Deep Blues (English)

A fascinating book that's encyclopedic in its scope and startling in its wealth of detail, DEEP BLUES is one of the classic blues primers. The late Robert Palmer, former chief music critic for the New York Times, takes the reader on a tour through the music's multiple incarnations as slave field hollers, minstrel show tunes, juke joint songs, and the more familiar folk and electric blues. Beginning with an authoritative political and social history of its origins in Africa and its indelible connection to the slave trade, Palmer explores the music's expansion throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, bringing the blues alive with insightful character studies of both well-known (seminal bluesman Charley Patton) and obscure (Henry Sloan, the guitarist who taught Patton everything he knew) characters in its development. Palmer's knowledge of the genre runs as deep as his enthusiasm, which informs every aspect of DEEP BLUES, from his chronicling of the 19th-century genesis of what would become jazz drumming to his description of Elmore James performing in 1950s Chicago. minimize