his music, and becomes explicit in one of his finest performances, "Preachin' the Blues." Large parts of House's life are obscure, not least because his own accounts of them were inconsistent. Author Daniel Beaumont offers a chronology/topography of House's youth, taking into account evidence that conflicts sharply with the well-worn fable, and he illuminates the obscurity of House's two decades in Rochester, NY between his departure from Mississippi in the 1940s and his "rediscovery" by members of the Folk Revival Movement in 1964. Beaumont gives a detailed and perceptive account of House's primary musical legacy: his recordings for Paramount in 1930 and for the Library of Congress in 1941-42. In the course of his research Beaumont has unearthed not only connections among the many scattered facts and fictions but new information about a rumoured murder in Mississippi, and a charge of manslaughter on Long Island - incidents which bring tragic light upon House's lifelong struggles and self-imposed disappearance, and give trenchant meaning to the moving music of this early blues legend.
Blues Legacies and Black Feminism
Author: Angela Y. Davis
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 030757444X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 465
Book Description
From one of this country's most important intellectuals comes a brilliant analysis of the blues tradition that examines the careers of three crucial black women blues singers through a feminist lens. Angela Davis provides the historical, social, and political contexts with which to reinterpret the performances and lyrics of Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday as powerful articulations of an alternative consciousness profoundly at odds with mainstream American culture. The works of Rainey, Smith, and Holiday have been largely misunderstood by critics. Overlooked, Davis shows, has been the way their candor and bravado laid the groundwork for an aesthetic that allowed for the celebration of social, moral, and sexual values outside the constraints imposed by middle-class respectability. Through meticulous transcriptions of all the extant lyrics of Rainey and Smith−published here in their entirety for the first time−Davis demonstrates how the roots of the blues extend beyond a musical tradition to serve as a conciousness-raising vehicle for American social memory. A stunning, indispensable contribution to American history, as boldly insightful as the women Davis praises, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism is a triumph.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 030757444X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 465
Book Description
From one of this country's most important intellectuals comes a brilliant analysis of the blues tradition that examines the careers of three crucial black women blues singers through a feminist lens. Angela Davis provides the historical, social, and political contexts with which to reinterpret the performances and lyrics of Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday as powerful articulations of an alternative consciousness profoundly at odds with mainstream American culture. The works of Rainey, Smith, and Holiday have been largely misunderstood by critics. Overlooked, Davis shows, has been the way their candor and bravado laid the groundwork for an aesthetic that allowed for the celebration of social, moral, and sexual values outside the constraints imposed by middle-class respectability. Through meticulous transcriptions of all the extant lyrics of Rainey and Smith−published here in their entirety for the first time−Davis demonstrates how the roots of the blues extend beyond a musical tradition to serve as a conciousness-raising vehicle for American social memory. A stunning, indispensable contribution to American history, as boldly insightful as the women Davis praises, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism is a triumph.
Up Jumped the Devil
Author: Bruce Conforth
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 1641600977
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 347
Book Description
The Penderyn 2020 Music Book Prize (UK edition) Living Blues Critics Choice Best Blues Book of 2019 Living Blues Readers Choice Best Blues Book of 2019 Certificate of Merit in the Best Historical Research in Recorded Blues, Soul, Gospel, or R&B category from ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections) An essential story of blues lore, black culture, and American music history Robert Johnson's recordings, made in 1936 and 1937, have profoundly influenced generations of singers, guitarists, and songwriters. Yet until now, his short life—he was murdered at the age of 27—has been poorly documented. Gayle Dean Wardlow has been interviewing people who knew Johnson since the early 1960s, and he was the person who discovered Johnson's death certificate in 1967. Bruce Conforth began his study of Johnson's life and music in 1970 and made it his mission to fill in what was still unknown about him. In this definitive biography, the two authors relied on every interview, resource, and document, much of it material no one has seen before. This is the first book about Johnson that documents his lifelong relationship with family and friends in Memphis, details his trip to New York, uncovers where and when his wife Virginia died and the impact this had on him, fully portrays the other women Johnson was involved with and tells exactly how and why he died and who gave him the poison that killed him. Up Jumped the Devil will astonish blues fans worldwide by painting a living, breathing portrait of a man who was heretofore little more than a legend.
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 1641600977
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 347
Book Description
The Penderyn 2020 Music Book Prize (UK edition) Living Blues Critics Choice Best Blues Book of 2019 Living Blues Readers Choice Best Blues Book of 2019 Certificate of Merit in the Best Historical Research in Recorded Blues, Soul, Gospel, or R&B category from ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections) An essential story of blues lore, black culture, and American music history Robert Johnson's recordings, made in 1936 and 1937, have profoundly influenced generations of singers, guitarists, and songwriters. Yet until now, his short life—he was murdered at the age of 27—has been poorly documented. Gayle Dean Wardlow has been interviewing people who knew Johnson since the early 1960s, and he was the person who discovered Johnson's death certificate in 1967. Bruce Conforth began his study of Johnson's life and music in 1970 and made it his mission to fill in what was still unknown about him. In this definitive biography, the two authors relied on every interview, resource, and document, much of it material no one has seen before. This is the first book about Johnson that documents his lifelong relationship with family and friends in Memphis, details his trip to New York, uncovers where and when his wife Virginia died and the impact this had on him, fully portrays the other women Johnson was involved with and tells exactly how and why he died and who gave him the poison that killed him. Up Jumped the Devil will astonish blues fans worldwide by painting a living, breathing portrait of a man who was heretofore little more than a legend.
Blue Note Preaching in a Post-Soul World
Author: Otis Moss III
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 1611646324
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 136
Book Description
"Can preaching recover a Blues sensibility and dare speak with authority in the midst of tragedy? America is living stormy Monday, but the pulpit is preaching happy Sunday. The world is experiencing the Blues, and pulpiteers are dispensing excessive doses of non-prescribed prosaic sermons with severe ecclesiastical and theological side effects." â€"from chapter 1 Uniquely gifted preacher Otis Moss III helps preachers effectively communicate hope in a desperate and difficult world in this new work based on his 2014 Yale Lyman Beecher Lectures. Moss challenges preachers to preach with a "Blue Note sensibility," which speaks directly to the tragedies faced by their congregants without falling into despair. He then offers four powerful sermons that illustrate his Blue Note preaching style. In them, Moss beautifully and passionately brings to life biblical characters that speak to today's pressing issues, including race discrimination and police brutality, while maintaining a strong message of hope. Moss shows how preachers can teach their congregations to resist letting the darkness find its way into them and, instead, learn to dance in the dark.
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 1611646324
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 136
Book Description
"Can preaching recover a Blues sensibility and dare speak with authority in the midst of tragedy? America is living stormy Monday, but the pulpit is preaching happy Sunday. The world is experiencing the Blues, and pulpiteers are dispensing excessive doses of non-prescribed prosaic sermons with severe ecclesiastical and theological side effects." â€"from chapter 1 Uniquely gifted preacher Otis Moss III helps preachers effectively communicate hope in a desperate and difficult world in this new work based on his 2014 Yale Lyman Beecher Lectures. Moss challenges preachers to preach with a "Blue Note sensibility," which speaks directly to the tragedies faced by their congregants without falling into despair. He then offers four powerful sermons that illustrate his Blue Note preaching style. In them, Moss beautifully and passionately brings to life biblical characters that speak to today's pressing issues, including race discrimination and police brutality, while maintaining a strong message of hope. Moss shows how preachers can teach their congregations to resist letting the darkness find its way into them and, instead, learn to dance in the dark.
I'd Rather Be the Devil
Author: Stephen Calt
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 1556527462
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 401
Book Description
Skip James (1902–1969) was perhaps the most creative and idiosyncratic of all blues musicians. Drawing on hundreds of hours of conversations with James himself, Stephen Calt here paints a dark and unforgettable portrait of a man untroubled by his own murderous inclinations, a man who achieved one moment of transcendent greatness in a life haunted by failure. And in doing so, Calt offers new insights into the nature of the blues, the world in which it thrived, and its fate when that world vanished.
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 1556527462
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 401
Book Description
Skip James (1902–1969) was perhaps the most creative and idiosyncratic of all blues musicians. Drawing on hundreds of hours of conversations with James himself, Stephen Calt here paints a dark and unforgettable portrait of a man untroubled by his own murderous inclinations, a man who achieved one moment of transcendent greatness in a life haunted by failure. And in doing so, Calt offers new insights into the nature of the blues, the world in which it thrived, and its fate when that world vanished.
The Real Blues Book (Songbook)
Author: Hal Leonard Corp.
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 145848954X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 851
Book Description
(Fake Book). Since the 1970s, The Real Book has been the most popular book for gigging jazz musicians. Hal Leonard is proud to publish completely legal and legitimate editions of the original volumes as well as exciting new volumes to carry on the tradition to new generations of players in all styles of music! All the Real Books feature hundreds of time-tested songs in accurate arrangements in the famous easy-to-read, hand-written notation. 300 blues essentials are included in this collection: All Your Love (I Miss Loving) * Baby Please Don't Go * Big Boss Man * Blues Before Sunrise * The Blues Is Alright * Boom Boom * Born Under a Bad Sign * Cheaper to Keep Her * Come on in My Kitchen * Crosscut Saw * Damn Right, I've Got the Blues * Dust My Broom * Every Day I Have the Blues * Evil * Five Long Years * Further on up the Road * Gangster of Love * Give Me Back My Wig * Good Morning Little Schoolgirl * Got My Mo Jo Working * Have You Ever Loved a Woman * Hide Away * How Long, How Long Blues * I Ain't Got You * I Got Love If You Want It * I'm Tore Down * I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man * It Hurts Me Too * Juke * Key to the Highway * Killing Floor * Let Me Love You Baby * Look on Yonder's Wall * Mama Talk to Your Daughter * Master Charge * Messin' with the Kid * My Babe * Phone Booth * Pride and Joy * Reconsider Baby * Rock Me Baby * Rock Me Right * Smokestack Lightning * Somebody Loan Me a Dime * Statesboro Blues * (They Call It) Stormy Monday (Stormy Monday Blues) * Sweet Home Chicago * Texas Flood * The Things That I Used to Do * The Thrill Is Gone * Wang Dang Doodle * and more.
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 145848954X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 851
Book Description
(Fake Book). Since the 1970s, The Real Book has been the most popular book for gigging jazz musicians. Hal Leonard is proud to publish completely legal and legitimate editions of the original volumes as well as exciting new volumes to carry on the tradition to new generations of players in all styles of music! All the Real Books feature hundreds of time-tested songs in accurate arrangements in the famous easy-to-read, hand-written notation. 300 blues essentials are included in this collection: All Your Love (I Miss Loving) * Baby Please Don't Go * Big Boss Man * Blues Before Sunrise * The Blues Is Alright * Boom Boom * Born Under a Bad Sign * Cheaper to Keep Her * Come on in My Kitchen * Crosscut Saw * Damn Right, I've Got the Blues * Dust My Broom * Every Day I Have the Blues * Evil * Five Long Years * Further on up the Road * Gangster of Love * Give Me Back My Wig * Good Morning Little Schoolgirl * Got My Mo Jo Working * Have You Ever Loved a Woman * Hide Away * How Long, How Long Blues * I Ain't Got You * I Got Love If You Want It * I'm Tore Down * I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man * It Hurts Me Too * Juke * Key to the Highway * Killing Floor * Let Me Love You Baby * Look on Yonder's Wall * Mama Talk to Your Daughter * Master Charge * Messin' with the Kid * My Babe * Phone Booth * Pride and Joy * Reconsider Baby * Rock Me Baby * Rock Me Right * Smokestack Lightning * Somebody Loan Me a Dime * Statesboro Blues * (They Call It) Stormy Monday (Stormy Monday Blues) * Sweet Home Chicago * Texas Flood * The Things That I Used to Do * The Thrill Is Gone * Wang Dang Doodle * and more.
Blues & Chaos
Author: Robert Palmer
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416599754
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 482
Book Description
A collection of previously published articles and criticism by famed music critic Robert Palmer.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416599754
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 482
Book Description
A collection of previously published articles and criticism by famed music critic Robert Palmer.
The Blues Encyclopedia
Author: Edward Komara
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135958327
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 1279
Book Description
The first full-length authoritative Encyclopedia on the Blues as a musical form. A to Z in format, this work covers not only the performers, but also musical styles, regions, record labels and cultural aspects of the blues.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135958327
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 1279
Book Description
The first full-length authoritative Encyclopedia on the Blues as a musical form. A to Z in format, this work covers not only the performers, but also musical styles, regions, record labels and cultural aspects of the blues.
Encyclopedia of the Blues
Author: Edward M. Komara
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 0415926998
Category : Blues
Languages : en
Pages : 1274
Book Description
This comprehensive two-volume set brings together all aspects of the blues from performers and musical styles to record labels and cultural issues, including regional evolution and history. Organized in an accessible A-to-Z format, the Encyclopedia of the Blues is an essential reference resource for information on this unique American music genre. For a full list of entries, contributors, and more, visit the Encyclopedia of the Blues website.
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 0415926998
Category : Blues
Languages : en
Pages : 1274
Book Description
This comprehensive two-volume set brings together all aspects of the blues from performers and musical styles to record labels and cultural issues, including regional evolution and history. Organized in an accessible A-to-Z format, the Encyclopedia of the Blues is an essential reference resource for information on this unique American music genre. For a full list of entries, contributors, and more, visit the Encyclopedia of the Blues website.
Really the Blues
Author: Mezz Mezzrow
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1590179463
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 464
Book Description
Mezz Mezzrow was a boy from Chicago who learned to play the sax in reform school and pursued a life in music and a life of crime. He moved from Chicago to New Orleans to New York, working in brothels and bars, bootlegging, dealing drugs, getting hooked, doing time, producing records, and playing with the greats, among them Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, and Fats Waller. Really the Blues, the jive-talking memoir that Mezzrow wrote at the insistence of, and with the help of, the novelist Bernard Wolfe, is the story of an unusual and unusually American life, and a portrait of a man who moved freely across racial boundaries when few could or did, “the odyssey of an individualist . . . the saga of a guy who wanted to make friends in a jungle where everyone was too busy making money.”
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1590179463
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 464
Book Description
Mezz Mezzrow was a boy from Chicago who learned to play the sax in reform school and pursued a life in music and a life of crime. He moved from Chicago to New Orleans to New York, working in brothels and bars, bootlegging, dealing drugs, getting hooked, doing time, producing records, and playing with the greats, among them Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, and Fats Waller. Really the Blues, the jive-talking memoir that Mezzrow wrote at the insistence of, and with the help of, the novelist Bernard Wolfe, is the story of an unusual and unusually American life, and a portrait of a man who moved freely across racial boundaries when few could or did, “the odyssey of an individualist . . . the saga of a guy who wanted to make friends in a jungle where everyone was too busy making money.”