Eubie Blake
Rags, Rhythm, and Race
Richard Carlin author Ken Bloom author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:8th Sep '20
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
A new biography of one of the key composers of 20th-century American popular song and jazz,Eubie Blake: Rags, Rhythm and Race illuminates Blake's little-known impact on over 100 years of American culture. A gifted musician, Blake rose from performing in dance halls and bordellos of his native Baltimore to the heights of Broadway. In 1921, together with performer and lyricist Noble Sissle, Blake created Shuffle Along which became a sleeper smash on Broadway eventually becoming one of the top ten musical shows of the 1920s. Despite many obstacles Shuffle Along integrated Broadway and the road and introduced such stars as Josephine Baker, Lottie Gee, Florence Mills, and Fredi Washington. It also proved that black shows were viable on Broadway and subsequent productions gave a voice to great songwriters, performers, and spoke to a previously disenfranchised black audience. As successful as Shuffle Along was, racism and bad luck hampered Blake's career. Remarkably, the third act of Blake's life found him heraldedin his 90s at major jazz festivals, in Broadway shows, and on television and recordings. Tracing not only Blake's extraordinary life and accomplishments, Broadway and popular music authorities Richard Carlin and Ken Bloom examine the professional and societal barriers confronted by black artists from the turn of the century through the 1980s. Drawing from a wealth of personal archives and interviews with Blake, his friends, and other scholars,Eubie Blake: Rags, Rhythm and Race offers an incisive portrait of the man and the musical world he inhabited.
Eubie Blake: Rags, Rhythm and Race, published in 2020, reveals so much more than that about the life of James Hubert "Eubie" Blake...it is much more expansive and detailed, filled with quotes from interviews and material such as Blake's contracts, schedules and pay records. * Bob Jacobson, Syncopated Times *
Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. * K. R. Dietrich, CHOICE *
Carlin and Bloom have created an all embracing and unique musical chronicle of Eubie Blake that is compelling, heartbreaking and ultimately joyous thanks to his late life rediscovery. With the use of voluminous first hand research artifacts, they have created a multi faceted account of Blake's life and in the process, have given us one of the truest depictions of the endemic racism and cut throat culture of 20th Century show business. * Michael Feinstein *
well-written ... a significant achievement. * Steve Ramm, The Antique Phonograph *
Authors and music specialists Richard Carlin and Ken Bloom present a densely packed, meticulously researched, and painstakingly incisive portrait of a jazz icon and his times. * Deb Miller, DC Metro Theater Arts *
I've been 'just wild' about Eubie Blake since I was a kid, and after reading Carlin and Bloom's multi-layered and historically deep book my appreciation has still managed to grow by leaps and bounds. Placing Blake in both the social and musical contexts of a fast-changing century has greatly added to my enjoyment and full-throated respect for his amazing life, music, and music career. * Benjamin Bierman, Associate Professor of Music at John Jay College, City University of New York *
Blake, in his ten decades of life, persevered through some highs and many lows, only to be truly celebrated for his remarkable talents when he reached his nineties.That we never, ever really know a person is a much-said truism. And yet, Carlin and Bloom, through their extensive and exhaustive research, will make a reader feel and believe that he indeed does know Eubie Blake. * Peter Filichia, critic emeritus of The Newark Star-Ledger *
Along with many others, I have been waiting for a new, scholarly, thorough, and insightful biography of this one-of-a-kind American figure. Finally, we have one, nicely-illustrated and carefully documented. * John Edward Hasse, author of Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington *
- Winner of Winner, Best History in category of Best Historical Research in Recorded Popular Music, Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence.
ISBN: 9780190635930
Dimensions: 236mm x 157mm x 38mm
Weight: 839g
472 pages