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W. C. Handy: The Life and Times of the Man Who Made the Blues Paperback – September 8, 2011

by Mr. David Robertson (Author)

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David Robertson charts W. C. Handy’s rise from a rural-Alabama childhood in the last decades of the nineteenth century to his emergence as one of the most celebrated songwriters of the twentieth century. The child of former slaves, Handy was first inspired by spirituals and folk songs, and his passion for music pushed him to leave home as a teenager, despite opposition from his preacher father. Handy soon found his way to St. Louis, where he spent a winter sleeping on cobblestone docks before lucking into a job with an Indiana brass band. It was in a minstrel show, playing to racially mixed audiences across the country, that he got his first real exposure as a professional musician, but it was in Memphis, where he settled in 1905, that he hit his full stride as a composer. At once a testament to the power of song and a chronicle of race and black music in America, W. C. Handy’s life story is in many ways the story of the birth of our country’s indigenous culture—and a riveting must read for anyone interested in the history of American music.

W. C. Handy: The Life and Times of the Man Who Made the Blues

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Product Details

Paperback: 312 pages
Publisher: University Alabama Press; 1st Edition edition (September 8, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0817356967
ISBN-13: 978-0817356965
Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.9 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,874,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #695 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Composers & Musicians > Rhythm & Blues
- #1158 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Musical Genres > Blues
- #17276 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National

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A first rate musical biography

By Mister Mike on December 26, 2013

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

Popular music has hundreds if not thousands of genres, i.e. jazz, blues, rock, soul, hip hop, etc. to name just a few of the biggest musical headings. But just about every kind of pop music today can trace its style back to the music of W. C. Handy, the subject of this excellent biography.

Handy's life is a fascinating story of an African-American entertainer struggling to make a living as a professional musician and composer in segregated America at the turn of the 20th century. Music was no longer something only produced in grand opera houses and concert halls. Increasingly in the 1890s and 1900s, vaudeville revues and Broadway shows were adding tunes to America's popular music. But possibly the strongest influence came from the traveling minstrel show. Though the idea of white entertainers pretending to be black is seen now as a symbol of oppression, some minstrel shows employed black musicians and promoted them as the "genuine" negro minstrels. W.C. Handy was a solo cornet player and then a band leader in one of these minstrel bands, and David Robertson has written a sensitive and detailed history of a gifted musician working during this difficult period of American culture. It was very strange to read description of black musicians putting on blackface makeup to pretend to be white musicians pretending to be black.

Handy is commonly credited with "inventing" the blues, but Robertson correctly portrays Handy as developing his "blues" from the influence of other black musicians and creating a melodic style that became very popular with the general public, which of course was white.Read more ›

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