Book / Buch New York City Blues - Postwar Portraits from Harlem to the Village and Beyond

(University Press Of Mississippi) English, 23.5x15 cm, 360 pages, b/w illustrations - John Broven (editor), Larry Simon (author), Robert Schaffer (photographer)

New York City Blues is the first-ever book on the subject, Postwar Portraits from Harlem to the Village and Beyond offers an in-depth look at the city's blues venues and performers from the 1940s to the 1990s. The interviews in this volume take readers behind the scenes of the daily lives and performances of working musicians, songwriters, and producers. The interviewers capture their voices-many, sadly, have passed away-revealing the changes in styles, the connections between artists, and the evolution of New York blues. New York City Blues is an oral history conveyed through the words of the performers themselves and the photographs of Robert Schaffer, supplemented by the contributions of Val Wilmer, Paul Harris, and Richard Tapp. The book also includes the work of award-winning author and blues researcher John Broven. Broven not only wrote a history of New York blues for the introduction, but also contributed interviews with Rose Marie McCoy, "Doc" Pomus, Billy Butler, and Billy Bland. Artists interviewed by Larry Simon include Paul Oscher, John Hammond Jr, Rosco Gordon, Larry Dale, Bob Gaddy, Wild Jimmy Spruill and Bobby Robinson. More than 160 photographs, including those by renowned photographers Anton Mikofsky, Wilmer, and Harris, provide a vivid visual history of the music and the times from Harlem to Greenwich Village and adjacent areas. New York City Blues provides a strong sense of the major personalities and locations, such as the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, the history, and an in-depth introduction to the rich diversity, sounds, and styles that made up the often overlooked New York blues scene.