Download or read book Blues Musicians of the Mississippi Delta written by Steven Manheim and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2019-06-10 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mississippi Delta blues run as deep and mysterious as the beautiful land from where the music originates. Blues legends B.B. King, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, and countless other greats came from this region. The Delta blues, born as work songs in Mississippi cotton fields, was played on city street corners and in rural juke joints. With the Great Migration of African Americans in the first half of the 20th century, the Delta blues also made its way from Mississippi to Chicago. The sound of the blues would become the blueprint for the birth of rock and roll in Memphis in the 1950s. The era of the great Delta blues musicians is over, but their legacy remains an important chapter in American music. This book contains images of these important performers and the rich Delta landscapes that influenced their music.
Download or read book The Blues Singers Ten Who Rocked the World written by Julius Lester and published by Jump At The Sun. This book was released on 2001-05 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Highlights the careers of Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson, Mahalia Jackson, Muddy Waters, Billie Holiday, B.B. King, Ray Charles, Little Richard, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin.
Download or read book Jazz and Blues Musicians of South Carolina written by Benjamin Franklin V and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An oral history of musical genres from the Palmetto State musicians who helped define the sounds From Jabbo Smith, Dizzy Gillespie, and Drink Small to Johnny Helms, Dick Goodwin, and Chris Potter, South Carolina has been home to an impressive number of regionally, nationally, and internationally known jazz and blues musicians. Through richly detailed interviews with nineteen South Carolina musicians, jazz historian and radio host Benjamin Franklin V presents an oral history of the tradition and influence of jazz and the blues in the Palmetto State. Franklin takes as his subjects a range of musicians born between 1905 and 1971, representing every decade in between, to trace the progression of these musical genres from Tommy Benford's and Jabbo Smith's first recording sessions in the summer of 1926 to the present day. Diverse not only in age but also in race, gender, instruments, and style, these musicians exemplify the breadth of South Carolina's jazz and blues performers. In their own colorful words, the musicians recall love affairs with the distinctive sounds of jazz and blues, indoctrinations into the musical world, early gigs, fans, drugs, military service, amateur night at the Apollo Theater, and influential friendships with other well-known musicians. As the story of the South Carolina musical scene is tightly interwoven with that of the nation, these narratives also include appearances by Tony Bennett, Miles Davis, Count Basie, Helen Merrill, Pharoah Sanders, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and other significant musicians. These interviews also document the lasting value of music education. In particular they stress the importance of the famed Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston and of South Carolina State University in Orangeburg in nurturing young musicians' talent. Arranged in chronological order by the subjects' birth years, these interviews are augmented by photographs of the musicians, collectively serving as a unique record of representative jazz and blues musicians who have called South Carolina home.
Download or read book Whose Blues written by Adam Gussow and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mamie Smith's pathbreaking 1920 recording of "Crazy Blues" set the pop music world on fire, inaugurating a new African American market for "race records." Not long after, such records also brought black blues performance to an expanding international audience. A century later, the mainstream blues world has transformed into a multicultural and transnational melting pot, taking the music far beyond the black southern world of its origins. But not everybody is happy about that. If there's "No black. No white. Just the blues," as one familiar meme suggests, why do some blues people hear such pronouncements as an aggressive attempt at cultural appropriation and an erasure of traumatic histories that lie deep in the heart of the music? Then again, if "blues is black music," as some performers and critics insist, what should we make of the vibrant global blues scene, with its all-comers mix of nationalities and ethnicities? In Whose Blues?, award-winning blues scholar and performer Adam Gussow confronts these challenging questions head-on. Using blues literature and history as a cultural anchor, Gussow defines, interprets, and makes sense of the blues for the new millennium. Drawing on the blues tradition's major writers including W. C. Handy, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Amiri Baraka, and grounded in his first-person knowledge of the blues performance scene, Gussow's thought-provoking book kickstarts a long overdue conversation.
Download or read book An Encyclopedia of South Carolina Jazz Blues Musicians written by Benjamin Franklin and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2016-05-30 with total page 815 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive A-to-Z reference is “an impressive contribution to jazz history and surprisingly good reading” (Michael Ullman, author of Jazz Lives). This informative bookdocuments the careers of South Carolina jazz and blues musicians from the nineteenth century to the present. The musicians range from the renowned (James Brown, Dizzy Gillespie), to the notable (Freddie Green, Josh White), the largely forgotten (Fud Livingston, Josie Miles), the obscure (Lottie Frost Hightower, Horace “Spoons” Williams), and the unknown (Vince Arnold, Johnny Wilson). Though the term “jazz” is commonly understood, if difficult to define, “blues” has evolved over time to include R&B, doo-wop, and soul. Performers in these genres are also represented, as are members of the Jenkins Orphanage bands of Charleston. Also covered are nineteenth-century musicians who performed what might be called proto-jazz or proto-blues in string bands, medicine shows, vaudeville, and the like. Organized alphabetically, from Johnny Acey to Webster Young, the entries include basic biographical information, South Carolina residences, career details, compositions, recordings as leaders and as band members, films, awards, websites, and lists of resources for additional reading. Former host of Jazz in Retrospect on NPR Benjamin Franklin V has ensured biographical accuracy to the greatest degree possible by consulting numerous public documents, and information in these records permitted him to dispel myths and correct misinformation that have surrounded South Carolina’s musical history for generations. “Elucidates South Carolina as a profoundly crucial puzzle piece alongside New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City and New York.” —Harry Skoler, professor, Berklee College of Music Includes photos
Download or read book Blues Who s who written by Sheldon Harris and published by New York, N.Y. : Da Capo Press. This book was released on 1979 with total page 775 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rarely has a book received such unanimous praise as the Blue's Who's Who. Eighteen years of research and writing, most of it done by Sheldon Harris alone, have produced a reference book that has been accepted in the U.S., England, and Europe, as truly indispensable for anyone seriously interested in the history of country, city, folk, and rock blues. Covering all eras and styles, it features detailed biographies of 571 blues artists, 450 photographs, and hundreds of pages of carefully researched facts.
Download or read book Blues written by Dick Weissman and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2005 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents brief entries covering the history, significant artists, styles and influence of blues music.
Download or read book Children of the Blues written by Art Tipaldi and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Book). This book offers first-person recollections from a new generation of artists who applied the musical and life lessons of the fathers of the blues, stoking the 1960s blues revival that continues today. It focuses on 49 current musicians who preserve traditional blues forms while infusing them with fresh voices and lessons. Artists covered include: Rory Block * Taj Mahal * Robert Cray * Junior Watson * Charlie Musselwhite * Stevie Ray Vaughan * Marcia Ball * Duke Robillard * Bob Margolin * Tommy Shannon * Keb' Mo' * and many more.
Download or read book More Blues Singers written by David Dicaire and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-11-05 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book by David Dicaire, Blues Singers: Biographies of 50 Legendary Artists of the Early 20th Century, (McFarland, 1999), included pioneers, innovators, superstars, and cult heroes of blues music born before 1940. This second work covers those born after 1940 who have continued the tradition. This work has five sections, each with its own introduction. The first, Modern Acoustic Blues, covers artists that are major players on the acoustic blues scene of recent time, such as John Hammond, Jr. The second, Contemporary Chicago Blues, features artists of amplified, citified, gritty blues (Paul Butterfield and Melvin Taylor, among others). Section three, Modern American Electric Blues, includes some Texas blues singers such as Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimmie Vaughan and examines how the blues have spread throughout the United States. Contemporary Blues Women are in section four. Section five, Blues Around the World, covers artists from four different continents and twelve different countries. Each entry provides biographical and critical information on the artist, and a complete discography. A bibliography and supplemental discographies are also provided.
Download or read book Fictional Blues written by Kimberly Mack and published by African American Intellectual. This book was released on 2020 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The familiar story of Delta blues musician Robert Johnson, who sold his soul to the devil at a Mississippi crossroads in exchange for guitar virtuosity, and the violent stereotypes evoked by legendary blues "bad men" like Stagger Lee undergird the persistent racial myths surrounding "authentic" blues expression. Fictional Blues unpacks the figure of the American blues performer, moving from early singers such as Ma Rainey and Big Mama Thornton to contemporary musicians such as Amy Winehouse, Rhiannon Giddens, and Jack White to reveal that blues makers have long used their songs, performances, interviews, and writings to invent personas that resist racial, social, economic, and gendered oppression. Using examples of fictional and real-life blues artists culled from popular music and literary works from writers such as Walter Mosley, Alice Walker, and Sherman Alexie, Kimberly Mack demonstrates that the stories blues musicians construct about their lives (however factually slippery) are inextricably linked to the "primary story" of the narrative blues tradition, in which autobiography fuels musicians' reclamation of power and agency.
Download or read book Blues Hands written by Joseph A. Rosen and published by Schiffer Publishing. This book was released on 2015 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through images of hands, this book conveys the strength, beauty, diversity, depth, and power of the blues, the root of all American music. It features photographs from Joseph A. Rosen's 30-plus years of adventure in blues and music photography. Included are such noted music personalities as B.B. King, Gary Clark, Jr., Buddy Guy, Al Green, Willie King, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, The Blind Boys of Alabama, James Brown. The book holds rich treasures for lovers of music, photography, and the human form. One need not be deeply versed in the blues to appreciate the beauty, strength, and diversity of those who make it. With powerful imagery, as well as anecdotes and biographical information, Blues Hands tells a story of human experience.
Download or read book Chasing the Blues written by Josephine Matyas and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-09-15 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chasing the Blues explores the roots of the blues---the music birthed in the Mississippi Delta by African Americans who fashioned a new form of musical expression grounded in their shared experience of brutal oppression. They used the power of music to survive that oppression, creating a simple-in-structure, emotionally complex form that transformed and upended culture and became the bedrock of popular song. Tracing the music back to its geographical and cultural origins in the Delta is key to understanding how the blues were shaped. Over time, the Delta blues have touched virtually every form of popular music (rock and roll, soul, R&B, country-western, gospel), creating the soundscape of our lives. What makes this book unique? Fathoming how the music flowed from living and working conditions in the heart of the Deep South; appreciating how life-changing events like the Flood of 1927 sparked a mass migration away from plantation life, spreading the blues to the cities in the North and becoming the soundtrack to the civil rights movement; how blues musicians interacted, "cross-fertilizing" their music by learning, influencing, and imitating each other. The habits of travel are shifting, and there is more interest and a larger market for diving deep into destinations closer to home. Interest in Black history and culture and the role Black Americans played in shaping America is at an all-time high. By appreciating the roots of this most American style of music, readers will have a richer experience listening to songs and visiting blues' holy and sacred sites.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Louisiana Musicians written by Gene Tomko and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2020-03-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Louisiana’s unique multicultural history has led to the development of more styles of American music than anywhere else in the country. Encyclopedia of Louisiana Musicians compiles over 1,600 native creators, performers, and recorders of the state’s indigenous musical genres. The culmination of years of exhaustive research, Gene Tomko’s comprehensive volume not only reviews major and influential artists but also documents for the first time hundreds of lesser-known notable musicians. Arranged in accessible A–Z format—from Fernest “Man” Abshire to Zydeco Ray—Tomko’s concise entries detail each musician’s life and career, reflecting exciting new discoveries about many enigmatic and early artists: Country Jim, Henry Zeno, Douglas Bellard, Good Rockin’ Bob, Blind Uncle Gaspard, Emma L. Jackson, and Rocket Morgan, to name just a few. A separate section features musicians from elsewhere who made an impact in Louisiana, such as Mississippi-born blues singer-songwriter-guitarist Eddie “Guitar Slim” Jones and celebrated jazz pianist Billie Pierce, a native of Florida. The final section highlights key regional record producers and studio and label owners, like J. D. Miller, Stan Lewis, and Cosimo Matassa, who have enabled future generations to enjoy music of the Bayou State. Written with both the casual fan and the scholar in mind, Encyclopedia of Louisiana Musicians is the definitive reference on Louisiana’s rich musical legacy and the numerous important musicians it has produced.
Download or read book Escaping the Delta written by Elijah Wald and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2012-04-24 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The life of blues legend Robert Johnson becomes the centerpiece for this innovative look at what many consider to be America's deepest and most influential music genre. Pivotal are the questions surrounding why Johnson was ignored by the core black audience of his time yet now celebrated as the greatest figure in blues history. Trying to separate myth from reality, biographer Elijah Wald studies the blues from the inside -- not only examining recordings but also the recollections of the musicians themselves, the African-American press, as well as examining original research. What emerges is a new appreciation for the blues and the movement of its artists from the shadows of the 1930s Mississippi Delta to the mainstream venues frequented by today's loyal blues fans.
Download or read book More Blues Singers written by David Dicaire and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2001-12-19 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book by David Dicaire, Blues Singers: Biographies of 50 Legendary Artists of the Early 20th Century, (McFarland, 1999), included pioneers, innovators, superstars, and cult heroes of blues music born before 1940. This second work covers those born after 1940 who have continued the tradition. This work has five sections, each with its own introduction. The first, Modern Acoustic Blues, covers artists that are major players on the acoustic blues scene of recent time, such as John Hammond, Jr. The second, Contemporary Chicago Blues, features artists of amplified, citified, gritty blues (Paul Butterfield and Melvin Taylor, among others). Section three, Modern American Electric Blues, includes some Texas blues singers such as Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimmie Vaughan and examines how the blues have spread throughout the United States. Contemporary Blues Women are in section four. Section five, Blues Around the World, covers artists from four different continents and twelve different countries. Each entry provides biographical and critical information on the artist, and a complete discography. A bibliography and supplemental discographies are also provided.
Download or read book Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues A Musical Journey written by Peter Guralnick and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2004-11-02 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A companion to the groundbreaking PBS documentary series, this volume is a unique and timeless celebration of the blues, from writers and artists as esteemed and revered as the music that moved them. Included in this stunning collection are Essays by David Halberstam, Hilton Als, Suzan-Lori Parks, Elmore Leonard, Luc Sante, John Edgar Wideman, and many others Timeless archival pieces by writers such as Stanley Booth, Paul Oliver, and Mack McCormick Evocative color illustrations and rare vintage photography Illuminating and in-depth conversations and portraits of musicians, ranging from Robert Johnson and Bessie Smith to John Lee Hooker and Eric Clapton Lyrics of legendary blues compositions Personal essays by the series directors Martin Scorsese, Charles Burnett, Richard Pearce, Wim Wenders, Marc Levin, Mike Figgis, and Clint Eastwood Excerpts from literary masters James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Eudora Welty, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and William Faulkner Tracing the art form's path from juke joints, house parties, and recording studios to musicians such as Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, and The Beatles, Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues proves, in the words of Willie Dixon, "The blues are the roots; every-thing else is the fruits."
Download or read book Blues Singers written by David Dicaire and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-11-05 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This reference volume is intended for both the casual and the most avid blues fan. It is divided into five separately introduced sections and covers 50 artists with names like Muddy, Gatemouth and Hound Dog who helped shape 20th-century American music. Beginning with the pioneering Mississippi Delta bluesmen, the book then follows the spread of the genre to the city, in the section on the Chicago Blues School. The third segment covers the Texas blues tradition; the fourth, the great blueswomen; and the fifth, the genre’s development outside its main schools. The styles covered range from Virginia-Piedmont to Bentonia and from barrelhouse to boogie-woogie. The main text is augmented by substantial discographies and a lengthy bibliography.
