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jazzy_daveRobert Crumb "R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country" (Abrams Comicarts)
This delightful book is a fantastic read for those interested in the history and early pioneers of American music. The book collects three trading card sets that Crumb drew and painted around 1980. Crumb used historical photos to create his works, and true to the "trading card" aesthetic each picture card is accompanied by a paragraph or two about the performers.
The drawings are great, and the info accompanying them is super, especially for those who like to learn about the history of music. You get plenty of excellent biographical info about the featured performer and a lot of "colour". That's what makes this book so fun. I picked it up while listening to Bix Beiderbecke and read "his tone, characterised by a perfect pitch and spare, well-placed notes, was clean and bell-like". It's not a lot of info, but it's the kind of tidbit that makes listening more fun, especially for readers just digging into early American music.
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 "stigmatised in its early days as a polite parlour 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.
The book is accompanied by a 21 song CD with recordings from 1927-1931 which is a delightful addition to this wonderful hardback book.
It is such a great book to dip into and is highly recommended by yours truly.
This delightful book is a fantastic read for those interested in the history and early pioneers of American music. The book collects three trading card sets that Crumb drew and painted around 1980. Crumb used historical photos to create his works, and true to the "trading card" aesthetic each picture card is accompanied by a paragraph or two about the performers.
The drawings are great, and the info accompanying them is super, especially for those who like to learn about the history of music. You get plenty of excellent biographical info about the featured performer and a lot of "colour". That's what makes this book so fun. I picked it up while listening to Bix Beiderbecke and read "his tone, characterised by a perfect pitch and spare, well-placed notes, was clean and bell-like". It's not a lot of info, but it's the kind of tidbit that makes listening more fun, especially for readers just digging into early American music.
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 "stigmatised in its early days as a polite parlour 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.
The book is accompanied by a 21 song CD with recordings from 1927-1931 which is a delightful addition to this wonderful hardback book.
It is such a great book to dip into and is highly recommended by yours truly.
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Date: 2020-09-01 02:58 pm (UTC)