- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1 edition (January 20, 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 068818474X
- ISBN-13: 978-0688184742
"The path the slave took to 'citizenship' is
what I want to look at. And I make my analogy through the slave
citizen's music -- through the music that is most closely associated
with him: blues and a later, but parallel development, jazz... [If] the
Negro represents, or is symbolic of, something in and about the nature
of American culture, this certainly should be revealed by his
characteristic music."So says Amiri Baraka in the Introduction to Blues People,
his classic work on the place of jazz and blues in American social,
musical, economic, and cultural history. From the music of African
slaves in the United States through the music scene of the 1960's,
Baraka traces the influence of what he calls "negro music" on white
America -- not only in the context of music and pop culture but also in
terms of the values and perspectives passed on through the music. In
tracing the music, he brilliantly illuminates the influence of African
Americans on American culture and history.
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