Urban Blues

Charles Keil

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780226223407
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Charles Keil examines the expressive role of blues bands and performers and stresses the intense interaction between performer and audience. Profiling bluesmen Bobby Bland and B. B. King, Keil argues that they are symbols for the black community, embodying important attitudes and roles—success, strong egos, and close ties to the community. While writing Urban Blues in the mid-1960s, Keil optimistically saw this cultural expression as contributing to the rising tide of raised political consciousness in Afro-America. His new Afterword examines black music in the context of capitalism and black culture in the context of worldwide trends toward diversification."Enlightening.... [Keil] has given a provocative indication of the role of the blues singer as a focal point of ghetto community expression."—John S. Wilson, New York Times Book Review "A terribly valuable book and a powerful one.... Keil is an original thinker and... has offered us a major breakthrough."—Studs Terkel, Chicago Tribune "[ Urban Blues ] expresses authentic concern for people who are coming to realize that their past was... the source of meaningful cultural values."— Atlantic "An achievement of the first magnitude.... He opens our eyes and introduces a world of amazingly complex musical happening."—Robert Farris Thompson, Ethnomusicology "[Keil's] vigorous, aggressive scholarship, lucid style and sparkling analysis stimulate the challenge. Valuable insights come from treating urban blues as artistic communication."—James A. Bonar, Boston Herald

INDEX

Abrahams, Roger D.: Deep Down in the Jungle, 20–23, 26–28

Ace, Johnny, 66

Advertisements for Myself (Mailer), 9

“African Influence on the Music of the Americas” (Waterman), 31

Ah Wants to Sell My Monkey, 71

Ain’t That Lovin’ You? 129, 132–33

Alabama Bound, 58

Alinsky, Saul, 14

American Dilemma, An: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (Myrdal), 29

Anthropology of Music, The (Merriam), 31

Armstrong, Louis, 47, 169, 178

“Art of Folk Blues Guitar, The” (Welding), 60

Autry, Gene, 107

Baby, You Lost Your Good Thing Now, 99

Back Door Man, 188

Baez, Joan, 37

Bailey, Dave, 200

Baker, La Vern, 56

Baldwin, James, 17, 189, 194; Blues for Mr. Charlie, 190; Go Tell It on the Mountain, 28

Bales, Robert F.: Interaction Process Analysis: A Method for the Study of Small Groups, 71–73

Basie, Count, 65–66

Bass, Ralph, 100

Beatles, 49, 94

Beck, Jimmy, 116

Beiderbecke, Bix, 47

Bennett, Lerone, 175, 194

Bennett, Tony, 160, 178

Bennett, Wayne, 116

Benton, Brook, 158

Berger, Monroe: “Jazz: Resistance to the Diffusion of a Culture Pattern,” 31

Berry, Chuck, 64, 85, 140, 158

Beyond the Melting Pot (Glazer and Moynihan), 6

Big Bill Blues: William Broonzy’s Story as Told to Yannick Bruynoghe (Broonzy), 65

Big Maybelle, 56

Bishop, Elvin, 47

Black Bourgeoisie (Frazier), 7

Black Metropolis (Cayton and Drake), 18–20

Black Muslims, 3, 8, 186, 192

Blackwell, Scrapper, 65, 208

Blakey, Art, 64

Bl...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Author’s note
• Preface
• Illustrations
• Contents
• Introduction
• I. Afro-American Music
• II. Blues Styles: An Historical Sketch
• III. Fattening Frogs for Snakes?
• IV. B. B. King Backstage
• V. Big Bobby Blue Bland on Stage
• VI. Role and Response
• VII. Soul and Solidarity
• VIII. Alternatives
• Appendix A. The Identity Problem
• Appendix B. Talking About Music
• Appendix C. Blues Styles: An Annotated Outline
• Notes
• Afterword: Postscripts
• Index