Stomp and Swerve American Music Gets Hot, 1843-1924 [EPUB]

Book Description
Publication Date: August 1, 2003 | Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up
The early decades of American popular music—Stephen Foster, Scott Joplin, John Philip Sousa, Enrico Caruso—are, for most listeners, the dark ages. It wasn’t until the mid-1920s that the full spectrum of this music—black and white, urban and rural, sophisticated and crude—made it onto records for all to hear. This book brings a forgotten music, hot music, to life by describing how it became the dominant American music—how it outlasted sentimental waltzes and parlor ballads, symphonic marches and Tin Pan Alley novelty numbers—and how it became rock ’n’ roll. It reveals that the young men and women of that bygone era had the same musical instincts as their descendants Louis Armstrong, Elvis Presley, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and even Ozzy Osbourne. In minstrelsy, ragtime, brass bands, early jazz and blues, fiddle music, and many other forms, there was as much stomping and swerving as can be found in the most exciting performances of hot jazz, funk, and rock. Along the way, it explains how the strange combination of African with Scotch and Irish influences made music in the United States vastly different from other African and Caribbean forms; shares terrific stories about minstrel shows, “coon” songs, whorehouses, knife fights, and other low-life phenomena; and showcases a motley collection of performers heretofore unknown to all but the most avid musicologists and collectors.

Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Hot American music, says Wondrich, has drive and swerve. Drive is the strong rhythmic component that gets the feet stomping. Swerve is the spontaneous bending of tempo, swinging of the beat, and embellishment of the musical line. Beginning with the minstrels who played "Negro" music on stage in blackface in a spirit of parody, Wondrich traces the evolution of hot music into ragtime ("Coon" music, it was called), blues, and jazz. Scottish and Irish music influenced minstrel music, just as Afro-Caribbean music influenced the blues and jazz--the acme of hot music. Unknown rural people and people in the (noncriminal) "Underworld" developed these musical styles, and the "Topworld" embraced this music as it came to reflect on general social conditions. Much later hot music is preserved on sound recordings, which Wondrich references while discussing major performers and composers (a CD containing some of the music will be released simultaneously with the book). Aside from his use of vernacular expletives to express strong opinions, Wondrich provides good guidance as the music gets hotter. Alan Hirsch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"A cool book . . . bringing alive the deepest roots of American rock, R&B and rap." -- Discoveries

"A hot book about hot music . . . with a rare ear for its subject." -- Seattle Weekly

"A lovingly written account." -- Esquire

"Appealingly irreverent." -- Chicago Reader

"Entertaining and engaging" -- Library Journal

"Groundbreaking." -- Robert Christgau, The Believer

"Highly logical and entertaining . . . No other author has done a better job of putting all the pieces together." -- The New York Sun

"Music book of the year? Probably Stomp and Swerve." -- Austin American–Statesman

"Saucy." -- The Village Voice

"Wondrich’s own passion is infectious enough to make the reader retrieve the old marching band horn from the attic." -- Shepherd Express

Product Details
File Size: 2211 KB
Print Length: 176 pages
Publisher: Chicago Review Press; 1 edition (August 1, 2003)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B005HF4D3S