Stomping the Blues
By Albert Murray
Less a history of the blues than a beautifully written evocation of what Murray calls the "blues impulse" is all about. A book and an author that have strongly influenced the ideas of Wynton Marsalis.
2354 hits | added on 03.23.04

Deep Blues
By Robert Palmer
The best one-volume introduction to the history of the blues.
1496 hits | added on 03.23.04

Blues People: Negro Music in White America
By Leroi Jones
A groundbreaking book, though dated as it was published in the early 1960s. LeRoi Jones aka Amiri Baraka is one of our major black writers, and he has strong, but very consequential ideas about the blues and black music in general.
1631 hits | added on 03.23.04

Nothing But the Blues: The Music and the Musicians
By Lawrence Cohn (Ed.)
A coffee table book with many authors and many, more pictures. Good overview of the field.
2062 hits | added on 03.22.04