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Title: Stomping the Blues (Da Capo Paperback) by Albert Murray ISBN: 0-306-80362-3 Publisher: Da Capo Press Pub. Date: August, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.8 (5 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Deeply flawed, but also inspiring
Comment: Yes, Murray can be an idiot, and yes he can be offensive and yes he can seemingly just turn his ears (and mind) off sometimes.
One the whole, though, this book is obviously a product of love rather than hate. The photos of artists, venues and record labels, and the writing about the great music he loves I find to be inspiring and enlightening.
Murray is very good at listening with the context of the artist in mind, and he does a good job of discrediting some of the abstract artistic standards some critics have applied to what was in many ways an African American folk expression.
He definitely helped me come to a better and different understanding of Louis Armstrong as an artist and as a man. For this I can thank him, though there is plenty else in the book that I'll just pack away in my mental collection of Murray-isms.
But there are things to be gained from this book if you don't let it get you too angry.
Rating: 1
Summary: Outrageous vision of racial purity in the arts
Comment: Murray's ideas that White people cannot produce genuine jazz have done a great deal of harm in their influence. The racist comments, particularly re Bix Beiderbecke and the photograph from "Great Day In Harlem" are absolutely outrageous.
Rating: 5
Summary: Driving the Blues away
Comment: What is "Blues" ? Albert Murray says the Blues are those evil entities that attack our spirit, threatening to depress it. Blues music is the reaction - the means of which the blues is driven away. Actually it is the means African Americans have used to drive away the blues. There is no essential difference between Robert Johnson, Charly Patton, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Count Basie or Charlie Parker - the all play the blues. Only their stylistic approach differs.
This book talks about the different ways the blues were being stomped - driven away. Murray objects to the "purists" who limit their definition of blues to those played by rural - unsophisticated musicians (such as Blind lemon Jefferson or Leadbelly). While Murray acknowledges their value, his personal taste leans much more to the Louis Armstrong - Charlie Parker lineage. He concentrates on Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Morton, Young, Ellington, Basie and Parker.
Murray seldom uses the word "Jazz" when relating to the music or the musicians. For him they are all "blues drivers", who provide their public with a stomping ritual that is totally functional. Their innovations are a result of the attempt to fulfill their role, to swing harder, and not necessarily a result of a personal desire, detached from their public role.
Murray differs from most writers who have written on the subject. He comments on the mainstream critics - criticizing their glorification and condescending tendencies. He does not emphasize the inner divisions among the African Americans, as does Amiri Baraka in "Blues People".
This is a remarkable book, recommended to all "Blues and Jazz" lovers.
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Title: Blues People : Negro Music in White America by Leroi Jones ISBN: 068818474X Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 03 February, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Hero and the Blues by Albert Murray ISBN: 0679762205 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 January, 1996 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
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Title: Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday by Angela Y. Davis ISBN: 0679771263 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 February, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Living with Music : Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings (Modern Library Classics) by RALPH ELLISON, ROBERT O'MEALLY ISBN: 0375760237 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 14 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Omni-Americans: Some Alternatives to the Folklore of White Supremacy (Da Capo Press Paperback) by Albert Murray ISBN: 030680395X Publisher: Da Capo Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1990 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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