Blues People

In this essential and impassioned text, LeRoi Jones traces the intertwined development of blues and jazz music with the history of its creators in 'White America'. As important and relevant as at its first publication in 1963, it shows how music and its people are inseparable - expressing and reflecting the other, surviving and adapting through oppression.

“A must for all who would more knowledgeably appreciate and better comprehend America's most popular music”

-- LANGSTON HUGHES
A panoramic sociocultural history of African-American music . . . the first major book of its kind by a black author -- NPR
So essential and, for many of today's music fans, so under-examined . . . Precise, probing and academic The Current
Blues People is not only a fresh, incisively instructive reinterpretation of negro music in America, but it is also crucially relevant to negro-white relationships today -- NAT HENTOFF

LeRoi Jones, later known as Amiri Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, essays, fiction and criticism. Known for his involvement in the Beat movement and the Black Arts movement, his writing forms some of the defining texts for African-American culture. He served as Poet Laureate for New Jersey and was awarded numerous awards including a PEN award and the Langston Hughes Award. He received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts, and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

A rousing exploration of the blues and jazz music that formed much of American popular music culture, penned by the iconic Beat writer and critic. In this essential and impassioned text, LeRoi Jones traces the intertwined development of blues and jazz music with the history of its creators in 'White America'. As important and relevant as at its first publication in 1963, it shows how music and its people are inseparable - expressing and reflecting the other, surviving and adapting through oppression.

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