The Blues A Visual History

Juxtaposing ’60s and ’70s news snippets, band interviews, and concert footage, director Daniel E. Meza brilliantly relates how racism and the La Raza movement forged Latin rock. In the case of El Chicano, the cultural strife inspired music of great joy. “We were in the thick of it,” says bassist Fred Sanchez, “because [Chicano-power organizers] were the people who hired El Chicano. But we contributed by putting positive stuff out there music and happiness.”This is a bold story beautifully and sometimes painfully".

A visual tour-de-force showcasing Toronto's vast concert history.

The story of jazz for the general reader as it has never been told before, from the inside out: a comprehensive, eloquent, scrupulously researched page-turner. In this vivid history of jazz, a respected critic and a leading scholar capture the excitement of America’s unique music with intellectual bite, unprecedented insight, and the passion of unabashed fans. They explain what jazz is, where it came from, and who created it and why, all within the broader context of American life and culture. Emphasizing its African American roots, Jazz traces the history of the music over the last hundred years. From ragtime and blues to the international craze for swing, from the heated protests of the avant-garde to the radical diversity of today’s artists, Jazz describes the travails and triumphs of musical innovators struggling for work, respect, and cultural acceptance set against the backdrop of American history, commerce, and politics. With vibrant photographs by legendary jazz chronicler Herman Leonard, Jazz is also an arresting visual history of a century of music.

Jazz is America's most original art form. Originating in New Orleans, it quickly captivated audiences throughout America and Europe. Provocative young painters found inspiration in the popular music. By relishing the expressions of the outsider and probing deep within the soul of the individual, jazz musicians and visual artists created art that expressed what it meant to be modern in all its thrilling complexity. This book covers every major development in the visual arts from Impressionism to Pop art featuring over 130 artworks from Pablo Picasso to Jean-Michel Basquiat. As you turn the pages of this exciting volume, listen to the finest selections of jazz. A vivid history of Modern art and its eminent representatives More than 130 artworks in full color from Impressionism to Pop art Three CDs featuring original jazz recordings, digitally remastered, including detailed Liner notes

Charley Patton lived only into his 40s, but he left a large body of recorded work, which reveals a broad repertoire, much self-written. He came to his first recording session - in June 1929, for Paramount - with an established reputation. It was said his voice could be heard 500 yards away. The songs he recorded that day include some he had been honing for 20 years around the Delta. Pony Blues is usually cited as a masterpiece. He cut two versions. Both are good, the first is finer: he growls the lyrics, his guitar lopes and bucks. Patton's rhythms are one of his trademarks - complex, intricate, powerful, his fingering always precise. Listen to his playing on Down The Dirt Road Blues - he puts brilliant guitar phrases at the end of each stanza. Songs like Banty Rooster, with its beautiful slide work, and the idiosyncratic Spoonful represent the essence of Mississippi blues and are typical of Patton fast-and-loose approach to blues structures (there's not a standard 12-bar in Patton's recorded output) and rhythmic conventions. Even those who have studied Patton's lyrics find areas to dispute. The voice is gruff, the phrasing eccentric and his Mississippi accent can be impenetrable. But it's worth paying attention - Patton's songs evoke a world that has vanished.