Yonder Come the Blues: The Evolution of a Genre

by Paul Oliver , Tony Russell , Robert M. W. Dixon , John Godrich , Howard Rye

• ISBN13: 9780521787772
• ISBN10: 0521787777
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-03-12
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Yonder Come the Blues combines three influential and much-quoted books: Savannah Syncopators; Blacks, Whites and Blues and Recording the Blues. Updated with additional new essays, the book discusses the crucial early development of the blues as a music of Blacks in the United States, explaining some of the most significant factors that shaped this music. Together, these three texts emphasise the significance of the African heritage, the mutuality of much white and black music and the role of recording in consolidating the blues, thus demonstrating the importance of these formative elements in its complex but combined socio-musical history. Redressing some of the misconceptions that persist in writing on African-American music, this book will be essential reading for all enthusiasts of blues, jazz and country music and will be important for students of African-American studies and music, popular music and popular culture.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	viii
Introduction: Yonder come the blues	1
Paul Oliver
Book one: Savannah syncopators African Retentions in the blues	11
Paul Oliver
Afternoon -- Nangodi	13	(7)
Africa and the jazz historian	20	(18)
Music in West Africa	38	(23)
Savannah song	61	(14)
The source of the slaves	75	(15)
Africa and the blues	90	(24)
Bibliographical notes	106	(7)
Acknowledgements	113	(1)
Afterword	114	(33)
Glossary of African instruments	129	(7)
Glossary of tribes and people	136	(3)
Record list	139	(6)
Book two: Blacks, Whites and blues	143
Tony Russell
Foreword	145	(2)
Minstrelsy	147	(13)
Old familiar tunes	160	(19)
Letting out the blues	179	(9)
`That's the idea of the white people'	188	(16)
Out West	204	(12)
Out East	216	(13)
Bibliography	237
Afterword	229	(18)
Bibliography	237	(1)
Recommended recordings (including CD reissues)	238	(7)
Book Three: Recording the blues	243
Robert M. W. Dixon
John Godrich
Foreword	245	(2)
Birth of an Industry	247	(3)
The New Market, 1920--1922	250	(10)
The Classic blues, 1923--1926	260	(17)
Into the Field, 1927--1930	277	(18)
Hard Times, 1931--1934	295	(13)
Urban blues, 1934--1940	308	(14)
End of an era, 1941--1945	322	(21)
Further information	330	(13)
Afterword	331
Howard Rye
Index to Book 1	343	(3)
Index to Book 2	346	(7)
Index to Book 3	353