Blues category: 910 books

Journalist Hugh Merrill takes us on a sweeping road trip in search of the distinctly American music known as the blues. Tracing blues culture from its beginning in rural Mississippi up through the Delta to Chicago and beyond, Merrill visits with legendary musicians such as Son Thomas, Koko Taylor, Son...

In 1969 Gerhard Kubik chanced to encounter a Mozambican labor migrant, a miner in Transvaal, South Africa, tapping a cipendani, a mouth-resonated musical bow. A comparable instrument was seen in the hands of a white Appalachian musician who claimed it as part of his own cultural heritage. Through...

A musical pilgrimage unraveling the true history of the bluesA history of the legendary blues Highway and the route taken by modern-day blues pilgrims on their journey south into the Mississippi Delta, this book draws on the work of the early musicologists looking for an authentic Delta folk music...

Easy Piano Solos: Jazz Standards, Blues Greats, Popular Classics is a superb compilation of over 50 easy-piano pieces to suit every mood. Some of the greats of their respective genres are represented here, from the jazz of Duke Ellington and Nina Simone to the blues of Spencer Williams and...

In the late nineteenth century, black musicians in the lower Mississippi Valley, chafing under the social, legal, and economic restrictions of Jim Crow, responded with a new musical form -- the blues. In Jim Crow's Counterculture, R. A. Lawson offers a cultural history of blues musicians in the segregation...

Questa breve storia del Blues intende presentare in maniera organica quelli che furono gli eventi, gli stili, i protagonisti della prima espressione artistica originale della comunità nera degli Stati Uniti d’America. Lo svolgersi degli avvenimenti è raccontato dagli anni della schiavitù, passa...

From October 1959 until the mid-1970s, Paul Oliver and Mack McCormick collaborated on what they hoped to be a definitive history and analysis of the blues in Texas. Both were prominent scholars and researchers—Oliver had already established an impressive record of publications, and McCormick was...

Bobby "Blue" Bland's silky smooth vocal style and captivating live performances helped propel the blues out of Delta juke joints and into urban clubs and upscale theaters. Until now, his story has never been told in a book-length biography. Soul of the Man: Bobby "Blue"...

Intended for beginning to intermediate level players, this blues guitar tutorial offers progressive lessons addressing chords, comping, scales, phrasing, and solo improvising. The book’s numerous musical examples and tunes are written in both standard notation and guitar tablature as well as in...

Over 200 blues songs from the twenties to the present are included in this deluxe edition. Features many artists representing a wide variety of styles and includes rare photographs. Songs include: Basin Street Blues * Bulldoze Blues (Goin' Up the Country) * Everyday (I Have the Blues) * Five Long...

"A signal event in the history of the music." — Ted Gioia, author of The Delta Blues Musicologist and writer Samuel Charters (1929–2015) considered blues lyrics a profound cultural expression that could connect all people who love poetry. A pioneer in the exploration of world music,...

Never has the idiom of the blues music been as important to the world’s psyche as it is right now. Engulfed by uncertain and constantly-changing social, political and economic times, the blues can do more than just serve as unobtrusive background music for the soundtrack of our lives. It can become...

Starting in 1945 and continuing for the next twenty years, dozens of African American rhythm and blues artists made records that incorporated West Indian calypso. Some of these recordings were remakes or adaptations of existing calypsos, but many were original compositions. Several, such as “Stone...

With these easy-to-play renditions, beginning pianists of all ages can enjoy one of America's most celebrated art forms. Sixteen popular blues melodies include traditional songs such as "St. James Infirmary" and "Careless Love" as well as several numbers by blues giants Jelly Roll Morton and W. C. Handy,...