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Nov. 14th, 2018 01:15 pmBlues People: Negro Music in White America
by LeRoi Jones (later known as Amiri Baraka)
Jones takes a very thorough look at blues and jazz and the ways in which they emanate from and express the path of the African-American from slave to citizen (at least up until 1963, when the book was written). He tackles the way blues and jazz (and their sub-genres) were shaped by and reflect events in African-American history, and the ways that this music influenced mainstream white culture. Blues People is a very probing and thoughtful look at blues and jazz, concentrating on how they have operated in and on society. Jones is deeply immersed It's a deep and intensely illuminating book that comes out of Jones' immersion in this music and its roles in African-American culture and experience. Jones is also an effective and very readable writer - his prose has the kind of clarity and flow that pulls you along through his arguments in a way that never lets the reader bog down or lose the thread.
by LeRoi Jones (later known as Amiri Baraka)
Jones takes a very thorough look at blues and jazz and the ways in which they emanate from and express the path of the African-American from slave to citizen (at least up until 1963, when the book was written). He tackles the way blues and jazz (and their sub-genres) were shaped by and reflect events in African-American history, and the ways that this music influenced mainstream white culture. Blues People is a very probing and thoughtful look at blues and jazz, concentrating on how they have operated in and on society. Jones is deeply immersed It's a deep and intensely illuminating book that comes out of Jones' immersion in this music and its roles in African-American culture and experience. Jones is also an effective and very readable writer - his prose has the kind of clarity and flow that pulls you along through his arguments in a way that never lets the reader bog down or lose the thread.