American Pop - CDs & Book
Peter J. Riley | Newburyport, MA USA | 01/04/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Mr. Lowe is a writer, musician, historian and recording reconstruction engineer from South Portland Maine who undertook this unique and amazing project. The book covers the years 1893 to 1956 stopping at the birth of Rock n' Roll. The 9 CD set (11 hours - 215 songs) ends in 1946. The CD set has 3 booklets of extensive liner notes drawn from the book. The book has more extensive write-ups on the chosen recordings (note that these are all commercial recordings) and begins with several brilliant essays by Mr. Lowe. Mr. Lowe has succeeded better than anyone else thus far in analyzing the many streams that make up American music and organizing it into a cohesive body of work. His writings are lively and opinionated pieces full of interesting anecdotes that make for engaging reading. One of the first challenges Mr. Lowe faced is the mystery of what American music sounded like in the 1800's. The set begins with one of the first known African-American recordings "Mama's Black Baby Boy" by The Unique Quartette. The recording from the fall of 1893 was taken from a wax cylinder. This performance rolls out of the Black vocal quartet tradition of the 1800's. There is, of course, no recordings of substance from the 1800's to listen to, so he has carefully culled performances from the early 1900's like Arthur Collins "Bill Baily" from 1902 that allow the listener to get a feel for early "pre-recorded" American music. Polk Miller's "The Laughing Song" first recorded in 1909 is said to be "the single most perfect example of the minstrel quartet" by historian Doug Seroff. From the pre-jazz era he includes recordings and entertaining antidotes about Al Jolson, George M. Cohan, John Phillips Sousa, Eddie Cantor, etc. He includes the first known recording that used the blues chord progression: a leaden version of W. C. Handy's "The Memphis Blues" by the (RCA) Victor Military Band(!!). History's first Jazz recording is "Tiger Rag" by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band from 1918. Lowe then treats us to a succession of majestic recordings from jazz history: Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong, Joe Venuti & Eddie Lang, James P. Johnson, Earl Hines, Art Tatum, Walter Page, Fats Waller, Red Norvo, Fletcher Henderson, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, Colman Hawkins, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, etc. Through his survey he outlines a full-bodied balanced history of the development of Jazz.One of the first Country recordings is by Fiddlin' John Carson with "The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Gonna Crow" for June of 1923. Lowe then surveys the development of what we would call country music with recordings by Uncle Dave Macon, Doc Boggs, Earnest Stoneham, Deford Baily, Charlie Poole, Wilf Carter, the Carter Family, Delmore Brothers, Patsy Montana, Jimmie Rogers, Bill Monroe, Ernest Tubb, Roy Acuff, Bob Wills, the Maddox Brothers, etc. He carefully charts the growth of country music as it moved from the minstrel tradition into mountain and hillbilly music-its cross-pollination with black music and its formation into what we now call country music. Lowe also clearly delineates the influence of white country music on African-American players such as Eddie Anthony. Lowe's survey of the Blues begins with Ma Rainey's "Lucky Rock Blues" from 1924 and continues with Blind Lemon Jefferson, Peg Leg Howell, Blind Willie McTell, Blind Willie Johnson, Barbeque Bob, Skip James, Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson, Memphis Minnie, T-Bone Walker, Charles Brown, Big Maceo, etc. Tracing the movement of the blues from the "songster tradition" to delta country blues to urban city blues.In amongst the material listed above whose classification seems apparent you will find fascinating material by both famous and not-so-famous names: Bing Crosby, Ethel Waters, Shophie Tucker, Connie Boswell, Paul Whitman, George Gershwin, Kay Starr, Peggy Lee, Alec Wilder, Mills Brothers, Cliff Edwards (the voice of Jiminy Cricket), etc. You will also find representations of black and white gospel music, Southern Harp singing, Mexican music, early R&B, etc. As you can see, the set can be analyzed by following the various "streams" of music represented: Jazz, Blues, Country, straight pop, dance music, etc. Lowe himself uses a chronological time line approach in laying out the set. The listener will hear (for instance) 7 recordings from 1937 including: Sonny Boy Williamson doing "Good Morning Little School Girl", the Count Basie Band classic "Topsy", the Original Yellow Jackets blasting through "Cross Street Swing", Gene Autrey performing "Dust", the Sons of the Pioneers (with Roy Rogers) singing "Cowboy Herd Song", Duke Ellington's original recording of "Diminuendo in Blue", and Saint Louis Jimmy performing "The Road to Ruin". This gives the listener a feel for the many varied recordings the commercial recording industry was turning out in those days. One is also struck at once by the incredible melting pot that is American music. As you can see from this overview, Allen Lowe has done a dazzling job in outlining the schematic of American Popular music. All the major players are present and the recordings are well chosen. The sound is excellent thanks to Mr. Lowe's skills as a recording archive engineer. But it is in Mr. Lowe's essays and commentaries that his work really shines. Lowe has confronted head on many dearly held assumptions on American music. One of the first appears on page six of his book and it concerns the often quoted canard that jazz is America's only indigenous art form. He quotes jazz historian Mark Tucker: "(jazz) is but one of the important musical traditions this country has spawned, with ragtime, rock, rap, the blues, gospel, country & western, bluegrass, Sacred Harp singing and many others". Lowe goes on to tackle the issue of race in American music better then anyone I have ever read. In his brilliant and extended examination (it appears throughout the book) of the effect of race on American music Lowe does his reader the enormous favor of NOT coming to any simplistic conclusions. As any student of this issue knows there is no "answer" to this problem. The issue of race as it relates to the history of American music is so deep, wide and endemic that there is no over arching "conclusion" to be reached. Lowe hammers intelligently and repeatedly, for example, at the notion that white jazz musicians were not simply the pillagers of black culture for their own financial gain. Lowe follows the free flow of influence that pored over both walls of the musical (racial) divide. He first frees the musicians from being sociological icons whose purpose is to foster an ideological analysis of music. As he accurately proves, very few musicians are ideologues and in fact the greater they are the less likely they are to be ideologues. In other words, did Louis Armstrong or Lester Young care if Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer were white or vice versa? He quotes Ella Fitzgerald's praise of white singer Connie Boswell. He notes that one of country music's best-loved players (in Roy Acuff's opinion) in the 30's and 40's was a black harmonica player named Deford Baily. He has a tremendous delta blues recording by white musicians like Frank Hutchinson, Tom Darby & Jimmie Tarlton. He continually notes the obvious cross-fertilization of black and white music showing quite clearly that while the general public and the industry may have been concerned with skin color, the musicians were not. So we have great white jazz players like Benny Goodman and Mildred Baily, and great black country musicians like The Dallas String Band and singer Emmett Miller (greatly admired by Merle Haggard). The genre of western swing as played by Bob Wills is itself a testament to the influence of black swing on the fertile musicians of Texas. None of this negates the fact that the greatest innovators in jazz are indeed African American. Lowe illustrates this over and over in fact and by clear example in each era he covers. But by the same token not all white jazz musicians were second rate. His polemic is done not to glorify white contributions but to simply level the playing field that has been distorted by afro-centric jazz writers. The same argument could be made for country music; the white players were the primary architects but not without influence from African-Americans. By embracing the dichotomy of race in American music Allen Lowe clearly shows the deep and complicated weave that makes up the tapestry of American music.This book and CD set should be required study for any person interested in American music. This set will no doubt form the underpinnings of many a college course on American Music. Absolutely Essential and Highly recommended."
Intoxicating journey
A. Belz | Seattle | 03/20/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Spend a few minutes looking through the track listings here - note the great familiar names amid the intriguing ones you've never heard of. If this brief scan interests you at all, plunk down your money (the price is definitely right). There's no way one collection can capture the entire story of American music, even of the section this covers (1893-1946). But the sheer bulk of it (9 CDs, nearly 11 hours) means you get a big fat cross section, and I've found that pulling out any of the discs at random and putting them on transports me, makes me jump up and down, fills me with the pure feeling music is supposed to."
One of the best cd's i ever bought
Ray J. Walsh | Washington, D.C., USA | 05/20/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is a wonderful review of American Music. I have not come in contact with anything that approaches it. it is worth almost any price (within reason) that you pay to have it. From it, you can go to hundreds of different performers to get any exellent introduction to this country's music since 1893. I would hate to see something like this go out of print. it is more than music, it is an historical statement and altogether very, very rewarding listening experience. i only had one question. i have never been able to figure out what "Mojo" means from the title. If anyone knows please advise."
Track Listings (25) - Disc #1