Father of the Blues: An Autobiography (Da Capo Paperback)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.80 (542 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0306804212 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 317 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 0000-00-00 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
A window into the beginning of jazz and blues Brenna E. Lorenz This is a look at how jazz and blues began, from the man who was instrumental in getting it started. W.C. Handy tells us how the transition was made from marches, classical music, dance music, Stephen Foster, vaudville tunes and folk blues to the arranged and orchestrated blues and jazz of the 20th Century. Not only did Handy help create the music, but he also helped preserve it through recordings and publications. In this book, he tells in detail how he came to compose his most famous pieces, including Memphis Blues, St. Louis Blues an. What a man, What a life D. Vickery I am a blues fan and I thought this would be as far back in the beginnings as anyone should have to go. I wanted to know something of the man who brought the blues to the American mainstream. Wow, what a story. I don't care if you have any interest in the music at all, just as an American this was a great story. What a film this would be.Forget the blues, and all he did for music, and you are still left with an amazing man who did more than I would have thought possible in the time he lived. This story was so much more than I bargained . A Customer said Great history of the South and the birth of the blues. W.C. Handy is well known in Memphis, TN because of the blues, but his story begins in Florence, Alabama. I teach 8th graders a unit comparing and contrasting his life with his neighbor from Tuscumbia, Helen Keller. Handy's life was rich with music, travel, hard times, discrimination, and fame. The picture he paints of minstrel days and struggling to live on the road sticks in your mind. His words provide a rich setting for the birth of music that my students listen to today. The book is too long to require them to read, but I read them
Louis Blues"—changed America's music forever. Handy's blues—“Memphis Blues," "Beale Street Blues," "St. W. Handy (1873–1958) was a sensitive child who loved nature and music; but not until he had won a reputation did his father, a preacher of stern Calvinist faith, forgive him for following the "devilish" calling of black music and theater. Here Handy tells of this and other struggles: the lot of a black musician with entertainment groups in the turn-of-the-century South; his days in minstrel shows, and then in his own band; how he made his first $100 from "Memphis Blues"; how his orchestra came to grief with the First World War; his successful career in New York as publisher and song writer; his association with the literati of the Harlem Renaissance.Handy's remarkable tale—pervaded with his unique personality and humor—reveals not only the career of the man who brought the blues to the world's attention, but the whole scope of American music, from the days of the old popular songs of the South, through ragtime to the great era of jazz.. C. In Father of the Blues, Handy prese
. From the Back Cover Handy's remarkable tale- pervaded with his unique personality and humor- reveals not only the career of the man who brought the blues to the world's attention, but the whole scope of American music, from the days of the old popular songs of the South, through ragtime to the great era of jazz