dkai's review
5.0
Take it with some grains of salt, and it's a hearty meal.
I came looking for a book to inform me about blues (and to a lesser extent, jazz), and boy, did I get it. Starting from the time of slavery and moving all the way through cool jazz, the author covers everything in great historical detail. There's analysis of individual musicians, styles, cultural movements, historical events, migrations, etc. Baraka weaves everything together quite well, whether it is talking about one musician's direct influence on another, or drawing comparisons to earlier events. If you have never read books on blues, it's hard to beat starting with this one.
It is true that the author colors the book with his opinion. In my opinion, this is necessary. I do not read just to be informed; I want to have my ideas challenged, to argue or agree with the author in my head, and find out what his thoughts are, rather than mere historical facts. I don't think his opinions skew the facts that much, and it is easy to separate the facts from the thoughts. Essentially, in my opinion you can't write a good history on blues without some bias.
I came looking for a book to inform me about blues (and to a lesser extent, jazz), and boy, did I get it. Starting from the time of slavery and moving all the way through cool jazz, the author covers everything in great historical detail. There's analysis of individual musicians, styles, cultural movements, historical events, migrations, etc. Baraka weaves everything together quite well, whether it is talking about one musician's direct influence on another, or drawing comparisons to earlier events. If you have never read books on blues, it's hard to beat starting with this one.
It is true that the author colors the book with his opinion. In my opinion, this is necessary. I do not read just to be informed; I want to have my ideas challenged, to argue or agree with the author in my head, and find out what his thoughts are, rather than mere historical facts. I don't think his opinions skew the facts that much, and it is easy to separate the facts from the thoughts. Essentially, in my opinion you can't write a good history on blues without some bias.
sabinaleybold's review
4.0
This book details the history of blues, jazz, and other African-derived musical genres. He describes how culture and music affect each other, and the history of race relations in the United States via the interaction between African-influenced and European-influenced music. His explanations of why certain musical elements are important really helped me understand the different genres and have a greater appreciation for both blues and jazz. Towards the end, however, he switches to highly specific, technical discussion of artists and musical terms, and I was LOST.
I'd give this book 3.5/5 stars, but rounded up to 4 for Goodreads.
Read for the Read Harder Challenge, read a book written by someone of the opposite gender.
I'd give this book 3.5/5 stars, but rounded up to 4 for Goodreads.
Read for the Read Harder Challenge, read a book written by someone of the opposite gender.
grcendjako's review
5.0
Great book that gives an insight not just to the history of Blues music and its further developments, but also gives a history of the sociocultural context in which it arose.
alexbond3's review
4.0
Amiri Baraka was a 29-year-old hepcat Beat poet when he wrote this in 1963, and his ambition is to trace the history of African Americans and their culture, from slavery to the 1960s, through their music, primarily blues and jazz. His writing is highly academic in tone, and he seems deadly serious about all this. There’s a lot going on in the book and it’s pretty dense, but it’s hard to fault his conviction (often angry and defiant but usually convincing) or style (über-cool but engaged). It takes guts to declare a whole school of jazz (swing) to be inauthentic and lacking in cultural value precisely because it came about when white people discovered an amazing music African Americans were playing, took it, and made it mainstream (thereby debasing it). Then again, you’d likely be hard pressed to find a jazz historian that thinks Benny Goodman, the “King of Swing”, was any more important than many of his black peers. Baraka might seem a bit angry here... but he’s right! It’s when he writes glowingly about Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, bebop, and more that the book really soars.
cranee1356's review
3.0
In his book Blues People, LeRoi Jones claims that this dual nature of bebop music was only possible because of the separation of blacks within American society and the continuity of the authentic expression of the blues.
Beginning with the first Africans brought to North America, Jones argues that there has been a division in the black community. This division is between the “blues people” and the assimilationists. Jones defines blues people by quoting Ralph Ellison: “those who accepted and lived close to their folk experience” (176). The assimilationists, in contrast, wanted only to become fully incorporated into mainstream American society and “wanted to erase; then, the early history of the Negro in America” (124). Following emancipation, these assimilationists adopted the mores of white America and began pursuing material wealth. This was the beginning of the African American bourgeois. The blues people were thereby separated from mainstream America by racism and from their fellow African Americans through class stratification and the divergence of cultural values.
Jones claims that this separation is clearly evident in the various styles of music that became popular with each group. The blues people listened to all forms of the blues in their everyday life. Primitive blues, classic blues, blues-oriented dance bands, country blues, and urban blues were all simultaneously present within the musical zeitgeist, reproduced through recordings and transmitted through radio forming what Jones refers to as the “blues continuum.” Rhythm and blues extended this continuum and revived the demand for other forms of the blues in the late thirties as blues singers began to shout over loud percussion sections and amplified instruments. Rhythm and blues became popular, but only amongst the black working class. Jones argues that the black middle-class did not listen to the blues because it was a reminder of slavery; an ugly fact that needs to be forgotten in order to assimilate into American culture. Blues is an artifact of a past time when the black bourgeois did not hold a higher socio-economic status over other African Americans.
The music of the black middle-class was the music of white America. However, this music was frequently whitewashed caricatures of more authentic African American styles. White bands were the first to record their attempts at emulating of Jazz. Ragtime incorporated rhythmic characteristics from black music. Swing bands took components of Jazz to create a commercialized product that became the popular music of mainstream America. This commodification of the music led to the development of a litany of carbon-copy big-bands that churned out music devoid of artistic merit and cultural relevance. Jones writes that “swing had no meaning for blues people” (181).
The music of bebop grew out of the sociological and historical milieu of the 1940s and as a rebellion against this passionless swing music. African Americans fought during World War II in greater numbers than any previous war. Even though there were still segregated troops this participation moved many blacks towards the mainstream of society as they began to identify as American citizens. Concomitantly, African Americans worked for various defense plants earning relatively high salaries allowing them to enter the middle-class. This growth of the middle-class accompanied huge growth in blacks attaining high school education and college diplomas. Leveling forces within American society were increasing the amount of interaction between blacks and whites at schools, movie theaters, sporting events, and on the job. Yet, at the same time African Americans were still treated as subhumans by white America. African Americans had adopted the American dream and had succeeded but were still marginalized through the bigotry of the majority. This bred a discontent and anger that led to bloody riots and to the creation of organizations that lobbied for civil rights. Many African American college graduates accepted that their degree was not worth the same as a white man's and opted to perform Jazz music instead of a “traditional career”.
War time stresses made smaller jazz troupes a more economical choice for venues rather than the large swing bands. These smaller bands allowed each musician greater autonomy and personal expression. Young jazz musicians like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker in New York City began innovating and expanding upon the continuous tradition of the blues. They began improvising solos based on harmonic progression instead of variations on the melody, creating complex polyrhythms. These musicians started to view themselves as artists as opposed to mere entertainers. Jones argues that the emergence of bebop “abruptly lifted jazz completely out of the middle-class Negro's life” (199). This new music was more popular amongst young white intellectuals than the black middle-class. These young people were rebelling against the very norms and mores that the black middle-class were so eager to adopt.
The critical reception to bebop was similar to the reaction of the black bourgeois and of the majority of white America. The popular music associated with African Americans at this point in time is swing. Swing music and bebop operated within entirely different aesthetics. Swing music was a carefree diversion that emphasized arranged music with very clean sounds. In contrast, bebop was a politically charged and serious-minded music. Emphasis was placed on improvisation and the creation of unique sounds and harmonic colors. The negative reaction of the critics to early bebop could have been predicted. The critics were employing the aesthetic standards of other musical styles to a music that was so innovative that it needed to be evaluated on its own terms. The beboppers did not want to be appreciated by the mainstream critics. They were intentionally making a music that was a counterpoint to the diluted popular styles. This type of artistic integrity can fly in the face of the values of the majority. People started fist-fights in the audience when The Rite of Spring was first performed in Paris.
The crucial element that facilitated the incredibly innovative artistic outpouring of many African Americans was the extent of their marginalization within American society. The existence of a separate subculture allowed for the music to develop in a direction that was in stark opposition to the commercialized popular music. Jones argues that there was a cultural lag between the white and black communities so that whites would be influenced by music much after its creation in the black community.
Beginning with the first Africans brought to North America, Jones argues that there has been a division in the black community. This division is between the “blues people” and the assimilationists. Jones defines blues people by quoting Ralph Ellison: “those who accepted and lived close to their folk experience” (176). The assimilationists, in contrast, wanted only to become fully incorporated into mainstream American society and “wanted to erase; then, the early history of the Negro in America” (124). Following emancipation, these assimilationists adopted the mores of white America and began pursuing material wealth. This was the beginning of the African American bourgeois. The blues people were thereby separated from mainstream America by racism and from their fellow African Americans through class stratification and the divergence of cultural values.
Jones claims that this separation is clearly evident in the various styles of music that became popular with each group. The blues people listened to all forms of the blues in their everyday life. Primitive blues, classic blues, blues-oriented dance bands, country blues, and urban blues were all simultaneously present within the musical zeitgeist, reproduced through recordings and transmitted through radio forming what Jones refers to as the “blues continuum.” Rhythm and blues extended this continuum and revived the demand for other forms of the blues in the late thirties as blues singers began to shout over loud percussion sections and amplified instruments. Rhythm and blues became popular, but only amongst the black working class. Jones argues that the black middle-class did not listen to the blues because it was a reminder of slavery; an ugly fact that needs to be forgotten in order to assimilate into American culture. Blues is an artifact of a past time when the black bourgeois did not hold a higher socio-economic status over other African Americans.
The music of the black middle-class was the music of white America. However, this music was frequently whitewashed caricatures of more authentic African American styles. White bands were the first to record their attempts at emulating of Jazz. Ragtime incorporated rhythmic characteristics from black music. Swing bands took components of Jazz to create a commercialized product that became the popular music of mainstream America. This commodification of the music led to the development of a litany of carbon-copy big-bands that churned out music devoid of artistic merit and cultural relevance. Jones writes that “swing had no meaning for blues people” (181).
The music of bebop grew out of the sociological and historical milieu of the 1940s and as a rebellion against this passionless swing music. African Americans fought during World War II in greater numbers than any previous war. Even though there were still segregated troops this participation moved many blacks towards the mainstream of society as they began to identify as American citizens. Concomitantly, African Americans worked for various defense plants earning relatively high salaries allowing them to enter the middle-class. This growth of the middle-class accompanied huge growth in blacks attaining high school education and college diplomas. Leveling forces within American society were increasing the amount of interaction between blacks and whites at schools, movie theaters, sporting events, and on the job. Yet, at the same time African Americans were still treated as subhumans by white America. African Americans had adopted the American dream and had succeeded but were still marginalized through the bigotry of the majority. This bred a discontent and anger that led to bloody riots and to the creation of organizations that lobbied for civil rights. Many African American college graduates accepted that their degree was not worth the same as a white man's and opted to perform Jazz music instead of a “traditional career”.
War time stresses made smaller jazz troupes a more economical choice for venues rather than the large swing bands. These smaller bands allowed each musician greater autonomy and personal expression. Young jazz musicians like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker in New York City began innovating and expanding upon the continuous tradition of the blues. They began improvising solos based on harmonic progression instead of variations on the melody, creating complex polyrhythms. These musicians started to view themselves as artists as opposed to mere entertainers. Jones argues that the emergence of bebop “abruptly lifted jazz completely out of the middle-class Negro's life” (199). This new music was more popular amongst young white intellectuals than the black middle-class. These young people were rebelling against the very norms and mores that the black middle-class were so eager to adopt.
The critical reception to bebop was similar to the reaction of the black bourgeois and of the majority of white America. The popular music associated with African Americans at this point in time is swing. Swing music and bebop operated within entirely different aesthetics. Swing music was a carefree diversion that emphasized arranged music with very clean sounds. In contrast, bebop was a politically charged and serious-minded music. Emphasis was placed on improvisation and the creation of unique sounds and harmonic colors. The negative reaction of the critics to early bebop could have been predicted. The critics were employing the aesthetic standards of other musical styles to a music that was so innovative that it needed to be evaluated on its own terms. The beboppers did not want to be appreciated by the mainstream critics. They were intentionally making a music that was a counterpoint to the diluted popular styles. This type of artistic integrity can fly in the face of the values of the majority. People started fist-fights in the audience when The Rite of Spring was first performed in Paris.
The crucial element that facilitated the incredibly innovative artistic outpouring of many African Americans was the extent of their marginalization within American society. The existence of a separate subculture allowed for the music to develop in a direction that was in stark opposition to the commercialized popular music. Jones argues that there was a cultural lag between the white and black communities so that whites would be influenced by music much after its creation in the black community.
aimiller's review
4.0
A very interesting study. Baraka makes some fascinating points, and other, more troubling points, about the connection between blues and African American culture. Some of it feels oversimpified, some of his points contradict, but it all provides an immense jumping-off point for the rest of jazz historiography.
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