Rhythm & Blues Books

The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz and Blues

Howard Mandel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

reader-friendly illustrated jazz history and reference 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

The innovative user-friendly touch of the Internet links is integrated into the sections of many of the artists (i. e., not put in an appendix or resources section at the back of the main text) by graphics with a web address. Another reader-friendly touch is a graphic noting the most representative recording by a particular musician. This is especially helpful considering the long careers, many recordings, and evolving styles of many of them. Most of the photographs show the artists in performance. Blues and Jazz are taken decade by decade from the early years through the nineteen twenties down to the eighties and the contemporary era, with a closing section on the instruments and equipment going with the two long-lasting and changeable types of music. Profiles of each artist cover biographical background, music career, and the artist's influences on or contributions to the field. For historical overview, comprehensive treatment of all the leading jazz and blues performers, and primary references cited, the "Illustrated Encyclopedia..." is an ideal introduction to these interrelated fields of music.

The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu

Debra DeSalvo

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A work in progress that needs to be more scholarly 2 out of 5 stars.
5 of 11 people found this review helpful.

This is self-described as an anecdotal dictionary of the blues, but it suffers some serious flaws and while there is some useful information, it is far from authoritative or comprehensive and while it has some usefulness, it can be improved in so many ways. There are some 150 words and phrases which Ms. DeSalvo, former Blues Revue editor, focuses on, in a volume that emphasizes the African roots of the blues, but at times does not focus on other meanings the terms have. One review in Blues & Rhythm notes the focus on sex and hoodoo, but oddly enough very little on traveling which is a significant theme of the blues.

Much is made of the fact she interviewed a number of blues performers and included the material with various entries. However much if not most of the interview material is irrelevant to understanding the language of the blues, or the entry. For example she briefly discusses crossroads focusing on the African conception which leads to a discussion of the Robert Johnson meeting the devil at the crossroad myth and notes that some believe it. Then she included a discussion of Robert Lockwood, Johnson's stepson which bears very little relationship to the discussion of the term. This would have been better included in a sidebar about Johnson and Lockwood. It would have also been instructive to include lyrics of several songs for specific terms to show contrasting meanings. As an example, Elmore James' 'Standing at the Crossroads,' clearly does not have the connotation that some impute to Johnson.

Also some of her sources are not exactly scholarly. In an entry on the Delta, she discussed Charlie Patton working for Will Dockery. She provides as her reference correspondence with Stephen Lavere. There are lengthy published biographies on Patton by John Fahey, and Stephen Calt and Gayle Dean Wardlow that should have been cited. There is no excuse to not citing these sources while citing private correspondence. Then there is this statement "In '34 Blues', Patton nails the desperation and anxiety of unemployment, but something good came out of leaving the plantation this time-Patton went to New York and recorded twenty-nine songs for the American Record Company. When these recordings were reissued in the mid-1960s, they sparked great interest in this Delta cropper who came to be known as the father of the blues." On the same page there is Patton's picture which noted he recorded for Paramount and became that label's biggest selling artist. It was the reissue of Patton's recordings by Yazoo, which presented mostly the Paramount recordings that led to this recognition of Patton's music.

Discussing Canned Heat which some strained to drink the alcohol from, DeSalvo notes that Canned Heat adopted their name from the Tommy Johnson recording and that the members of Canned Heat used their fame to help their blues heroes citing their collaboration in John Lee Hooker's "The Healer." Hmm, I would think that it was the classic double album, "Hooker and Heat," recorded when Alan Wilson, the Blind Owl, was still alive that not only was the recording that led to Hooker's crossover but it stands up with the best recordings Hooker ever made. It was an album the ghost band that is Canned Heat is today would be incapable of producing. Sorry for perhaps going off topic, but so many entries here go off topic. (Again sidebars would have been useful). However the fact she is so imprecise with this, makes me suspect the accuracy of some other entries.

She does include some suggested recordings, but more lyric quotes for the entries
would have been very helpful. Also there should have been more cross entries, such as in her discussion of policy numbers, cross references back to that entry should have been provided for some of the policy combinations. And there are numerous terms that are not discussed here. This is a really rough first effort and this work needs some serious reworking if it is going to be a useful tool, which probably also means she should find herself a collaborator and take into account the serious criticisms if she wants to put together a work that will stand up as scholarly and a reference.

Editorial Review:

"The Language of the Blues" explores the origins and meanings of the language of the blues - ranging in alphabetical order from words that have infiltrated the American mind, like "mojo" and "boogie," to more obscure terms like "woofin" (verbal boasting) and "mootie" (marijuana), which have resurfaced in today's hip hop hits. Accompanying blues terms and their definitions are lively and informative profiles of many of the blues' most legendary artists, including Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith, Sonny Boy Williamson, Willie Dixon, and Bonnie Raitt. Occasionally raunchy and often surprising, this book is sure to be both informative and wildly entertaining to jazz and blues aficionados worldwide.

The Big Book of Blues: A Biographical Encyclopedia

Robert Santelli

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Definitive, but not definitive... 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This is a great book to have in your collection if you're a fan of blues music and history. By far, it's not the ONLY book out there. There are a number of notable artists this book is missing. Hopefully, future editions of this book will begin to fill some of the gaps. That being said, this is a very good reference just the same.

A good referance to accompany other reading or listening. 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

The information provided in the biographical encyclopaedia is a good referance when reading other publications on the "Blues" or listening to recordings by a performer with whome you may not be familiar. Whilst the referances are not complete, it is nevertheless a source of sound information on numerous blues performers from the 1890's to the present. (I found I had a number of recordings in my collection made in the 1920's and 1930's by individuals not referenced in the book.)

The book is a very good "handbook" to have by your side when you want to learn or simply recap on some details of an individual whose story you may be absorbing either through reading or listening.

Editorial Review:

This ultimate reference book for blues lovers is a comprehensive biographical encyclopedia with 600 entries profiling every known important blues artist from Bessie Smith, Charlie Patton, and Blind Willie McTell to Alberta Hunter, Robert Cray, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Discography. 40 photos.

Urban Blues (Phoenix Books)

Charles Keil

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Charles Keil examines the expressive role of blues bands and performers and stresses the intense interaction between performer and audience. Profiling bluesmen Bobby Bland and B. B. Kind, Keil argues that they are symbols for the black community, embodying important attitudes and roles—success, strong egos, and close ties to the community. While writing Urban Blues in the mid-1960s, Keil optimistically saw this cultural expression as contributing to the rising tide of raised political consciousness in Afro-America. His new Afterword examines black music in the context of capitalism and black culture in the context of worldwide trends toward diversification.

"Enlightening. . . . [Keil] has given a provocative indication of the role of the blues singer as a focal point of ghetto community expression."—John S. Wilson, New York Times Book Review
"A terribly valuable book and a powerful one. . . . Keil is an original thinker and . . . has offered us a major breakthrough."—Studs Terkel, Chicago Tribune

"[Urban Blues] expresses authentic concern for people who are coming to realize that their past was . . . the source of meaningful cultural values."—Atlantic

"An achievement of the first magnitude. . . . He opens our eyes and introduces a world of amazingly complex musical happening."—Robert Farris Thompson, Ethnomusicology

"[Keil's] vigorous, aggressive scholarship, lucid style and sparkling analysis stimulate the challenge. Valuable insights come from treating urban blues as artistic communication."—James A. Bonar, Boston Herald

Down to the River: Portraits of Iowa Musicians (Bur Oak Book)

Sandra Louise Dyas

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In 1987 photographer Sandra Dyas moved to Iowa City and began documenting the area’s vibrant live music scene, with its distinctive combination of folk, blues, roots/Americana, and rock sounds. The sixty photos in Down to the River capture her twenty years of photographing live music venues and shooting portraits of musicians in and around the city, resulting in a collection of images as compassionate and honest as the music itself.

Dyas’s photographs present both the sweaty intensity of live performances and the more contemplative moments of individual portraits. They are complemented by Chris Offutt’s empathetic essay, which also encapsulates the experience of connecting with a new home through its music. A companion CD with eighteen tracks by Iowa’s finest singer/songwriters, including Dave Moore, Greg Brown, Bo Ramsey, David Zollo, and Pieta Brown, add up to an unmatched perspective on Iowa music and musicians.

CD Tracks
1. Iowa Crawl, Joe Price
2. Poor Back Slider, Greg Brown
3. Parnell, David Zollo
4. #807, Pieta Brown
5. Wheels of Steel, Radoslav Lorkovic
6. Down to the River, Dave Moore
7. Lucy and Andy Drive to Arkansas, Kevin Gordon
8. Chuck Brown, Mike and Amy Finders
9. Nobody But You, Joe Price
10. Earleton, BeJae Fleming
11. Ceremonial Child, High and Lonesome
12. Sidetrack Lounge, Bo Ramsey
13. On the Edge, Pieta Brown
14. One Wrong Turn, Greg Brown
15. Not in Iowa, Kelly Pardekooper
16. Living in a Cornfield, Bo Ramsey
17. ’57 Chevy, Tom Jessen’s Dimestore Outfit
18. Roll on John, the Pines

48 Razor-Sharp 12-Bar Blues Riffs for Swing Bands and Blues Bands: B Flat Instruments Edition (Red Dog Music Books Razor-Sharp Blues Series)

Larry McCabe

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Editorial Review:

This essential Red Dog Music Book is for band musicians who love the exciting sound of riff-driven uptown blues and swing music. In music, a riff is a repeating pattern, often played against a chord or chord progression. (Riffs are sometimes mistakenly called licks, and vice-versa.) Horn riffs played over twelve-bar blues rhythm progressions will add drive, variety, identity, and excitement to a song (examples: In the Mood by Glenn Miller, Now's the Time by Charlie Parker, Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and the Comets). This unique collection of forty-eight 12-bar riffs provides some great ideas for spicing up the blues songs your band plays. Most riffs are very easy to play, and easy to incorporate into blues progressions, but many bands neglect this important aspect of arranging. A twelve-bar riff is a versatile arranging tool, and might be used as a tune head, solo, backing for a solo, or backing behind a singer. Two to four playings of a 12-bar riff per song is considered ideal by professional arrangers. CD includes all 48 riffs, played on tenor sax, with full rhythm backing. Guitar edition includes notes and tablature. Book is available in guitar, C instruments, B flat instruments, E flat instruments, and bass instruments editions. Musicians who know how to write harmony are encouraged to develop the riffs into two-or three-part section sounds. Improvising musicians can use riffs fragments as motifs upon which to base solos. Great stuff here for all swing band and blues band musicians. Excellent practice for sight-reading rhythms.

Meeting The Blues

Alan Govenar

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Editorial Review:

Z.Z. Hill, Albert Collins, Leadbelly, Mance Lipscomb, Bobby "Blue" Bland, "Lightnin'" Hopkins, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Johnny Copeland, Charlie Christian, Charles Brown, "Cleanhead" Vinson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Johnny Winter, Clifton Chenier, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, B.B. King, "T-Bone" Walker, Lowell Fulsom--these are just a few of the many Texas blues makers pictured and profiled in Alan Govenar's Meeting the Blues, a book that not only vividly documents the rise of Texas blues, but also gives it life through the words of the men and women who sing the lyrics and play the music. With more than 200 rare and new photographs, a selected discography of blues recordings, and oral histories from almost everyone involved with creating the Texas sound, Meeting the Blues is an unforgettable chronicle of one of America's richest and most exciting music scenes.

The New Blackwell Guide to Recorded Blues (Blackwell Guide Series)

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Editorial Review:

This is the fully revised edition of Paul Oliver's successful The Blackwell Guide to Recorded Blues. It has been entirely rewritten to take account of the CD revolution in which some 6,000 blues CDs have been issued over the last five years. This is not only the best and most succinct guide to recorded blues: it also provides a history of the subject.The introductory chapter by the editors surveys the history of blues recording from the pioneering fieldwork of the early twentieth century to the present. The book is then divided into 14 chapters arranged roughly in chronological order. Each chapter provides an argued selection of the 10 essential recordings for every collection and then amplifies this with a selection of a further 30 basic recordings, all of which are concisely appraised. As a whole the book recommends an essential collection of 140 CDs and a basic library of around 560. The New Blackwell Guide to Recorded Blues has been written by the leading experts in the field from all over the world. It now contains a chapter on American "white blues" in the years leading up to Elvis Presley's historic Sun Sessions of 1954-55, a fully updated bibliography and guide to further reading arranged by subject, and a list of all the recommended recordings arranged by label. This is, in sum, the essential guide for all lovers of this vibrant musical form.

The Best of George Clinton: Piano/Vocal/Guitar (Masters of Funk Series) (Masters of Funk Series)

George Clinton

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Editorial Review:

The Best Of George Clinton is a funky grooving riff-laden songbook bringing you the best of certified funkmaster George Clinton for piano and vocal with guitar. This book features ten hits such as "Atomic Dog" and "Flashlight" and is guaranteed to get you out of your seat. "Mothership Connection" and "One Nation", included, are sure to give up the funk in you no matter what your race, color, or creed. Buy this book, you will not be sorry.

Women of Motown: An Oral History (For the Record)

Susan Whitall

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Women of Motown sing again 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

As a life-long Detroit resident, the Motown story is near and dear to me. What I like the best about this book is the author lets the distinct voices of these beautiful, tough ladies shine through in this collection of oral histories. It is obvious the women Ms Whitall interviews are important to her. I am glad these stories are being told--too much emphasis is placed these days on the superstars of Motown; Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations. For me, the gritty, soulful backbone of the Motown sound will always be Martha Reeves, Mary Wells, Kim Weston. The homegirls! I am eager to read other books in the series if they are as well-written, thoughtful and fun.

motown book 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This book is a comprehensive review of a very special time in American music. We are treated with actual stories that haven't been shared in the media until now. For those that feel that Motown women consist of only the Supremes, this book introduces us to a group of musicians that will surely inspire the reader to find some new artists in the Motown section of the local CD store. Let's see some more! Hopefully a new group of Motown ladies are out there that will revive the Detroit sound.