Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music by Ted Gioia

Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music Reviews

• 
  robin friedman

  Blues Passion
  
  For many years, the blues of the Mississippi Delta were all but forgotten. With the combination of cross-over or urbanized performances and scholarly interest, the blues have experienced a resurgence. Ted Gioia's new book "Delta Blues: the Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters who Revolutionized American Music" (2008) is the most recent work which carefully studies the Delta blues tradition Gioia is a performer and a scholar who began with an interest in jazz. As a young jazz musician, Gioia tells the reader that he thought that he understood the nature of the blues in terms of harmony, rhythm, and chord patterns. Only as a result of maturity and years of close study did he become aware of the "deeper essence" of the music Gioia writes:
  
  "I found myself listening to the same blues music I had heard in my youth with much different ears, and certainly no longer with the glib assurance that I had plumbed its depths. On the contrary, the music now seemed multilayered, otherworldly, elusive. I sensed a richness to these songs, especially the older blues from the Delta tradition, that I had missed before."
  
  Throughout the book, Gioia writes about the history of the Delta blues, the performers, and the music with passion and knowledge.
  
  The history of the Delta blues can be divided into two large parts. The first is the traditional blues, performed by artists on the farms, plantations, prisons, juke joints, streets, railroad stations of the Delta itself. Generally traditional blues were performed by one person singing and accompanying himself on the guitar or harmonica. or sometimes by two persons, a singer and an accompanist. This type of traditional blues generally ended with Muddy Waters's recordings on the Stovall Plantation in Mississippi for Alan Lomax and the Library of Congress in 1943.
  
  The second period of the Delta blues began when blues musicians migrated from the Delta and moved to Chicago or other cities. When they did so, they generally electrified their guitars and began performing in bands rather than as individuals. Their music became influenced by other musical styles and by commercial considerations. It led to rock and roll and then in turn became heavily influenced by rock. Here again Muddy Waters is the prototypical figure with his move to Chicago shortly after his sessions with Lomax.
  
  In his book, Gioia discusses thoroughly both these forms of the Delta blues and he shows their relationship. But his heart clearly is with the early blues masters. This early music is wild, raw and primitive. In its anguish, simplicity, repeated guitar patterns, and harmonic quirkiness, it brought something to music that was not found elsewhere, either in the classics or in other forms of popular music. The Delta blues was music of outcasts and loners, of untutored musicians who lacking musical training struggled to express what was in them. The bluesmen lived undisciplined lives filled with wandering, alcohol, violence, prisons and Parchman Farm, and lost love. These passions they expressed through music.
  
  Most importantly, many bluesmen were conflicted between what they perceived as their rootless, sinful life in the blues and the force of religion. The Delta blues show a distinctively metaphysical, personal cast. The tension between the life of a vagrant musician and a life devoted to God pervades the music of Son House, Tommy Johnson, Robert Johnson and others. Gioia is at his best when he describes this tension and gives it central place in his treatment of the Delta blues. He describes as well the origins of the music, its recording history, and the biographies of its practitioners. He analyzes the music in a way that lay readers may follow easily. In addition to the musicians that have now become well-known, Gioia describes obscure figures such as blueswomen Geeshie Wiley and the rare Delta woman blues pianist Louise Johnson.
  
  Gioia offers as well a sympathetic portrayal of the Delta blues beginning in the 1940s with its urbanization and increased sophistication. His portrayals of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, and their relationship with Leonard Chess and Chess records in Chicago were brought home in the recent movie "Cadillac Records" which I found captured the spirit of this urban transformation of the Delta Blues. Besides Waters and Wolf, Gioia devotes extensive attention to the long careers of John Lee Hooker and B.B. King. Gioia's treatment of King is particularly detailed as he portrays King's early days in the Delta, his blues scholarship and knowledge, and the many transformations in his music and in its reception over the years.
  
  Writing of the early Delta blues in particular, Gioia states "This is strange, wonderful music no less peculiar for having achieved lasting appeal and commercial success". Gioia's in-depth treatment of traditional Delta blues has inspired me to revisit this great American music. The book includes an excellent bibliography and a list of 100 Delta blues songs for listening and study.
  
  Robin Friedman
• 
  rachel

  If you think Americana means McDonalds, tacky furniture and bad radio, here is the proof that it is something much, much greater. This book encapsulates what is loathsome and what is worthy about America. The huge chunks of racial intolerance, cruelty, and exploitation that make up our history are vast and terrible, and certainly responsible for the roots of blues music -- which is a hard thing to reconcile, because this music is great.
  
  It would be very flippant to think that music appeases the circumstance of African-American history in any way. I don't think you can hear the music without realizing where it came from. But here is the worthiness I am talking about, that men and women were able to turn the experience of poverty, slavery, and oppression into this fire in the belly music that feels like a total revelation. Maybe that sounds grandiose. But just watch
  Howlin' Wolf perform and listen to his words and try not to feel pride (if you happen to be American) that this man is a part of your history. It can't be done.
  
  Like most things, blues music tends to get forgotten in the canon of creativity in favor of white achievement. It's a foundation of rock music, but many people I've met can't name a single blues musician. (Maybe B.B. King, but he did that song with Eric Clapton, so...go figure.) One can only hope that books like this will change that.
• 
  Benito

  This is a good starting point for any blues research, and it has some amazing stories of lives filled with hardship and plain bad luck, some of which are happily followed by heroic third acts of fame and recognition, if not actual fortune.
  
  Gioia helps put the chronology of this musical form that changed the world into perspective. Also, being an accomplished jazz and blues musician himself, Gioia gives a good understanding of the unique musical etymology and accidents that make these feels so hard to adequately emulate despite their simple structure on paper.
  
  Reading this made me yearn for a closer look at some of the big players, which I'm now doing with a book on Howlin' Wolf.
  
  Gioia makes you hear the music afresh with more learned ears that understand the context, and more importantly rids the awful sound of every bad Balmain pub blues band from your cortex forever.
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  Steven Peterson

  This is a well detailed examination of the rise and evolution of the delta blues. If you want to get a sense of the origins of this musical genre (springing not from the main delta of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, but in the confluence of the Yazoo River and the Mississippi River in the state of Mississippi), this will do nicely.
  
  The book examines where the blues sound came from (a bit thin, but it is tough to reconstruct such matters here), some of the early greats (e.g., Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, John Hurt, Son House, and the like), how the recording industry developed to provide an entree to the music to much broader audiences than the small towns and farms of the delta, how the sound evolved with musicians like Muddy Waters. . . .
  
  All in all, a fine resource for those who want a more in-depth analysis of this wonderful music.
• 
  Darcia Helle

  I found this a fascinating read. Ted Gioia examines the birth of the blues at the start of the twentieth century, and follows some of the major (but often little known) players through their lives. The journey shows us the evolution of the music, as well as the changes in society. Sadly, many of these bluesmen and women did not live long enough to see the tremendous impact they had on what is now our modern music. Nor did most of them ever get the credit they deserved.
  
  Gioia's writing is engaging and his love for the music bleeds onto the pages. However, this is not a light read I'd recommend for a casual fan. This is a detailed examination of a musical style and culture that reshaped music as we know it. If the name Robert Johnson doesn't mean anything to you, then I doubt this book would hold your interest. But if you love the blues, this is a must have for your collection.
• 
  Chema Min

  Imprescindible.
  
  Gracias a Ted Gioia por ser mi guía en este viaje.
  He habitado en este libro lugares y espacios musicales soñados.
  
  Disfrutando la historia del blues, sus irónicos y mágicos avatares, los cruces de caminos, el descubrimiento de cada uno de los músicos.
  
  Un placer inmenso escuchar cada tema en spotify, navegar por los álbumes y los autores, añadir mis blues favoritos a una colección.
  
  Finalizado este viaje, hoy escucho música con mayor bagaje en mi hatillo. Y sé que es sólo el principio.
  Thanks Ted!
• 
  Alberto

  Una gran introducción al mundo del blues, desde sus orígenes rurales hasta su actual estado de hibridación, vanguardia y clasicismo. Un texto muy divulgativo apto para todos aquellos que deseen adentrarse en un género musical fundamental para entender la música popular del siglo XX y XXI. Una gozada.
• 
  Tony Foxhoven

  This was a really great overview of the Blues. Its something I wasn't really familiar with and before you know it I'm driving around listening to Son House, Robert Johnson and Howlin Wolf. A great intro to the music that birthed rock n roll
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  Marguerite

  Ted Gioia's thoughtful book traces the lives and works of American blues musicians from the Mississippi Delta. I've seen John Lee Hooker and B.B. King. Gioia's book puts them in context, at the end of a uniquely American musical movement. I'm familiar with some of the earlier music, but this book provides a framework -- and a study guide -- for an unschooled listener.
  
  Gioia's appreciation for his subject is obvious. I could have done without the final chapter, though. The content doesn't fit with the rest.
  
  The 100 essential blues recordings list is a gem.
  
  "The influence of the Delta on the sound of our musical lives is so pervasive today that is is almost impossible to take full measure of its impact. One might as well try to imagine cooking without herbs and spices, or medicine before the arrival of penicillin."
  
  "The American blues musician, in contrast, honed a music of personal expression, often reflecting a lack of connection to the broader streams of society, evoking feelings of alienation and anomie."
  
  "The blues ... emerged in isolation and far from the well-traveled haunts. It emerged in settings that were almost perfectly suited for halting, not fostering, the spread of a new form of musical expression. ... The essence of the blues was not innovation, was not the spread of a new way of making music, but stemmed primarily from the retention of traditional practices and perspectives."
  
  "(B.B.) King introduces the piece with a soulful single-note guitar line that settles into a moody ballad, at a 65 beats per minute tempo, slower than a lover's heartbeat."
• 
  Rafa

  
  http://bourbonstreet-online.blogspot.com/2018/11/blues-la-musica-del-delta-del.html
• 
  Michael

  Ted Gioia takes a somewhat dry, academic and definitely hit-and-miss look at a great subject. The title is misleading as two-thirds of the book is about Chicago bluesmen with roots in the Mississippi Delta: Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, et al. The real roots of Delta Blues remain almost as mysterious as the music of the Romans or the Greeks; whereas the Chicago/Chess story is well-documented and often told. Still, how can you go wrong with anecdotes about Robert Johnson (while playing he always hit on the homeliest woman in the room to increase his chance of success and reduce the odds against jealous retaliation); Leadbelly (yes the Lomaxes discovered him and made him a star, but they also made him their driver); and Muddy Waters (painted the Chess studio for extra cash). Occasionally Gioia manages to scrape off the mustard, like his 10-page repudiation of the Robert Johnson "Crossroads" myth (what next, an investigative report into the Santa Claus hoax?). I'm a blues junkie so this remains essential reading. I'm told Robert Palmer's book is much better.
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  Diann Blakely

  Hard-core jazz fans should try spreading their mental and musical wings and reading Gioia's latest, for long- and well-known as a critic of that musical genre, Gioia has seemingly made use not only of his original background, but also of every iota of new material that has come to light in his chapters on the early blues associated with Dockery Plantation and Parchman Prison, as well as those on Son House, Skip James, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf, B. B. King, and the blues revival.
  
  Perhaps DELTA BLUES is natural evolution from two of the three Deems-Taylor Awards winners Gioia has to his credit, WORK SONGS and HEALING SONGS (Duke University Press, 2006), but who'd expect Pythagoras
  to join the mix above? If Gioia's alma mater is Stanford, it should be no surprise that he jumped to the east coast only recently to join rhw contributora to the massive undertaking by Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors, A NEW LITERARY HISTORY OF AMERICA (Harvard University Press).
• 
  Ben

  There's lots of great history in this book, and it's a great, driving read.As he's already proven in his jazz books, Gioia knows music and knows how to write exceptionally well about music.
  
  Gioia did his homework talking to people who've been researching the early-mid 20th century Mississippi Delta inside out for decades, and he surveys pretty much everything that's already been written about delta blues.
  
  I love that the fanatics who went looking for old 78s in the 1950s and 60s are sometimes even bigger characters than the blues people they were researching. The Mississippi native who got a job as an exterminator in order to gain entrance to black households and haggle for 78s takes the cake in this department.
  
• 
  Lisa

  (Non-Fiction Music) My knowledge of blues music is slim to none, so I jumped at the chance to read this book for a class. I really enjoyed Gioia's research and descriptions of people, places, and above all, the music. I certainly have a deep appreciation for the blues now. I really loved his informalities throughout the book, where he suggestively speaks to his readers. Gioia includes a bibliography, a further reading list and a listening list of important blues recordings, so if I want to become a blues scholar anytime in the future he's provided a great roadmap to do so.
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  Robert Morrow

  An excellent and thorough overview of the great Delta Blues players, covering their music, influence and personal histories (to the extent possible). The sections on Skip James and Muddy Waters are particularly interesting; the section on Robert Johnson tends to get bogged down in scholarly dispute. The most vivid sections of the book deal with life in The Delta, which consisted of hardships the average American would find difficult to imagine. Ted Gioia is an accomplished scholar of both jazz and blues; his research and analysis of the work of other researchers is impeccable.
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  Rebecca

  Great read for anyone interested in blues and listen to the songs on you tube definitely worth it!!!
  
  I chose this rating because I learned a lot about the Blues and how the Mississippi delta shaped the foundation of music. I only knew about Robert Johnson and had tangentially heard about the other Blues artists. I learned more about the major influencers of BB King, Muddy Waters, Tommy Johnson , Skip James and Howlin Wolf on modern music. Great read. Thank you.
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  Pamela Montano

  A truly great book about the blues masters from the early 1900's through today. Some had been forgotten until the 1960's when bands like Cream, Canned Heat, Santana and the Rolling Stones shared the stories of their greatest influences and how it shaped their musical journeys. There are tales of Robert Johnson, Son House, W.C. Handy, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker and B.B. King, to name a few. This book is well-researched, which was no easy task and it's well-written.
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  Patrick

  The third of the basic introductory texts to country blues, and the most coherent and comprehensive of the lot. Gioia's book benefits from the fact that he's a musician and has all the scholarship since the 50's at his disposal. Would have given it five stars if Gioia's writing style/approach wasn't so gosh darn pleasant.
  
  Sucks amazon bought goodreads.
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  Bill Gordon

  Lots of fascinating American history in this book. I got lots of ideas for CDs to listen to while reading this one. I'm a huge fan of old country blues recordings and this book enriched my current and future listening experiences. Ted Gioia is an excellent writer.
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  Maureen

  Tons of detail, clear that the author is really interested in his material, but there was a serious lack of storyline. If I want a litany of dates and names, I can spend a few hours on Wikipedia. This book made me wish that I had taken notes in 76-221.
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  Anthony Vaver

  I discovered Gioia's recommended list of blues songs at the back of the book when I was half-way through it. I wish I had seen the list earlier, so that I could have listened to the songs as I was reading the whole way.
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  Mike

  an impressive overview of delta blues music and its pantheon of stellar musicians. gioia does a masterful job of bringing both the giants of the genre, and the overlooked geniuses of the form, to vivid life on the page.
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  Chris

  Writer is a bit dry, you have to really like the Blues to stick with this one.
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  Phebe

  It was about the blues in the delta of Mississippi. It was really good.
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  Ajay

  Great survey of Blues history, and the influence that the Delta tradition has had on modern music.
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  Kevin Cox

  Great scholarly read, well researched.