I went to Africa to find the roots of the blues. So Samuel Charters begins the extraordinary story of his research. But what began as a study of how the blues was handed down from African slaves to musicians of today via the slave ships, became something much more complex. For in Africa Samuel Charters discovered a music which was not just a part of the past but a very vital living part of African culture. The Roots of the Blues not only reveals Charters's remarkable talent in discussing African folk music and its relationship with American blues; it demonstrates his power as a descriptive and narrative writer. Using extensive quotations of song lyrics and some remarkable photographs of the musicians, Charters has created a unique contribution to our understanding of both African and American cultures and their music.
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About the Author
Samuel Charters is a musicographer, novelist, poet, and producer of jazz and blues records who for many years has also been seriously interested in every aspect of black music. His book, The Country Blues, was the first to be published on the subject. He began making field recordings in the South in the early 1950s and has subsequently produced many recordings, both of individual blues artists and of the musical backgrounds of the blues in the United States and the Caribbean. He has since extended his research and recording to West Africa. His other books include Jazz: A History of the New York Scene, The Blues Makers, and The Roots of the Blues.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very nice description of an African trip,
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This review is from: The Roots Of The Blues (Da Capo Paperback) (Paperback)
I bought this book expecting a dissertation relating the musical styles of Africa and the United States. Admitedly, I didn't found much of that. As the own writer suggests throughout the book, the relation is subtle, and not as some romantizers would expect. Charter does, however, a great job in describing the places he saw, the interaction, the people and even the music. You are left with a feeling that you are there, in Africa, experiencing and seeing what he saw. As a review on the back of the book notes, you manage to understand the subtle relationships between slavery, music, griots, and the general contrast of cultures, tribes and slow advancement that is Africa.
If you are solely looking to find out more about American blues, this book is not for you at all. But if you're open to a new experience, open to be placed in the hot, sweaty afternoons of this book, well, then it's a great immersion in the entire experience. Recommended!
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
"I have some difficulty in describing why I travelled to West Africa and what I was doing there, since the journey that became so complicated and took me to so many unexpected places seemed-in the beginning-to be so simple and so clearly defined." Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, West Africa, Sierra Leone, Alhaji Fabala, Musa Molo, Gambia River, Aliu Dabo, American South, New Orleans, Nyama Suso, Mungo Park, Musa Camara, Niger River, Janke Wali, Jatta Sela New!
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Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
"I have some difficulty in describing why I travelled to West Africa and what I was doing there, since the journey that became so complicated and took me to so many unexpected places seemed-in the beginning-to be so simple and so clearly defined." Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, West Africa, Sierra Leone, Alhaji Fabala, Musa Molo, Gambia River, Aliu Dabo, American South, New Orleans, Nyama Suso, Mungo Park, Musa Camara, Niger River, Janke Wali, Jatta Sela New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 8
books:
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7
books
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- The Congo and Coasts of Africa by Harding Richard Davis on page 99
- The Congo and Coasts of Africa by Richard Harding Davis on page 99
- American Negroes (Books About the U.S.A.) by Margaret B. Young on page 52
- Wanderings in West Africa by Richard F. Burton on page 42
- Some Poems/Poets by Samuel Charters in Back Matter
See all 8 books this book cites
- The Music of Anthony Braxton: (Contributions to the Study of Music and Dance) by Mike Heffley on page 50, and Back Matter
- Blues: The Basics by Dick Weissman on page 158
- Soul Survivors: An African American Spirituality by Carlyle Fielding Stewart III in Back Matter
- Jazz in Black and White: Race, Culture, and Identity in the Jazz Community by Charles D. Gerard in Back Matter
- Black Self-Determination: A Cultural History of African-American Resistance by V. P. Franklin in Back Matter
See all 7 books citing this book
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