Customer Reviews

Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, "Coon Songs," and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz (American Made Music)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have not finished this book, but I feel it is so important that I want to review it now and not wait. Most people who think they know about the history of Black and general popular music, jazz, blues, and old time music do not know anything about the material that is covered in this book. Without this knowledge, we are all wrong, mistaken and confused.

An important thread central to musical culture in this country was commercial and professional African American musicians and other entertainers who were centered in traveling companies of various kinds including circuses, minstrel shows, and traveling theatar companies during the years covered. Here we have gathered in minstrel shows the great women singers who helped make the blues nationaly known and recorded like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. Here you have musicians who became masters of Jazz playing and composition. Here you had comedians whose routines became part of the standard discourse in this country far from the stages they performed on. Here you have the dancers who ignited the great African American dance crazes of the 20th century.

Seroff and Abbot cover the information about this slowly, thoroughly and with abundant illustrations and documentation. Their sources are the coverage of Black entertainment in columns and entire newspapers that were published during the era on this in African American newspapers. The documentation they use should be a guide for further research into specific aspects of the music.

The prices on this book is quite steep. One hopes that libraries make a special push to acquire this book. Ask your library to do so, even if you have the money,or like myself, the urgency, to buy it.