| Edition |
1st Vintage books ed. |
| Description |
xx, 427 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 21 cm |
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text txt rdacontent |
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unmediated n rdamedia |
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volume nc rdacarrier |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
I used to be your sweet mama : ideology, sexuality, and domesticity -- Mama's got the blues : rivals, girlfriends, and advisors -- Here come my train : traveling themes and women's blues -- Blame it on the blues : Bessie Smith, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, and the politics of blues protest -- Preaching the blues : spirituality and self-consciousness -- Up in Harlem every Saturday night : blues and the Black aesthetic -- When a woman loves a man : social implications of Billie Holiday's love songs -- "Strange fruit" : music and social consciousness -- Lyrics to songs recorded by Gertrude "Ma" Rainey -- Lyrics to songs recorded by Bessie Smith. |
| Summary |
"Jazz, it is widely accepted, is the signal original American contribution to world culture. Angela Davis shows us how the roots of that form in the blues must be viewed not only as a musical tradition but as a life-sustaining vehicle for an alternative black working-class collective memory and social consciousness profoundly at odds with mainstream American middle-class values. And she explains how the tradition of black women blues singers - represented by Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday - embodies not only an artistic triumph and aesthetic dominance over a hostile popular music industry but an unacknowledged proto-feminist consciousness within working-class black communities. Through a close and riveting analysis of these artists' performances, words, and lives, Davis uncovers the unmistakable assertion and uncompromising celebration of non-middle-class, non-heterosexual social, moral, and sexual values."--Jacket |
| Subject |
Rainey, Ma, 1886-1939.
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Smith, Bessie, 1894-1937.
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Holiday, Billie, 1915-1959.
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Blues (Music) -- History and criticism.
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Feminism and music -- United States.
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Women blues musicians -- United States.
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African American women.
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Holiday, Billie, 1915-1959 https://id.oclc.org/worldcat/entity/E39PBJfrG76xTW7xxBBkFrkYyd (OCoLC)fst00011114
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Rainey, Ma, 1886-1939 https://id.oclc.org/worldcat/entity/E39PBJvRYVKyJPHthBwqxVPJDq (OCoLC)fst00019370
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Smith, Bessie, 1894-1937 https://id.oclc.org/worldcat/entity/E39PBJhmMDYwBJGTDHrQXxVgrq (OCoLC)fst00113246
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African American women (OCoLC)fst00799438
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Blues (Music) (OCoLC)fst00835056
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Feminism and music (OCoLC)fst00922744
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Women blues musicians (OCoLC)fst01177360
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United States https://id.oclc.org/worldcat/entity/E39PBJtxgQXMWqmjMjjwXRHgrq (OCoLC)fst01204155
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| Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc. (OCoLC)fst01411635
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| ISBN |
0679771263 (pbk.) |
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9780679771265 (pbk.) |
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