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Kind of Blue

(8,709 posts)
Thu May 30, 2019, 11:45 AM May 2019

Langston Hughes Presents the History of Jazz in an Illustrated Children's Book (1955)

Delightful illustrations.

I can imagine no better guide through the history and variety of jazz than Langston Hughes, voice of the Harlem Renaissance and poetic interpreter of 20th century black American culture. Hughes’ 1955 First Book of Jazz is just that, a short primer with a surprisingly high degree of sophistication for a children’s book. I would, in fact, recommend it as an introduction to jazz for any reader. Hughes thoroughly covers the musical context of jazz in brief chapters like “African Drums,” “Old New Orleans,” “Work Songs,” “The Blues,” and “Ragtime.” He then “discusses the mechanics of jazz,” writes author and blogger Ariel S. Winter, including “improvisation, syncopation, percussion, rhythm, blue notes, tone color, harmony, break, riff….” Through it all runs the life and career of Louis Armstrong, whose story, Hughes states “is almost the whole story of orchestral jazz in America.”

A part of American music is jazz, born in the South. Woven into it in the Deep South were the rhythms of African drums that today make jazz music different from any other music in the world. Nobody else ever made jazz before we did. Jazz is American music.

Although it is a children’s book, Hughes’ First Book of Jazz is still a scholarly one, with a host of references in the Acknowledgements, and a list of famous jazz musicians, and their instruments, at the end. Also rounding out the short course on jazz history and musicianship is a two-part list of “Suggested Records for Study” and one called “100 of My Favorite Recordings.” Hughes even convinced Folkways records to release The Story of Jazz, an LP Hughes narrated with examples of each style of jazz he discusses. You can read the full First Book of Jazz at Winter’s Flickr, where he has posted scans of every page. See a gallery of Roberts' full page illustrations here https://www.flickr.com/photos/40423298@N08/5136768372/in/album-72157625289734072/





http://www.openculture.com/2015/03/langston-hughes-presents-the-history-of-jazz-i.html?fbclid=IwAR2MnPPe9JYmf8jp2QIhS0yDwfW5igBDauehlISHIcB-bjhgehorCCOY4AI
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Langston Hughes Presents the History of Jazz in an Illustrated Children's Book (1955) (Original Post) Kind of Blue May 2019 OP
Thanks!! Hela May 2019 #1
You're welcome, Hela! Kind of Blue May 2019 #3
This is marvelous! dixiegrrrrl May 2019 #2
You're very welcome, dixiegrrrrl! Kind of Blue May 2019 #4

Hela

(436 posts)
1. Thanks!!
Thu May 30, 2019, 01:18 PM
May 2019

What a great book! And thanks for the intro to Open Culture. I can see I'm going to be busy this weekend.

Kind of Blue

(8,709 posts)
3. You're welcome, Hela!
Thu May 30, 2019, 01:32 PM
May 2019

I've had some time this morning and been flipping thru the pages at the link. I want that book in my hands!

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