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jazzy_daveR. Crumb "R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country" (Harry N. Abrams)
This is one of those books that you just have to dip into occasionally for its interesting history of music of a certain period.
R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country is an illustrated compendium of America's early 20th musicians. R. Crumb started to draw and paint the musicians and bands for trading cards that would be included with LP recordings reissued (from pre-WWII 78s) by Yazoo Records. Eventually they were boxed into a set sold by record stores. This book reproduces the paintings along with biographical sketches of the artists and bands. While I appreciate the music of this era, I am certainly not an expert, or even a student, of the music. That said, I found the text fascinating (especially the highly descriptive information on Country String bands of which I knew little about except for the articles in the excellent Wire magazine), and Crumb's illustrations evoke the period and whets your appetite for more. The text is by Stephen Calt, David Jasen and Richard Nevins.
While flipping through the pictures you may be surprised at how many of the bands had women guitarists. Read the entry on Fiddlin' Powers and Family to learn that the guitar was originally "scorned by most rural performers" and "stigmatized in its early days as a polite parlor instrument" that was fit for young girls to play. Now that's a cool little bit of cultural history that I didn't expect to learn from a book of drawings of musicians--and it's emblematic of what you get with this book, and why I loved it.
The book is accompanied by a 21 song CD with recordings from 1927-1931, which has an excellent selection of music from the period. Well Recommended.
This is one of those books that you just have to dip into occasionally for its interesting history of music of a certain period.
R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country is an illustrated compendium of America's early 20th musicians. R. Crumb started to draw and paint the musicians and bands for trading cards that would be included with LP recordings reissued (from pre-WWII 78s) by Yazoo Records. Eventually they were boxed into a set sold by record stores. This book reproduces the paintings along with biographical sketches of the artists and bands. While I appreciate the music of this era, I am certainly not an expert, or even a student, of the music. That said, I found the text fascinating (especially the highly descriptive information on Country String bands of which I knew little about except for the articles in the excellent Wire magazine), and Crumb's illustrations evoke the period and whets your appetite for more. The text is by Stephen Calt, David Jasen and Richard Nevins.
While flipping through the pictures you may be surprised at how many of the bands had women guitarists. Read the entry on Fiddlin' Powers and Family to learn that the guitar was originally "scorned by most rural performers" and "stigmatized in its early days as a polite parlor instrument" that was fit for young girls to play. Now that's a cool little bit of cultural history that I didn't expect to learn from a book of drawings of musicians--and it's emblematic of what you get with this book, and why I loved it.
The book is accompanied by a 21 song CD with recordings from 1927-1931, which has an excellent selection of music from the period. Well Recommended.
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