Blues Legacy
Tradition and Innovation in Chicago
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- $21.99
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
Chicago blues musicians parlayed a genius for innovation and emotional honesty into a music revered around the world. As the blues evolves, it continues to provide a soundtrack to, and a dynamic commentary on, the African American experience: the legacy of slavery; historic promises and betrayals; opportunity and disenfranchisement; the ongoing struggle for freedom. Through it all, the blues remains steeped in survivorship and triumph, a music that dares to stare down life in all its injustice and iniquity and still laugh--and dance--in its face. David Whiteis delves into how the current and upcoming Chicago blues generations carry on this legacy. Drawing on in-person interviews, Whiteis places the artists within the ongoing social and cultural reality their work reflects and helps create. Beginning with James Cotton, Eddie Shaw, and other bequeathers, he moves through an all-star council of elders like Otis Rush and Buddy Guy and on to inheritors and today’s heirs apparent like Ronnie Baker Brooks, Shemekia Copeland, and Nellie “Tiger” Travis.
Insightful and wide-ranging, Blues Legacy reveals a constantly adapting art form that, whatever the challenges, maintains its links to a rich musical past.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 45 astute, brief profiles of Chicago blues musicians, Whiteis (Chicago Blues) traces the evolution of the blues in the Windy City. A section titled "Bequeathers" focuses on older artists including James Cotton, Eddie Shaw, and Eddy Clearwater who were the forerunners of postwar Chicago blues. A chapter on what he calls the "Council of Elders" among them Buddy Guy, Mary Lane, Holle Thee Maxwell, and Otis Rush highlights the artists of the 1950s and '60s who innovated by weaving in rock and roll and who popularized the blues for mostly white audiences in North Side Chicago clubs. In the "Inheritors" section, Whiteis discusses a diverse group of younger musicians who took the blues to the next level: Nelle "Tiger" Travis infused the blues with soul, fashioning a "soul blues," while Shemekia Copeland joined the blues with Americana music in the 1990s. In a final "Heirs Apparent" section, Whiteis zeroes in on contemporary artists including Melody Angel, Toronzo Cannon, Mud Morganfield, and the Original Chicago Blues All Stars who remain faithful to traditions of Chicago blues and continue to perform in Chicago clubs. Whiteis offers plenty of detail throughout and keeps things moving along at a quick clip. Appealing to serious jazz fans, Whiteis's history serves as a handy reference to Chicago blues.
