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Summary: music as a human expression
Review: Amiri Baraka (aka Leroy Jones) wrote a book about the move from Africa to slavery and from slavery to citizenship, and from "African to Negro" in his words. As music was the most profound artistic expression of this move, Baraka analyses each stage of social change through the music it produced.
As Baraka concentrates on the process, he does not put any emphasis on names and details of the musicians. The book is not in any way a list of "who's who in Blues or Jazz".
The book is critical of American mainstream culture, describing it as shallow and un-creative. Baraka observes that Blacks who have tried to belong to the mainstream (white) society have not been able to produce any music of value. He believes that their rejection of their Blues (slavery) roots made them too as shallow and un-creative as the society they wanted to join.
Baraka is most knowledgeable of Bebop and its developments up to free Jazz, as they are the closest to his generation. He is admittedly less connected to country blues, which for him expresses the first stage in the post slavery black society.
The book is magnificent in its originality and boldness. I think it is essential reading for anyone interested in African American music and/or culture.
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Summary: This was an Awsome book!
Review: For someone who didn't like the blues this book made me more appreciate the music and eventualy come to like some of it. This book focuses on the development of the blues and starts with the history of African Americans in the US. This is not a typical history book because it intoduced to me some new ideas that most history books would just ignore. it showed how The african american race dealed with racial issues through their music. Like i said I didn't like any blues until I read this book. I feel this book has caused me to appreciate music much more.
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Summary: Thought Provoking
Review: I found this book very liberating. Jones traces the African American experience through their music. It is a hard book to put down, especially the first five chapters. I recommend this book to people who are looking for understanding in their roots.
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Summary: most "effective" for the "proper" study of Black Music
Review: I used Blues People by Leroi Jones when I designed the History of Black Music courses at Harvard University in September 1970.It is still the most "effective" text in introducing a "proper" study of the Music of Black Americans.
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Summary: Great Reference Material, Great Reading
Review: I used this one for a term paper on jazz and blues in eleventh grade. It was very informative and (unfortunately because I kept going past what I needed) a lot of fun to read. I completely recommend this to anyone--for school or for pleasure.
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Summary: Great Reference Material, Great Reading
Review: I used this one for a term paper on jazz and blues in eleventh grade. It was very informative and (unfortunately because I kept going past what I needed) a lot of fun to read. I completely recommend this to anyone--for school or for pleasure.
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Summary: simply a must read for anyone interested in blues music
Review: not just about music - jones weaves the detailed and complicated history of african americans throughout this thoughtful, opinionated and very honest book. blues is stripped of over-simplified origins and rooted deeply in the heart of a people and culture with many layers and voices. fascinating and real - a must read.
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Summary: a classic in every sense of the word
Review: This book is probably the greatest ever written on the early history of black music in America. With rare clarity and glowing intensity, Baraka traces the evolution of black forms such as blues and jazz back to Africa, and presents the reader with genuine insight into the world of the creators of these important 20th century art forms. The book is as gripping as any novel you will ever read, and also crammed with facts and mindboggling lines of thought. Anybody with even the slightest interest in modern black music needs to read this book, and consider its contents thoroughly.
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Summary: Very honest&breaks all chains
Review: this book not only puts the music into perspective but also the struggle that still goes on too this day.very upfront&honest about problems that still linger.it traces the journey&challenges it's reader too better understand the reason for the whys??one of the best Books that I have ever read from start too finish.
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Summary: most important single book on American popular music
Review: This is the single most important book that has been written about American popular music in the 20th century. Baraka argues that the blues is the music African America created to forge an identity as free men and women. From the blues came jazz, and jazz took many forms. It was also a music in which European Americans could find themselves, and so they adopted and adapted jazz for themselves. African Americans, in turn, created a new form of jazz (bebop) in order to have a form more authentically their own. While some of Jones' scholarship is weak and his analysis has problems, his statement of the black/white interaction is very important and has yet to be adequately investigated.
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