Blues People: Negro Music in White America

The path the slave took to 'citizenship' is what I want to look at. And I make my analogy through the slave citizen's -- through the that is most closely associated with him: blues and a later, but parallel development, jazz... [If] the Negro represents, or is symbolic of, something in and about the nature of American culture, this certainly should be revealed by his characteristic music.So says Amiri Baraka in the Introduction to Blues People, his classic work on the place of jazz and blues in American social, musical, economic, and cultural history. From the of African slaves in the United States through the scene of the 1960's, Baraka traces the influence of what he calls negro music on white America -- not only in the context of and pop culture but also in terms of the values and perspectives passed on through the music. In tracing the music, he brilliantly illuminates the influence of African Americans on American culture and history.