Really The Blues

Mezz Mezzrow was a boy from Chicago who learned to play the sax in reform school and pursued a life in music and a life of crime. He moved from Chicago to New Orleans to New York, working in brothels and bars, bootlegging, dealing drugs, getting hooked, doing time, producing records, and playing with the greats, among them Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, and Fats Waller. Really the Blues, the jive-talking memoir that Mezzrow wrote at the insistence of, and with the help of, the novelist Bernard Wolfe, is the story of an unusual and unusually American life, and a portrait of a man who moved freely across racial boundaries when few could or did, “the odyssey of an individualist . . . the saga of a guy who wanted to make friends in a jungle where everyone was too busy making money.”

“This is one of those special novels—a piece of working magic, warm, funny, and sane.”—Thomas Pynchon The whooping crane rustlers are girls. Young girls. Cowgirls, as a matter of fact, all “bursting with dimples and hormones”—and the FBI has never seen anything quite like them. Yet their rebellion at the Rubber Rose Ranch is almost overshadowed by the arrival of the legendary Sissy Hankshaw, a white-trash goddess literally born to hitchhike, and the freest female of them all. Freedom, its prizes and its prices, is a major theme of Tom Robbins’s classic tale of eccentric adventure. As his robust characters attempt to turn the tables on fate, the reader is drawn along on a tragicomic joyride across the badlands of sexuality, wild rivers of language, and the frontiers of the mind.

Chasing the Blues explores the roots of the blues---the music birthed in the Mississippi Delta by African Americans who fashioned a new form of musical expression grounded in their shared experience of brutal oppression. They used the power of music to survive that oppression, creating a simple-in-structure, emotionally complex form that transformed and upended culture and became the bedrock of popular song. Tracing the music back to its geographical and cultural origins in the Delta is key to understanding how the blues were shaped. Over time, the Delta blues have touched virtually every form of popular music (rock and roll, soul, R&B, country-western, gospel), creating the soundscape of our lives. What makes this book unique? Fathoming how the music flowed from living and working conditions in the heart of the Deep South; appreciating how life-changing events like the Flood of 1927 sparked a mass migration away from plantation life, spreading the blues to the cities in the North and becoming the soundtrack to the civil rights movement; how blues musicians interacted, "cross-fertilizing" their music by learning, influencing, and imitating each other. The habits of travel are shifting, and there is more interest and a larger market for diving deep into destinations closer to home. Interest in Black history and culture and the role Black Americans played in shaping America is at an all-time high. By appreciating the roots of this most American style of music, readers will have a richer experience listening to songs and visiting blues' holy and sacred sites.

Perfect for fans of The United States vs. Billie Holiday, this is the fiercely honest, no-holds-barred memoir of the legendary jazz, swing, and standards singing sensation—a fiftieth-anniversary edition updated with stunning new photos, a revised discography, and an insightful foreword by music writer David Ritz Taking the reader on a fast-moving journey from Billie Holiday’s rough-and-tumble Baltimore childhood (where she ran errands at a whorehouse in exchange for the chance to listen to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith albums), to her emergence on Harlem’s club scene, to sold-out performances with the Count Basie Orchestra and with Artie Shaw and his band, this revelatory memoir is notable for its trenchant observations on the racism that darkened Billie’s life and the heroin addiction that ended it too soon. We are with her during the mesmerizing debut of “Strange Fruit”; with her as she rubs shoulders with the biggest movie stars and musicians of the day (Bob Hope, Lana Turner, Clark Gable, Benny Goodman, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and more); and with her through the scrapes with Jim Crow, spats with Sarah Vaughan, ignominious jailings, and tragic decline. All of this is told in Holiday’s tart, streetwise style and hip patois that makes it read as if it were written yesterday.

'A legend of the game' - Anthony Seibold 'He's a player that never lets his team down' - Billy Slater Darius Boyd broke into the Brisbane Broncos NRL team in 2006 straight out of high school and was part of the premiership-winning team in his debut season. He'd go on to win another premiership with the Dragons in 2010, claiming the Clive Churchill Medal for man of the match and forever stamping his name as an elite champion of the game. He has played 28 State of Origins for Queensland and taken the field in 23 Tests for Australia - never playing in a losing Australian team. In 15 seasons at the top level, Darius has won nearly every honour the sport can award and is undeniably an NRL great. But listing statistics, awards and premierships doesn't reveal the battles that Darius Boyd has faced off the field. A teenager with a troubled background, he started his career with innate footy talent but also the emotional baggage of an unknown father, the devastating loss of loved ones, and a mother who was walking a mental health tightrope herself, which as a kid he didn't understand. As his talent shone on the field and his profile increased, Darius struggled. Hiding years of depression and unhappiness, playing footy was his escape. But no one can run from themselves forever. The horrific spinal injury to good mate and Newcastle Knights teammate Alex McKinnon was the catalyst that finally broke Darius. Realising he needed help for his anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts, he turned his back on football, checked into a mental health facility and began to mend his life and himself. Now, as he heads into retirement, Darius Boyd is sharing his story, to celebrate his triumphs on the field but, more importantly for him, revealing how to deal with depression, overcome adversity and live with mental illness. He reflects on excerpts from his private journal which charted his journey from the depths of despair to a life of gratitude. It is a heartfelt message he now takes across the NRL and into boardrooms, schools and footy clubs in a quest to keep our young men alive. BATTLING THE BLUES is a raw, honest and inspiring memoir that takes us into the heart of an NRL champion and his fight to conquer his demons and live a better life.

Ruby is so loud, she drives everyone crazy. When her teacher suggests that Ruby might make life easier by turning down the volume, Ruby turns it up instead - and drives away all her schoolfriends. Ruby feels really blue - until Bernard and Zelda, the saxophonist and blues singer living in the basement, offer to give her singing lessons. Not only does Ruby learn to be quieter, she also learns to sing with feeling - everything from the sharp sounds of the city to the gentle notes of an evening breeze - and on the day of the school concert, she's awesome!

Praised as "suave, soulful, ebullient" (Tom Waits) and "a meticulous researcher, a graceful writer, and a committed contrarian" (New York Times Book Review), Elijah Wald is one of the leading popular music critics of his generation. In The Blues, Wald surveys a genre at the heart of American culture. It is not an easy thing to pin down. As Howlin' Wolf once described it, "When you ain't got no money and can't pay your house rent and can't buy you no food, you've damn sure got the blues." It has been defined by lyrical structure, or as a progression of chords, or as a set of practices reflecting West African "tonal and rhythmic approaches," using a five-note "blues scale." Wald sees blues less as a style than as a broad musical tradition within a constantly evolving pop culture. He traces its roots in work and praise songs, and shows how it was transformed by such professional performers as W. C. Handy, who first popularized the blues a century ago. He follows its evolution from Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith through Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix; identifies the impact of rural field recordings of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton and others; explores the role of blues in the development of both country music and jazz; and looks at the popular rhythm and blues trends of the 1940s and 1950s, from the uptown West Coast style of T-Bone Walker to the "down home" Chicago sound of Muddy Waters. Wald brings the story up to the present, touching on the effects of blues on American poetry, and its connection to modern styles such as rap. As with all of Oxford's Very Short Introductions, The Blues tells you--with insight, clarity, and wit--everything you need to know to understand this quintessentially American musical genre.