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Encyclopedia of the Blues Edited By Edward Komara (Routledge)

 The hefty two volume "Encyclopedia of the Blues" is a wide ranging, inclusive and generally well researched reference work that may well supercede all similar books that have come before [I should note that I had a small role, writing fifteen entries of varying size]. Routledge's multi-volume is not the first book of it's type, closely resembling Gérard Herzhaft's "Encyclopedia Of The Blues" which published a 2nd edition in 1997. In sheer scope the Routledge's Encyclopedia casts a wider and deeper net, clearly aiming to be the definitive work of it's kind.

 Where Herzhaft's book clocked in at 300 pages, Routledge's oversized hardcover volumes come to well over 1000 pages with an additional several hundred pages devoted to the index. The book consists of approximately 2100 entries, ranging from brief, factual 50 words entries on lesser known artists like Willie "61" Blackwell to comprehensive analytical articles of 5000 words on major figures like Son House and Charley Patton. As in standard Encyclopedias biographical entries are in an A to Z format usually containing a bibliography and discography. The book goes far beyond biographical entries including essays, for example, on: Culture ("House-Rent Parties", "Hoodoo", "Topical Blues", "Railroad", "Blues Folklore"), Geographic ("Chicago", "Detroit", "Texas", "St. Louis", "Oakland"), Instruments, related Music styles ("Soul", "Jazz", "Rock and Roll"), Record Labels, Song Titles ("Frankie and Johnny", Hesitation Blues", "Fattening Frogs For Snakes", "Black Angel Blues/Sweet Little Angel" and many other topics too lengthy to list here.

 Impressive as the scope, what makes a work like this is the writers/researchers who contributed their time and effort. On that score editor Edward Komara and Peter Redvers-Lee (who appears to have dropped out of the project but enlisted many of the writers) has done a yeoman-like job corralling some very impressive writers, many of which have written noted books, magazine articles, liner notes, acted as producers, have done field work or are noted for their discography research. Those whom the book is aimed at will recognize writers such as Paul Garon (books on Memphis Minnie and Peetie Wheatstraw), Jim O'Neal (long time Living Blues editor/writer), other Living Blues writers/editors (Peter Aschoff, David Nelson, Scott Baretta), Robert Gordon (books on Muddy Waters and Elvis), Guido Van Rijn ("Roosevelt's Blues", "Truman And Eisenhower Blues") plus noted researchers like Robert Pruter, David Penny, Richard Spottswood among many others. Wisely, in many cases, experts are matched with topic. For instance Muddy biographer Robert Gordon on Muddy Waters, Hubert Sumlin, Jimmy Rogers, McTell biographer Michael Gray (to be published in 2006) on Blind Willie McTell, Paul Garon on Memphis Minnie, piano expert Bob Hall wrote the bulk of the piano entries, discography expert Howard Rye ("Blues & Gospel Records 1890-1943") tackles many of the label histories, Paul Vernon ("African-American Blues, Rhythm and Blues, Gospel and Zydeco on Film and Video, 1926-1977") on Film, Guido Van Rijn on Topical Blues, Robert Bowman ("Soulsville, U.S.A") on Soul etc. An impressive list to be sure considering the nature of academic works like this which offer little in the way of compensation.

 For the most part the entries are generally well written and well researched, often employing hard to find blues magazines and journals all of which are sourced in the bibliography located at the bottom of each piece. A number of entries have no bibliography which makes it difficult to follow up on further research. Some have no author listed. In addition each entry is supposed to have a selective discography as well but unfortunately many don't and in other cases all that is given is an author abbreviation for one of the frequently cited sources such as DGR (Blues & Gospel Records 1890-1943), Lord (The Jazz Discography) or AMG (All Music Guide). Not everyone will have access to these sources.

 As I mentioned, most of the entries are well written and inclusive but the nature of using some many different writers is a bit of unevenness. For instance Luigi Monge's seven page essay on Topical Blues: Disasters is an exceedingly well written piece, liberally illustrated with song examples. The second and third parts, Topical Blues: Sports written by Bill Graves and Topical Blues: Urban Renewal written by Michael Point, are much weaker offering little in the way of song examples of which there are many. For instance Graves devoted just a few sentences to heavyweight champ Joe Louis who was idolized by african-americans and who's deeds were sung about in scores of blues and gospel songs, none of which Graves mentions. In Point's essay few song titles are mentioned and there are many, from Peetie Wheatstraw's "Third Street's Going Down" to Gatemouth Moore's "Beale Street Ain't Beale Street." Also while we get interesting essays on Racial Issues and the Blues and Lynching and the Blues there's no specific essay on politics or protest in the blues. Similarly a number of entries have a disproportionate length. For example just about a page is devoted to St. Louis, Missouri, a town with a rich history, particularly in the pre-war years, where as the entry on Sweden, although well written and researched, is accorded a full three pages. Another example is Woman And The Blues which is given a only slightly more than half a page.

  A number of artists who would seemingly warrant longer, more thoughtful entries are given short thrift including Roy Milton, Robert Lockwood Jr., Leadbelly and Fred McDowell to name a few glaring examples. In a work of this scope there of course will be those who are overlooked although I didn't notice any major omissions. A few I noticed, and I'm sure more eagle eyed reader will find more, include Roy Hawkins, L.C. McKinley, Shy Guy Douglas and Gene Campbell. Perhaps more problematic than what has been omitted is what has been included. In a serious work of this nature should white rock bands like the Rolling Stones and Cream be included? I'm sure that those who would purchase such an expensive, scholarly set would say no. Similarly lenghthy entries on Rock 'N' Roll and Soul will turn off many whom this work is geared towards. There is a tendency to be too inclusive in works like this and this work suffers somewhat from that problem.

 Despite some of the issues discussed above the "Encyclopedia of the Blues" is an important work; well researched, inclusive, in most cases thoughtfully written, it will remain a cornerstone of blues research for many years to come.

-Check out these related links:
Encyclopedia of the Blues

(Jeff Harris)

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Broadcasting the Blues By Paul Oliver
(Routledge)  

 Paul Oliver remains our preeminent blues scholar who for a half century has thoughtfully, methodically probed the meaning of the blues in books, articles, liner notes and radio broadcasts. He has brought a scholarly rigger to our understanding of the blues and as David Evans notes, "...more than any other writer, has established and defined the topics for discussion in the blues field." "Broadcasting The Blues" collects radio scripts from the BBC that Oliver has written over the course of the past fifty years, which taken in total comprise a history of how the blues arose from pre-blues forms through the first few decades of it's recorded existence.

 In the introduction Oliver relates his "missionary zeal" in the early days to "bring the good news of the blues to a large and international audience." He had written his widely influential "Blues fell This Morning" in 1960 but he still wanted to get the message to a larger audience hence the idea to broadcast the blues which he began doing on the BBC in the mid-50's, first as part of the existing jazz programs and finally as separate tradition with the publication of his first book. Each subsequent book prompted new programs. From the beginning, as is evident in the scripts collected here, Oliver was interested in the social and cultural contexts of the blues with a strong emphasis on the meaning behind the lyrics. Oliver's interest is firmly in the earlier blues, or the "folk blues" as he calls them, particularly in "how they came about, what they meant to the singers and their listeners, and the role they played in the black communities during the era of Segregation." The book doesn't follow a chronological order of when the scripts were written but rather are ordered as to follow how the blues developed from the era before the blues were the blues, up to how they coalesced into a distinct art form. The book is divided into four parts: Before The Blues, Blues How Do You Do (blues as an art form), Meaning of the Blues (themes in the blues with many drawn from Oliver's own research) and Documenting the Blues (insights into blues research).

 Oliver is chiefly concerned with blues during the Segregation era where "Blacks were socially and economically disadvantaged" and "Blues offered them some release from their frustration and humiliation." As Oliver notes they may sing for themselves but "they perform for their communities too, articulating the feelings of other blacks, often in vivid and poetic use of black idioms." In the first section Oliver vividly, carefully describes the development of the blues as it slowly coalesced into a distinct form from earlier black music styles such as works songs, field hollers and was disseminated by medicine and minstrel shows. In a script from 1968, Oliver notes a change and that "the blues shows signs of cultural decline." Even though the influence of the blues was everywhere it no longer had the resonance it once had in the black community. While blues had had little to say about the civil rights movement of the 1960's Oliver sees in the earlier blues songs "a vehicle for protest against social injustice and, in a subtle way, calling for freedom from oppression." Overt social protest was rare in the blues although Oliver discusses in detail how blues singers dealt with the traumatic periods like the depression and World War II in fascinating chapters like Let's Have a New Deal and The World Is In a Tangle. The blues also gave outlet to to those caught up in natural disasters, which seem to hit the poor the hardest (just look at New Orleans), well documented in the chapter High Water Everywhere.

 Much has changed since Oliver began writing about the blues and the sheer amount of research and reissue recordings that have been amassed in the past fifty years is staggering. "To sum up", Oliver writes," we now have available to us all known issued recordings, together with a substantial proportion of lyric transcripts, of the entire corpus of African American music in the blues and gospel genres over the first half century of recording." The fact that none of this existed for a good part of Oliver's career makes the breadth of his research all the more impressive. All this documentation leads the ever inquisitive author to ponder new avenues of research for future scholars to take up including the authorship or "composer credits" of blues lyrics, early black entertainment and early religious music. Imagine how such a book as Oliver's groundbreaking "Songster's and Saints" (1984) would have benefited from all the religious music issued on the Document label in their exhaustive reissue program?

 The benefit, of course, of listening to the radio programs is the fact that they were illustrated with the appropriate records. In lieu of that the book, like all of Oliver's prior books, has a companion soundtrack which in this case is a 3-CD set on the Document label (DOCD 32-20-10). Each of these performances on the set are indicated in bold type in the text.

 "Broadcasting The Blues" is a valuable addition to Oliver's impressive bibliography that neatly, concisely summarizes the themes and subjects Oliver has been exploring for over half a century. Oliver's fascinating insights will sure to spark future debate and spur new avenues of research for many years to come.

(Jeff Harris)