Charles Keil examines the expressive role of blues bands and performers
and stresses the intense interaction between performer and audience.
Profiling bluesmen Bobby Bland and B. B. King, Keil argues that they are
symbols for the black community, embodying important attitudes and
roles--success, strong egos, and close ties to the community. While
writing Urban Blues in the mid-1960s, Keil optimistically saw this
cultural expression as contributing to the rising tide of raised
political consciousness in Afro-America. His new Afterword examines
black music in the context of capitalism and black culture in the
context of worldwide trends toward diversification.
"Enlightening. . . . [Keil] has given a provocative indication of the
role of the blues singer as a focal point of ghetto community
expression."--John S. Wilson, New York Times Book Review "A terribly
valuable book and a powerful one. . . . Keil is an original thinker and
. . . has offered us a major breakthrough."--Studs Terkel, Chicago
Tribune
"[Urban Blues] expresses authentic concern for people who are coming
to realize that their past was . . . the source of meaningful cultural
values."--Atlantic
"An achievement of the first magnitude. . . . He opens our eyes and
introduces a world of amazingly complex musical happening."--Robert
Farris Thompson, Ethnomusicology
"[Keil's] vigorous, aggressive scholarship, lucid style and sparkling
analysis stimulate the challenge. Valuable insights come from treating
urban blues as artistic communication."--James A. Bonar, Boston
Herald
