Lynn Abbott, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA works at
the Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University. He is the coauthor (with
Doug Seroff) of Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular
Music, 1889-1895; Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, ""Coon
Songs,"" and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz; and To Do This,
You Must Know How: Music Pedagogy in the Black Gospel Quartet
Tradition, all published by University Press of Mississippi.
Doug Seroff, Greenbrier, Tennessee, USA is an
independent scholar. He is the coauthor (with Lynn Abbott) of Out
of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music, 1889-1895;
Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, ""Coon Songs,"" and the
Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz; and To Do This, You Must Know How:
Music Pedagogy in the Black Gospel Quartet Tradition, all published
by University Press of Mississippi.
"The Original Blues is an astonishing achievement, reviving the
reputations of forgotten stars, exploring the intricacies of the
black theater world, and making insightful connections over key
decades of American music. Abbott and Seroff have assembled an
unprecedented body of research and present it with a clarity and
thoroughness that illuminates and fundamentally reshapes the early
history of blues."--Elijah Wald, author of Escaping the Delta:
Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues
"Abbott and Seroff strike again! Known for their scrupulous combing
of sources combined with judicious and incisive commentary, this
team has consistently offered new perspectives on the early
development of black vernacular music in past works. The Original
Blues is no exception. It is an imaginative and compelling
re-evaluation of the coalescence and emergence of blues within the
black community that foregrounds the integrity of African American
musical identity and its significance."--Bruce Boyd Raeburn, Tulane
University
"In this third volume of their groundbreaking trilogy, Lynn Abbott
and Doug Seroff have done it again. Sharing the fruits of their
dogged digging into neglected historical records, they tell a
fascinating and little-understood story of the developing blues and
black vaudeville traditions in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. It's a work unlikely to be surpassed any time
soon. Beautifully designed, well written, superbly documented, this
book is essential for anyone wanting to understand the rise of
African American popular music."--John Edward Hasse, Curator of
American Music, Smithsonian Institution
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