Father Of The Blues An Autobiography

by Handy, W. C.

• ISBN13: 9780306804212
• ISBN10: 0306804212
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-03-22
• Publisher: Da Capo Press

Summary

W. C. Handy's blues"Memphis Blues," "Beale Street Blues," "St. Louis Blues"changed America's music forever. InFather of the Blues,Handy presents his own story: a vivid picture of American life now vanished. W. C. Handy (18731958) 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 talepervaded with his unique personality and humorreveals 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.

Author Biography

William Christopher Handy (1873-1958) was a composer and musician, known as the "Father of the Blues."

Table of Contents

Foreword	v
Handy's Hill	1	(10)
Songbirds and School Days	11	(8)
Wilberforce, Wallace and Wanderlust	19	(11)
Mahara's Minstrel Men	30	(25)
Work Is the Measure of Worth	55	(16)
Mississippi Mud	71	(18)
``Pee Wee's,'' Pimps and Politics	89	(17)
Memphis Blues---A Bungled Bargain	106	(16)
St. Louis Blues and Solvent Bank	122	(15)
Blue Diamonds in the Rough Polished and Mounted	137	(20)
Mother	157	(12)
From Beale Street to Broadway	169	(9)
``Trouble, Trouble, I've Had It All My Days!''	178	(8)
Pace & Handy---Setting a Pace	186	(18)
All In---Down and Out	204	(12)
The Blues Get Glorified	216	(17)
No Fool No Fun	233	(9)
Down Memory Lane	242	(10)
``'Way Down South Where the Blues Began''	252	(9)
ASCAP	261	(12)
Treasure Island	273	(18)
Black and White	291	(8)
World of Tomorrow---God Bless America	299	(6)
Compositions, Arrangements and Books	305	(4)
Index of Names	309