The original blues : the emergence of the blues in African American vaudeville / Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff.

Author
Abbott, Lynn, 1946- [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
  • Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, [2017]
  • ©2017
Description
viii, 420 pages : illustrations ; 27 cm

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Mendel Music Library - Stacks ML3521 .A23 2017 Browse related items Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Author
    Series
    American made music series [More in this series]
    Summary note
    In this volume, Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff complete their groundbreaking trilogy on the development of African American popular music, authoritatively connecting the black vaudeville movement with the explosion of blues that followed. At the end of the nineteenth century, vaudeville began to replace minstrelsy as America's favorite form of stage entertainment. Segregation necessitated the creation of discrete African American vaudeville theaters. When these venues first gained popularity, ragtime coon songs were the standard fare. Black vaudeville theaters provided a safe haven where coon songs could be rehabilitated. Dynamic interaction between the performers and their audience unleashed creative energies that accelerated the development of the blues. The first blues star of black vaudeville was Butler "String Beans" May, a blackface comedian, pianist, singer, and dancer from Montgomery, Alabama. Before his senseless death in 1917, he was recognized as the "blues master piano player of the world." His legacy, elusive and previously unacknowledged, is preserved in the repertoire of country blues singer-guitarists and pianists of the Race recording era. While male blues singers remained tethered to the role of blackface comedian, female "coon shouters" acquired a more dignified aura in the emergent persona of the "blues queen." Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and most of their contemporaries came through this portal; while others, including forgotten blues heroine Ora Criswell and her protégé Trixie Smith, reconfigured the use of blackface for their own subversive purposes. In 1921 black vaudeville was effectively nationalized by the Theater Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A.). In collusion with the emergent Race recording industry, T.O.B.A. theaters featured touring companies headed by blues queens with records to sell. While the 1920s was the most celebrated and remunerative period of vaudeville blues, the previous decade was arguably the most creative, having witnessed the emergence, popularization, and early development of the original blues in southern theaters--Publisher description
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-387) and indexes.
    Contents
    • Saloon-theaters and park pavilions : the birth of southern vaudeville, 1899-1909
    • The death of J. Ed Green and the birth of State Street vaudeville
    • The life, death, and untold legacy of Bluesman Butler "String Beans" May
    • Male blues singers in southern vaudeville
    • The rise of the blues queen : female blues pioneers in southern vaudeville
    • Theater circuits, theater wars, and the formation of the T.O.B.A.
    • "Yours for business" : the commercialization of the blues, 1920-26.
    Other title(s)
    Emergence of the blues in African American vaudeville
    ISBN
    • 9781496810021 ((hardcover : alkaline paper))
    • 1496810023 ((hardcover : alkaline paper))
    • 9781496823267 ((paperback))
    • 1496823265 ((paperback))
    LCCN
    2016020375
    OCLC
    948826444
    Other standard number
    • 99971606502
    • 40029361889
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