LibGuides: Black History Month: Books (2024)

Sweet Soul Music by Peter Guralnick

This is the story of the rhythm-and-blues music of such performers as Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. The author's earlier Feel Like Goin' Home is a history of the blues and Lost Highway deals with the story of rockabilly.

ISBN: 0060960493

Publication Date: 1986-06-01

Nobody Knows Where the Blues Come From by Robert Springer (Editor)

Musicians and music scholars rightly focus on the sounds of the blues and the colorful life stories of blues performers. Equally important and, until now, inadequately studied are the lyrics. The international contributors to Nobody Knows Where the Blues Come From explore this aspect of the blues and establish the significance of African American popular song as a neglected form of oral history.

ISBN: 1934110299

Publication Date: 2007-06-01

Just My Soul Responding by Brian Ward

This richly textured study of some of the most important music and complex political events in America since World War II challenges the belief that white consumption of black music necessarily helped eradicate racial prejudice.

ISBN: 0520212975

Publication Date: 1998-07-06

Respect Yourself by Robert Gordon

The story of Stax Records unfolds like a Greek tragedy. A white brother and sister build a record company that becomes a monument to racial harmony in 1960's segregated south Memphis. Their success is startling, and Stax soon defines an international sound. Then, after losses both business and personal, the siblings part, and the brother allies with a visionary African-American partner. Under integrated leadership, Stax explodes as a national player until, Icarus-like, they fall from great heights to a tragic demise. Everything is lost, and the sanctuary that flourished is ripped from the ground. A generation later, Stax is rebuilt brick by brick to once again bring music and opportunity to the people of Memphis. Set in the world of 1960s and '70s soul music, Respect Yourself is a story of epic heroes in a shady industry. It's about music and musicians -- Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Wilson Pickett, the Staple Singers, and Booker T. and the M.G.'s, Stax's interracial house band. It's about a small independent company's struggle to survive in a business world of burgeoning conglomerates. And always at the center of the story is Memphis, Tennessee, an explosive city struggling through heated, divisive years. Told by one of our leading music chroniclers, Respect Yourself brings to life this treasured cultural institution and the city that created it.

Call Number: ML3792.S74 G67 2013

ISBN: 9781596915770

Publication Date: 2013-11-12

Offers an overview of the music's impact in American culture and how it reflected contemporary society's politics, trends, and social issues.

Call Number: ebook

ISBN: 0313340463

Publication Date: 2007-12-30

The Rough Guide to Soul and R and B by Peter Shapiro; Rough Guides Staff

The Rough Guide to Soul and R&Bis the definitive guide to the genre's greatest singers, musicians, songwriters and record labels, encapsulating the entire history of soul music from gospel and doo-wop, through funk and disco, to hip-hop and R&B. The guide includes detailed profiles of more than 300 artists, from such legends as Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Sam Cooke to contemporary stars like Prince, Mary J. Blige and Destiny's Child. There are reviews of hundreds of landmark albums, from James Brown's Live At The Apollo to Missy Elliott's Supa Dupa Fly. The guide includes recommended playlists for the key performers and sub-genres and comes complete with plenty of unforgettable photos from top music photographers and picture libraries.

Call Number: ML3537 .S524 2006

ISBN: 9781843532644

Publication Date: 2006-09-18

Sly and the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On by Miles Marshall Lewis

The story behind the making of the album that signaled the descent of Sylvester Sly Stone Stewart into a haze of drug addiction and delirium is captivating enough for the cinema. In the spacious attic of a Beverly Hills mansion belonging to John and Michelle Phillips (of the Mamas and the Papas) during the fall of 1970, Sly Stone began recording his follow-up to 1969's "Stand!" the most popular album of his band's career.

Call Number: ML421.S59 L49 2006

ISBN: 9780826417442

Publication Date: 2006-02-25

Group Harmony by Stuart L. Goosman

In 1948, the Orioles, a Baltimore-based vocal group, recorded "It's Too Soon to Know." Combining the sound of Tin Pan Alley with gospel and blues sensibilities, the Orioles saw their first hit reach #13 on the pop charts, thus introducing the nation to vocal rhythm & blues and paving the way for the most successful groups of the 1950s. In the first scholarly treatment of this influential musical genre, Stuart Goosman chronicles the Orioles' story and that of myriad other black vocal groups in the postwar period. A few, like the Orioles, Cardinals, and Swallows from Baltimore and the Clovers from Washington, D.C., established the popularity of vocal rhythm & blues nationally. Dozens of other well-known groups (and hundreds of unknown ones) across the country cut records and performed until about 1960. Record companies initially marketed this music as rhythm & blues; today, group harmony continues to resonate for some as "doo-wop." Focusing in particular on Baltimore and Washington and drawing significantly from oral histories, Group Harmony details the emergence of vocal rhythm & blues groups from black urban neighborhoods. Group harmony was a source of empowerment for young singers, for it provided them with a means of expression and some aspect of control over their lives where there were limited alternatives. Through group harmony, young black males celebrated and musically confounded, when they could not overcome, complex issues of race, separatism, and assimilation during the postwar period. Group harmony also became a significant resource for the popular music industry. Goosman interviews dozens of performers, deejays, and industry professionals to examine the entrepreneurial promise of midcentury popular music and chronicle the convergence of music, place, and business, including the business of records, radio, promotion, and song writing. Featured in the book's account of the black urban roots of rhythm & blues are the recollections of singers from groups such as the Cardinals, Clovers, Dunbar Four, Four Bars of Rhythm, Five Blue Notes, Hi Fis, Plants, Swallows, and many others, including Jimmy McPhail, a well-known Washington vocalist; Deborah Chessler, the manager and songwriter for the original Orioles; Jesse Stone, the writer and arranger from Atlantic Records; Washington radio personality Jackson Lowe; and seminal black deejays Al ("Big Boy") Jefferson, Maurice ("Hot Rod") Hulbert, and Tex Gathings.

Call Number: ML3521.G66 G76 2005

ISBN: 0812238869

Publication Date: 2005-09-13

(Book). Many of young women who come to Terri Brinegar for vocal lessons aspire to be a professional R&B and pop singer. Often, they know little of what is actually involved, how hard the work is, and how important it is to be a good musician and bandleader. Many may have entered the competitive world of music blindly, with very little guidance to aid them along the way. This book and its accompanying CD present Terri's unique approach to vocal technique, musicianship, gigging, working with a band, stage performance techniques, and much more. In Vocal and Stage Essentials for the Aspiring Female R&B Singer Brinegar shares with her extensive stage experience, her success as a bandleader to some of the greatest musicians in the world, her skills as a musician and songwriter, her training in classical voice, and her years as a vocal coach. Brinegar believes a strong foundation of vocal technique is necessity to success in any style of singing. She is probably one of the few teachers with both a classical background and years of stage experience singing blues and R&B. While there are many books on technique, few, if any, have been written with Brinegar's broad and comprehensive take on the contemporary music industry.

Call Number: MT820.B856 2012

ISBN: 1458416534

Publication Date: 2012-05-01

The Commandments of Early Rhythm and Blues Drumming by Zoro; Daniel Glass

Eight years in the making, this prequel" to The Commandments of R&B Drumming delves into the rhythm and blues of the 1940s and 1950s, an incredible musical era when shuffles ruled the airwaves and modern groove playing was in its infancy. Written by Zoro and Daniel Glass, drummer for Royal Crown Revue, this book is loaded with history, photos, graphics, exercises, and transcriptions, and includes the most comprehensive guide to shuffle playing ever written. "This book/CD package is well researched, clear in its goals, and enlightening and inspiring in its approach. Keep this one on your bottom shelf; you're going to want to return to it again and again." ---Modern Drummer "Simply put, this is an essential requirement for every drummer's library." ---Drummer "I am so impressed with what Daniel and Zoro have done to secure the heritage of the modern drumset. The Commandments of Early Rhythm and Blues Drumming is a must---every inspired drummer needs to experience and learn from this masterpiece. The book will take you on a journey through our history---and knowing where we came from will assist us in our vision for the future! Thank you both for your hard work, so that generations ahead of us can forever enjoy this magical era!" ---Dom Famularo Drumming's Global Ambassador "In the modern era of R&B drumming, there aren't too many drummers more qualified than both Zoro and Daniel Glass who could have tackled this subject matter with as much passion as these gentlemen have . . . Anyone wanting to delve into the roots of modern hip hop and R&B will want to look no further than this resource; it's excellent in every regard." ---DrumScene"

Call Number: MT662.6.Z67 C61 2008

ISBN: 9780739053997

Publication Date: 2008-10-01