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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Chicago blues legacies - a racial question
Chicago blues legacies - a racial question
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kudzurunner
6599 posts
Dec 05, 2019
9:43 AM
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Hi Folks:
This is your friendly neighborhood majordomo and blues scholar. I need your help. I want to crowdsource something, and I'm quite sure that Joe L, iceman, and many others will be able to help out.
Over the holiday I happened to notice that David Whiteis, a terrific journalist/scholar of the blues and a frequent reviewer for LIVING BLUES, has a new book out. It's called BLUES LEGACY: TRADITION AND INNOVATION IN CHICAGO.
I haven't read much of it yet, but one curious thing is instantly apparent: every one of the 49 performers he profiles is African American. He is, in effect, arguing that anything genuinely important or noteworthy that has gone on in the Chicago blues scene over the past 50 years is the fruit of what black Chicago blues musicians have done.
Here's a rundown of the table of contents--the names of performers he profiles:
James Cotton
Eddie Shaw
Jimmy Johnson
Eddy Clearwater
Jimmy Burns
Billy Boy Arnold
Buddy Guy
Syl Johnson
Mary Lane
Sam Lay
Holle Thee Maxwell
Otis Rish
Byther Smith
Lil' Ed
Big Bill Morganfield
Kenny Smith
The Taylor Family (Eddie, Demetria, Eddie Jr., Larry, Tim)_
John Primer
Shemekia Copeland [she's from NY and has never, to my knowledge, lived in Chicago]
Sugar Blue
Nellie "Tiger" Travis
Floyd Taylor
Deitra Farr
Ronnie Baker Brooks
Lurrie Bell
Wayne Baker Brooks
Toronzo Cannon
Omar Coleman
Tomiko Dixon
Honeydew
Syleena Johnson
Vance Kelly
Masheen Company
Melody Angel
Big James Montgomery
Mud Morganfield
Jo Jo Murray
The Kinsey Report
Mzz Reese
Original Chicago Blues All Stars
Chick Rodgers
Jamiah Rogers
Source One Band
Tre'
Willie White
While nobody, but nobody, can argue with the plethora of talent here, and nobody can argue that there aren't important family-dynasty sorts of continuities that deserve to be noted, studied, and celebrated, it also seems to me that when one rigorously segregates a modern and contemporary blues scene this way, post facto, one is in danger of misrepresenting its actual dimensions, textures, and dynamics. The reasons for doing that might range from pure taste (maybe Whiteis has just preferred to write about black Chicago players over the years) to ideology (white Chicago blues players aren't REAL Chicago blues players). I don't know what the answer is here, but I strongly suspect that both dynamics are at work.
So here's my challenge: restore the balance that is missing from this table of contents by listing (and arguing for the importance of, if that feels needed) non-African American blues players who have been an important part of the Chicago blues scene over the past 50 years. Note that I didn't say "white blues players," because I'm aware that there are several Asian players who deserve to be named. Please give me men as well as women. If they have notable connections with (i.e., were mentored by and/or have played in bands led by) any of the black players listed above, please note that.
Thanks in advance.
Here, off the top of my head, are a few names.
Paul Butterfield
Mike Bloomfield
Dave Specter
Barrelhouse Chuck
Joanna Connor
Joe Filisko
Rockin' Johnny Burgin
Sumito "Ariyo" Ariyoshi
Bill Lupkin
That barely gets the ball rolling. Please keep it rolling.
FYI, Whiteis reviewed BEYOND THE CROSSROADS for Living Blues and was very nice to it. He's consistently been my favorite LB reviewer over the years. He's culturally literate, frankly, in a way that many blues discographers and aficionados are not. So I have great respect for him as a blues writer and no axe to grind. I can't wait to dig into this book. But I also embrace diversity as a value, and I pay attention to such things when people offer me deep and thoughtful representations of blues cultures from which a whole category of voices has been excluded. I want to make sure that the pointedly ideological gambit represented by his book does not go unnoted.
PS: It's probably worth noting that Billy Branch has been left out, although he's mentioned a few places in the index.
--Adam
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Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil and the Blues Tradition
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Dec 05, 2019 9:53 AM
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The Iceman
3980 posts
Dec 05, 2019
10:04 AM
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Corky Siegel
Jim Schwall
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The Iceman
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kudzurunner
6600 posts
Dec 05, 2019
10:50 AM
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Having just read the chapters on Shemekia Copeland and Sugar Blue, I'll say that although the overall shape of the book is indeed non-diverse in the way I describe above--i.e., there's no chapter on Barrelhouse Chuck, who was a key part of the scene for many years and who was acknowledged as such by all, black as well as white--Whiteis has an unerring ability, once he's actually exploring specific artists' lives and recordings, to ask tough questions. He certainly does that with Blue. He quotes him at length in a way that makes clear Blue's anger at white appropriation ("...if you really want to hear the blues, you better be sittin' in front of a Black man"), but then he writes the following:
"Strange words, some might say, from a musician whose first major commercial break came with the Rolling Stones (arguably the archetypal white-boy blues band), who has recording mostly for labels markets to white aficionados, and whose audiences have been predominantly white for most of his career (even extending back to his busking days in the Village.)"
I'm liking what I'm reading. Whiteis is great writer and storyteller.
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Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil and the Blues Tradition
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jbone
3074 posts
Dec 05, 2019
10:57 AM
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Butterfield?
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Music and travel destroy prejudice.
Reverbnation
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kudzurunner
6601 posts
Dec 05, 2019
11:16 AM
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It's interesting: in large structural and ideological terms, the book aligns with "blues is black music" claims, but it also provides a LOT of evidence for a counternarrative. In the Deitra Farr chapter, for example, she talks about working happily, over the course of her career, in bands and/or the recording studio, with four white artists who absolutely make the list that it was the purpose of this thread to construct:
Pierre Lacocque
Billy Flynn
Harlan Terson
Matthew Skoller
Their voices aren't here, but their presence in the contemporary Chicago blues scene is real and significant.
If I were Whiteis's editor, and given that what I've just written is the case, I would have told him to write a few sentences in his introduction in which he lists a handful of white blues mainstays-of-the-scene such as these, acknowledges them as such, acknowledges that they, like many of the black Chicago peers, were mentored by older African American blues players, and then make an explicit case for why he is focusing solely on black players.
What he does is finesse the issue, speaking in the introduction about "the contradiction [faced by black Chicago blues players] of being carriers of a torch that, to a significant extent, has been passed on to listeners--and, increasingly, musicians--with little connection to the cultural and historical contexts without which the music loses much of its essential significance and meaning."
It's hard to assess the work being done by that word "increasingly." One way of reading it might be that older white Chicago blues musicians like the four players above might actually have SOME connection to the cultural and historical contexts, by way of mentoring relationships with black elders, but that younger white musicians increasingly lack even that secondary connection, that cultural blackening, as it were. I actually agree with that argument.
But I think he intends a different meaning, which is that white Chicago blues musicians of all ages, younger and older, are starting to numerically predominate over black Chicago blues musicians to such an extent that the music's cultural historical contexts, carried ONLY by black musicians--in his view--,are being steamrolled.
That, too, may be true in some sense. But, if this is his meaning, it seems to me that he's giving short shrift to people like Dave Specter, who has spent a lot of quality time on the black side of town, mentored by, and working with, and absorbing culture and history, from the city's best black musicians. That s--t makes a difference. But the difference it makes isn't something that interests Whiteis.
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Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil and the Blues Tradition
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Dec 05, 2019 11:27 AM
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Simon
12 posts
Dec 05, 2019
11:24 AM
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Charlie Musselwhite?
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kudzurunner
6602 posts
Dec 05, 2019
11:29 AM
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@jbone: I mentioned Butterfield in my original post
@Simon: Charlie certainly spent some time in Chicago in the 1960s, at the very beginning of the period covered by the book. He then moved on to Memphis and the Bay Area. But if Butterfield and Bill Lupkin get mentioned, he should certainly be mentioned.
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Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil and the Blues Tradition
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Simon
13 posts
Dec 05, 2019
11:44 AM
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Jerry Portnoy
Paul Oscher
Bob Margolin
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jbone
3075 posts
Dec 05, 2019
11:56 AM
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My bad Adam.
Big Mama Thornton, arguably a Chicago blues lady, used plenty of white backup players.
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Music and travel destroy prejudice.
Reverbnation
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Joe_L
2882 posts
Dec 05, 2019
11:57 AM
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Adam - I've never met David Whiteis. I know nothing about his rationale for writing this book. He has written a couple of books on the Chicago scene. He also write about the subject for other publications. I think he covered Billy Branch and some of the other past SOB's in one of his other books.
There are a lot of musicians in Chicago that play Blues. It's a very rich multi-ethnic and multi-racial music scene. The list of people in the book consist of band leaders. The list of sidemen would be a very long list and very time consuming to put together. There is really only one Blues band and it has 5000 members.
Personally, I tend to like his books. Only a few of the people on his list are headlining Blues festivals. If some of the others get some recognition and more gigs, more power to them. It would be nice to see some of these artists doing better, but few ever really get rich playing Blues.
Last Edited by Joe_L on Dec 05, 2019 12:27 PM
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jbone
3076 posts
Dec 05, 2019
1:00 PM
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Tad Robinson who has done some great harp work. He and Dave Specter covered Eddie Vinson's Kidney Stew very well indeed, some 2 decades or more ago.
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Music and travel destroy prejudice.
Reverbnation
Facebook
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snowman
517 posts
Dec 05, 2019
1:08 PM
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Somewhat OT
Well, I thought about one thing when reading.
That is; How well and how clear u made it that whites n blacks are all "JUST PEOPLE".
If your going to write about the history of blues in Chicago, without making the statement, stating, "the history of Black Players in Chicago"
then u should include all the players.
At any rate u wrote this very tastefully, without being biased. good Job
On a light note;
I second; Corky Siegel Jim Schwall
The Siegal Schall band lp ---The colorful one --forget the name of it ---its in storage
Was an album I practiced a lot too in the early 70's===it had a mandolin lead as I recall_----_how cool is that
hope I wasnt to OT
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Joe_L
2883 posts
Dec 05, 2019
2:03 PM
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I spent entirely way too much time on this, but here you go. This is just off the top of my head.
James Cotton - Tom Holland, Steve Freund (CA), Darrell Nulish (TX)
Eddie Shaw - No idea.
Jimmy Johnson - Dave Specter
Eddy Clearwater - Ralph Lapatina, Tom Holland, Mark Wydra
Jimmy Burns - I can’t remember. I remember people telling me t
hey did some gigs with him, but I can’t remember who it was. Poss Scott Dirks.
Billy Boy Arnold - Doesn’t have a set band. Saw him in Chicago w/ Bo Diddley. Seen him with Hummel’s band and Rusty Zinn’s (CA) band.
Buddy Guy - Twist Turner. Marty Sammon, probably others
Syl Johnson - Can’t remember. I only saw him sitting in once or twice. I know Rusty Zinn (CA) did some gigs with him in CA, but I can remember who else was in the band.
Mary Lane - multi-racial, multi-ethnic band, but I can’t remember who was in it. I know Twist Turner and probably Rockin’ Johnny (OR) have done gigs with her.
Sam Lay - lots of people have gone thru this band, Chris James (CA), Patrick Rynn (CA), Rob Stone (CA), Rockin’ Johnny (OR), poss Madison Slim (FL), probably Harlan Terson, Dave Waldman and Scott Bradbury
Otis Rush - Bob Levis, Steve Freund (CA)
Byther Smith - No idea. I can’t remember. It was his drummer.
Lil' Ed - Dave Weld, poss Ariyo.
Big Bill Morganfield - No idea. I think he isn’t living in Chicago anymore.
Kenny Smith - I’ve usually seen him backing people. I think Tom Holland has done some gigs with him.
The Taylor Family (Eddie, Demetria, Eddie Jr., Larry, Tim) - No idea, but the whole family together would be a band.
John Primer - Matias Tasley (CA), Tom Holland,
Shemekia Copeland - No idea. I think she is still in the NY area.
Sugar Blue - Ilaria Lantieri (I have no idea where Sugar Blue is living these days.)
Deitra Farr - Lots. Matthew Skoller, Tom Holland, Steve Freund (CA), probably Harlan Terson
Ronnie Baker Brooks - No idea. I can’t remember who is in his band. Last time I saw him he was being backed by Big Head Todd and the Monsters.
Lurrie Bell - In chicago, no idea. I’ve seen him so many times. When he tours he uses local guys. Prob Marty Sammon and Harlan Terson.
Toronzo Cannon - No idea. The last time that I saw him was in San Jose, he was using some local guys.
Omar Coleman - Tom Holland, Steve Frerund (CA)
Vance Kelly - No idea. I haven’t seen him in decades.
Mud Morganfield - Rick Kreher, Tom Holland. He uses some local guys on tour.
Jo Jo Murray - Can’t remember
The Kinsey Report - No idea. The whole damn family is a band.
Original Chicago Blues All Stars - The WIllie Dixon Band? Probably none.
Chick Rodgers - No idea. I haven’t seen Chick Roger in decades.
Tre' - I have seen Tre’ a few times. He was playing with his dad (LV Banks) or sitting in with BIlly Branch. I am pretty sure Twist Turner has played gigs with him.
Other people off the top of my head, Barrelhouse Chuck (Barkin Bill, but I usually saw him sitting in), Scott Bradbury (Jimmy Rogers, John Brim and others), Joe Moss (Nick Moss’ brother. Jimmy Rogers and others), Pocketwatch Paul (lots), the late Mot Dutko (lots), Thaddeus Krolicki (Harmonica Hinds, Willie Buck and others), Scott Dirks (JImmie Lee Robinson), Twist Turner (too many too list), Steve Cushing (Magic Slim and others), Martin Lang (Taildragger), Johnny Iguana (Junior Wells), Steve Ditzell (Junior Wells), Ken Saydak (CO) (lots inc Mighty Joe Young, Lonnie Brooks),
Speaking of Taildragger, if you put a list of people who have played with him, it would be about as big as the Chicago phonebook.
Last Edited by Joe_L on Dec 05, 2019 2:07 PM
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Joe_L
2884 posts
Dec 05, 2019
2:11 PM
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@jbone - Tad Robinson is one of the best singers out there. He's a great harp player. Check out the Rockwell Avenue Blues Band's Back to Chicago. It's a bunch of guys that worked with a lot of the old guys. Steve Freund, Tad Robinson, Harlan Terson, Marty Binder and Ken Saydak. It's a solid CD.
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sonvolt13
190 posts
Dec 05, 2019
2:26 PM
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I think one of the stories the author may be missing (haven’t read the book). Is how the generosity of the African American players toward the white players was an important part of the story. Despite living hard lives and suffering racism, guys like Muddy welcomed any white player who could play. Then in turn, guys like Johnny Winter and Paul Butterfield tried to pay back this generosity through various comeback projects and hiring black musicians. Maybe it’s a subject that deserves a book of its own.
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kudzurunner
6603 posts
Dec 05, 2019
4:12 PM
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Thanks to all, and especially Joe L for that amazing list. Yes, yes, yes to Tad Robinson.
@sonvolt: You're absolutely right. I think that some folks who try to hold fiercely to a "blues is black music" line underestimate the importance of what went on in the 1960s, and especially the way that the black youth audience fled from the blues, leaving a space into which white blues musicians poured their hearts, souls, and energies. The "(black) fathers and (white) sons" dynamic. That wasn't all that was going on--Cotton took young men like Noel Neal out on tour--but it was an important dynamic, that almost charmed set of relationships between older black men and younger white men, and when you leave it out, including what the older men got from the relationship, you're telling a partial story.
To his credit, Whiteis offers evidence for that story. Deitra Farr is an interesting figure in that way. She's been an outspoken proponent of the new black consciousness within the contemporary blues world, but even as she voices that in her chapter of DW's book, she also says, "White people didn't steal the blues; we gave it away," and she expresses a frustration that I've heard elsewhere, which is that the preponderance of young black musicians just aren't interested in the music.
For what it's worth, I've got a new book coming out next fall that explores these issues in depth. More details when I'm able to share.
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Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil and the Blues Tradition
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Joe_L
2886 posts
Dec 05, 2019
4:15 PM
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@sonvolt - Each of the people that passed thru the Chicago scene have a similar story. The person who welcomed them may have been different, but the kindness and generosity did exist. It truly is a tradition. I miss being there. I've got stories of my musical journey. I don't play too much, but I am very grateful for the people that gave me opportunities on my little journey.
Last Edited by Joe_L on Dec 05, 2019 4:20 PM
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ted burke
792 posts
Dec 05, 2019
5:59 PM
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Jeffrey Carp
Steve Miller
Harvey Mandel
Nick Gravenites
Corky Siegel
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www.ted-burke.com
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DanP
436 posts
Dec 05, 2019
7:14 PM
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Did anyone mention Bob Corritore? He's from Chicago.
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BnT
255 posts
Dec 06, 2019
12:26 PM
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I think Joe_L hit on an important point "...There are a lot of musicians in Chicago that play Blues...The list of people in the book consist of band leaders."
Many of these were prominent from the 70's on. You don't see prominent African American band leaders who died in the 60's (Magic Sam, Earl Hooker, Elmore James, Little Walter). You don't see the sidemen, black or white. And, you don't see white musicians who played in Chicago and went on to blues/rock prominence.
I guess if I want a book covering the Chicago Blues musicians, I'd need an update of Mike Leadbitter's "Blues Records"...and even then, they didn't all record, and some would be left out.
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BnT
www.BluesWithAFeelin.com
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sydeman
229 posts
Dec 06, 2019
2:00 PM
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In 1966, two ambitious young Canadian producers brought 20 of America's top blues musicians—including Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, and Mable Hillery—to Canada to record a special, totally unrehearsed. 13:05
https://www.cbc.ca/television/fromthevaults/the-day-the-blues-came-to-town-1.4903425
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groyster1
3494 posts
Dec 06, 2019
6:15 PM
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there is no mention of Fleetwood mac in Chicago recorded in 1969......they definitely made an impression on the great Chicago bluesmen...…..peter green had beautiful tone on guitar
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Blind Melon
113 posts
Dec 08, 2019
10:29 AM
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I find it interesting (and disturbing at the same time) that the list includes names like Lil Ed, Toronzo Cannon, Lurrie Bell, Ronnie and Wayne Baker Brooks, to name just a few names, all of which I have seen in person, yet exclude the likes of Paul Butterfield, Jerry Portnoy, Paul Oscher, Bob Margolin, Mike Bloomfield, and others.
It is either a blatant attempt of acknowledging ONLY black blues players, or an ignorance of blues music in Chicago.
The part that actually makes me laugh is the quote from Sugar Blue.
...He quotes him at length in a way that makes clear Blue's anger at white appropriation ("...if you really want to hear the blues, you better be sittin' in front of a Black man").
Sorry James (Jimmy) Whiting, but I would rather sit in from of Kim Wilson, Jerry Portnoy, or Paul Oscher, as these white cats play the Chicago Blues waaaaaay better than your John Popper-style, million notes a minute.
Last Edited by Blind Melon on Dec 08, 2019 10:31 AM
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Thievin' Heathen
1184 posts
Dec 08, 2019
11:09 AM
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Strange. That could only be a conscious decision. Perhaps you should ask him. It brings into question the credibility of his work.
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kudzurunner
6604 posts
Dec 08, 2019
4:09 PM
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Here's the book on Amazon. Use the look-inside function and check out the TOC and the introduction.
Blues Legacy: Tradition and Innovation in Chicago
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Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil and the Blues Tradition
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Dec 08, 2019 4:10 PM
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Sundancer
311 posts
Dec 08, 2019
7:01 PM
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The author states in the introduction that ”this book focuses on the blues as a living component of a diasporan culture, dynamic and evolving, rooted in the twentieth century African-American experience but with a universality that speaks to diverse audiences and listeners.”
So he’s said clearly that his focus is on black blues players. Most of whom are tied in some way to the Delta or other parts of the former Jim Crow south, Seems like it’s his prerogative to do that. Not sure why anybody'd be fussed about it?
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Joe_L
2887 posts
Dec 08, 2019
7:03 PM
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@Blind Melon - none of the guys that you mentioned have lived in Chicago for a few decades. Lil Ed, Lurrie and the Brooks brothers are pretty solid performers. You don’t have to buy the book. You could always write your own book and cover anyone you want.
@DanP - and Bob hasn’t lived there in years.
Last Edited by Joe_L on Dec 08, 2019 7:43 PM
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SuperBee
6368 posts
Dec 08, 2019
9:09 PM
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Sundancer, you and I are seeing this the same way. It seems obvious from the first paragraph in the introduction.
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kudzurunner
6605 posts
Dec 09, 2019
4:51 AM
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I'm not fussed about it. I'm just noticing it. One could obviously do the opposite and focus on Illinois-area blues as primarily a white thing, as Blues Blast magazine does. In the latter case, of course, race (whiteness) goes unmarked. It's just evident from the people who are covered and who win the awards that the focus is on white players. In the former case, race (blackness) is somewhat more overt, although the author doesn't say "black" very often. The black artists he writes about certainly foreground race, though.
I'm interested in the most accurate possible description of blues culture. There's no good reason, in my view, that Whiteis's book shouldn't, for example, contain a few token white players--frontmen like Tad Robinson, Dave Specter, Joanna Connor, Pierre Lacocque, Billy Flynn, Joe Filisko, Bob Corritore. All of those players have been part of the scene for years; most of them were mentored by Chicago's best African American players; most of them work and record regularly with their black peers, including the people listed in Whiteis's table of contents. They, too, are part of the legacy. Some of them, I suspect, have mentored younger black players. By any respects, they're a vital part of contemporary Chicago blues culture. They're not merely epiphenomenal; they're not just "allies," to use the language of social justice warriors. They're in the thick of it.
I've suggested a couple of reasons in my first post why such players, although they show up in the actual interviews contained in the book, are never gifted with Whiteis's own attentions. They're not quite rendered invisible, but they and the stories they have to tell, stories that would enlighten us about the true dimensions of the Chicago blues legacy in the present day, are silenced.
Of course artists like the seven I've mentioned get lots of journalistic publicity elsewhere, including in the pages of Blues Blast. So Whiteis may feel, with some justification, that he's merely righting a kind of wrong, remedying the relative LACK of publicity that some of the black artists he writes about have suffered in the contemporary mainstream world. I suspect that there's some of that going on. I understand that motive.
But I'm also attentive to the way in which what he does potentially enables a sort of racial essentialism, a sort of "the real blues live HERE" attitude. I'm quite sure, in fact, that some of, and perhaps many of, his featured artists feel that way.
Regardless, my own attitude leads me to want to say something when I notice that certain important voices have, for one reason or another, been silenced in a given representation of a culture that I know.
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Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil and the Blues Tradition
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Dec 09, 2019 4:53 AM
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kudzurunner
6606 posts
Dec 09, 2019
5:05 AM
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Let me just repeat, in case I haven't already been clear: Whiteis is an excellent blues journalist and thinker, one of my favorites, and BLUES LEGACY is a genuinely important book. Whiteis's ideas about blues culture and blues music are well-informed and complex, and I always learn something when reading him. His two earlier books on blues (Chicago blues and soul blues, respectively) are both terrific; I've got them and use them in my own scholarship. He's got yet another book coming out in 2020, a biographical study of Denise Lasalle. I'd encourage everybody on this forum to buy and read his books!
But we're also allowed to argue with them. The strongest books, in my experience, produce the most interesting conversations.
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Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil and the Blues Tradition
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Dec 09, 2019 5:06 AM
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SuperBee
6370 posts
Dec 09, 2019
5:41 AM
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“This book examines contemporary Chicago blues as representing a cultural continuum passed down through generations, from the music’s roots in the South through the post– World War II era into the present day. Considered in this historical context, Chicago blues may be seen as both a soundtrack to, and a commentary on, the social upheavals— displacement, relocation, resettlement— that accompanied the African American Great Migration of the 20th Century. As people adapted to the demands of living in a new civic and social environment, freer in many ways than the South had been but which also presented new dangers, new...”
If that’s the lens, I’m not surprised at the focus on elders, bequeathers, inheritors, families.
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The Iceman
3982 posts
Dec 09, 2019
7:00 AM
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While I agree that blues and jazz are totally black creations/contributions to the arts, as far as listening to the blues, why not just close your eyes and consider the music you hear without trying to put a color to the one creating it?
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The Iceman
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groyster1
3496 posts
Dec 09, 2019
8:05 AM
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@iceman...…..that's about as positive statement as can be made...….when I hear great blues and/or jazz I could care less about the musicians color,creed or religion
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Joe_L
2888 posts
Dec 10, 2019
6:08 PM
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Perhaps people could read the book and learn some new stuff without asking what is missing. Not every book needs to be an exhaustive rehash of history. Who couldn't afford to learn more about all of the artists in the original post? It might not be a bad idea to look up the people in the list that I provided. They would learn more about the recent history of the music.
People can learn how to play a harmonica from a variety of sources. The one thing that can't often be found is the history of the Blues. A lot of people have played this music. Learning about them and listening to their contribution will make a player better.
The firsrt time that I ever met James Cotton. I asked him who I should listen to. He said everybody. Listen and steal from everybody. I followed that advice and I learned a lot of cool shit along the way. It also improved my playing.
Last Edited by Joe_L on Dec 10, 2019 6:08 PM
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kudzurunner
6607 posts
Dec 10, 2019
7:18 PM
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Perhaps people could read the book, learn some new stuff, and also think critically about what is missing.
I'm enjoying the book. The opening interview with James Cotton, in particular, is great. I feel like a broken record, but I'll say it one more time: Whiteis is an excellent blues journalist and thinker, one of my favorites, and BLUES LEGACY is a genuinely important book.
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Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil and the Blues Tradition
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sonvolt13
193 posts
Dec 12, 2019
5:51 AM
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Race and poverty are a big part of the blues story. Would we ever have blues harp at all if the musicians in question could afford a tenor sax? The genius of forcing a “toy” to play like a horn can’t be understated. Of course, the author is under no obligation to tackle these issues or include white players. He gets to write the books he wants to write and tell the stories he thinks are important.
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Joe_L
2889 posts
Dec 12, 2019
3:38 PM
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@kudzurunner - How does one know what is missing, if they don't possess the knowledge they will be gaining from the book? :)
You've got decades of knowledge on the subject. You are probably one of five people in the forum that know who many of these artists are. (There are others who lurk who might know.)
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