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The Blues: A Very Short Introduction [#247]
The Blues: A Very Short Introduction [#247]
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  • Features blues stars Ma Rainey, Jelly Roll Morton, W.C. Handy, Alberta Hunter, Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, the Memphis Jug Band, and Charlie Patton
  • Provides a concise history of a musical genre that interests both jazz and folk fans, and students of popular music
  • Bestselling author of How the Beatles Destroyed Rock n' Roll: published by OUP in June 2009 and has sold over 10,000 copies to date

 
Praised as "suave, soulful, ebullient" (Tom Waits) and "a meticulous researcher, a graceful writer, and a committed contrarian" (New York Times Book Review), Elijah Wald is one of the leading popular music critics of his generation. In The Blues, Wald surveys a genre at the heart of American culture. 
 
It is not an easy thing to pin down. As Howlin' Wolf once described it, "When you ain't got no money and can't pay your house rent and can't buy you no food, you've damn sure got the blues." It has been defined by lyrical structure, or as a progression of chords, or as a set of practices reflecting West African "tonal and rhythmic approaches," using a five-note "blues scale." Wald sees blues less as a style than as a broad musical tradition within a constantly evolving pop culture. He traces its roots in work and praise songs, and shows how it was transformed by such professional performers as W. C. Handy, who first popularized the blues a century ago. He follows its evolution from Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith through Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix; identifies the impact of rural field recordings of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton and others; explores the role of blues in the development of both country music and jazz; and looks at the popular rhythm and blues trends of the 1940s and 1950s, from the uptown West Coast style of T-Bone Walker to the "down home" Chicago sound of Muddy Waters. Wald brings the story up to the present, touching on the effects of blues on American poetry, and its connection to modern styles such as rap.

Index: 

List of illustrations
Introduction

Part I: A short history of blues
1. Roots of the blues
2. Prewar blues
3. Modern blues

Part II: Blues in American culture
4. Blues and jazz
5. Blues and country music
6. The language and poetry of the blues

References
Further reading
Index

About the author: 

Elijah Wald, teaches blues history, UCLA
 
Elijah Wald is a musician who teaches blues history at UCLA. His books include How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll, Global Minstrels, and Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues.

"A history needn't be long to be both thorough and illuminating. Mr. Wald's no-nonsense 152-page study of the blues deromanticizes a musical genre about which vast amounts of fuzzy-minded nonsense have been written. It would be impossible to pack more critical wisdom-or common sense-into a smaller, shapelier package." - Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal

Product details

ISBN : 9780195398939

Author: 
Elijah Wald
Pages
152 Pages
Format
Paperback
Size
111 x 174 mm
Pub date
Aug 2010
Series
Very Short Introductions
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The Blues: A Very Short Introduction [#247]

The Blues: A Very Short Introduction [#247]

The Blues: A Very Short Introduction [#247]