The blue devils of Nada : a contemporary American approach to aesthetic statement / Albert Murray.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Murray, Albert.

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African American arts.

African American artists--Psychology.

African American artists.

Blues (Music)--Influence.

Blues (Music).

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copies 1 & 2)

Physical Description:

4 unnumbered pages, viii, 238 pages, 2 unnumbered pages ; 21 cm

Edition:

[First Vintage international edition].

Place of Publication:

New York : Vintage International, [1997]

Summary:

The Blue Devils of Nada is a powerful and profound introduction to and elaboration of the blues aesthetic by one of the most percipient observers of the American cultural scene. It gives the refined essence of Albert Murray's lifetime meditation on the blues as it informs American life. Here are incisive essays on writing, music, and art that go beyond the social-science fiction of Negrohood to describe in no uncertain terms what it means to be an American. Whether he is commenting on "The Intent of the Artist", "Regional Particulars and Universal Implications", "Duke Ellington Vamping Till Ready", "Comping for Count Basie", "The Blues as Representative Anecdote", "Armstrong and Ellington Stomping the Blues in Paris", "The Visual Equivalent to Blues Composition: Bearden Plays Bearden", or "Ernest Hemingway Swinging the Blues and Taking Nothing", Albert Murray always cuts to the chase. He is at once insightful and inspiring, for he knows that the blues are not cries of Negro misery but idiomatic or, rather, stylized expressions of transcendence through sheer style, always informed by an awareness of the vicissitudes of life.

Contents:

Part One. The intent of the artist

Part Two. Two all-American artists first person singular

Part Three. The Armstrong continuum

Part Four. The Ellington synthesis

Part Five. The visual equivalent to blues composition

Part Six. The storyteller as blues singer.

Notes:

"Vintage Books a division of Random House, Inc."

"Originally published in the United States in hardcover by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 1996."

Includes index.

Publisher's advertisements: [1] p. at end.

Other Format:

Online version: Murray, Albert. Blue devils of Nada.

ISBN:

0679758593

9780679758594

0679442138

9780679442134

OCLC:

37576491