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Blues People

Negro Music in White America

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Blues People

Written by: LeRoi Jones
Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
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"The path the slave took to 'citizenship' is what I want to look at. And I make my analogy through the slave citizen's music - through the music that is most closely associated with him: blues and a later, but parallel, development, jazz...[If] the Negro represents, or is symbolic of, something in and about the nature of American culture, this certainly should be revealed by his characteristic music."

So says Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) in the introduction to Blues People, his classic work on the place of jazz and blues in American social, musical, economic, and cultural history. From the music of African slaves in the United States through the music scene of the 1960s, Baraka traces the influence of what he calls "negro music" on white America - not only in the context of music and pop culture but also in terms of the values and perspectives passed on through the music. In tracing the music, he brilliantly illuminates the influence of African Americans on American culture and history.

©1999 LeRoi Jones (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Music Racism & Discrimination Social Sciences
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I've listened to many audio books, and if performance rates among the top. There are some magnificently nutritious insights on the African American diaspora and its relationship to the music that issued from its experiences. this is long been one of my favourite books as it is about black music, by a black person. That is a rare combination unfortunately. The writing is brilliant and in-depth. My only gripe is, the latter portions of the book Focus almost entirely on jazz. that, is where the trajectory of black music was at that point, the early 1960s. But, so much more could have been said about contemporary Blues. The title is somewhat misleading that way. the first three quarters of the book are absolutely spellbinding though.

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