Wald, Elijah - The Blues

Features blues stars Ma Rainey, Jelly Roll Morton, W.C. Handy, Alberta Hunter, Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, the Memphis Jug Band, and Charlie Patton
• Provides a concise history of a musical genre that interests both jazz and folk fans, and students of popular music
• Bestselling author of How the Beatles Destroyed Rock n' Roll: published by OUP in June 2009 and has sold over 10,000 copies to date

This VSI provides a brief history of the blues genre's main movements and most influential artists and gives a sense of the breadth of the blues field. Beginning with the music's roots in African and African-American styles, European folk music, and popular forms such as minstrelsy and ragtime, it traces how blues evolved over the course of the twentieth century as both a discrete genre and a basic ingredient in virtually all American pop styles from jazz to hip-hop.