Blue Rhythms

"Somebody has to pay the dues," says LaVern Baker. Here are the remarkable stories of six dazzlingly talented performers who blazed the R & B trail--the story of the performers' music and also of their struggle against racism and financial exploitation: Ruth Brown and LaVern Baker, two of the most popular female black singers of the 1950s; Little Jimmy Scott, whom Madonna calls the only singer who ever really made her cry; Charles Brown, master of the "club blues" style; Floyd Dixon, a more rambunctious fellow-traveler; and the earthy, urbane Jimmy Witherspoon, who recorded some of the biggest R & B hits ever.

Author: Chip Deffaa
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 12/24/1999
Pages: 344
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.99h x 6.02w x 0.76d
ISBN: 9780306809194

About the Author
Chip Deffaa, jazz critic for the New York Post, has written seven other books, including Voices of the Jazz Age: Profiles of Eight Vintage Jazzmen and Swing Legacy. A winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award, he contributes regularly to Entertainment Weekly, JazzTimes, and Crescendo.