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" The original blues : "
Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff.
Document Type
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BL
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Record Number
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851862
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Main Entry
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Abbott, Lynn,1946-
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Title & Author
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The original blues : : the emergence of the blues in African American vaudeville /\ Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff.
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Publication Statement
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Jackson :: University Press of Mississippi,, [2017]
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, ©2017
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Series Statement
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American made music series
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Page. NO
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viii, 420 pages :: illustrations ;; 27 cm.
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ISBN
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1496810023
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: 1496823265
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: 9781496810021
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: 9781496823267
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9781496810038
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9781496810045
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9781496810052
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9781496810069
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Bibliographies/Indexes
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Includes bibliographical references (pages 383-387) and index.
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Contents
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Saloon-theaters and park pavilions : the birth of southern vaudeville, 1899-1909 -- The death of J. Ed Green and the birth of State Street vaudeville -- The life, death, and untold legacy of Bluesman Butler "String Beans" May -- Male blues singers in southern vaudeville -- The rise of the blues queen : female blues pioneers in southern vaudeville -- Theater circuits, theater wars, and the formation of the T.O.B.A. -- "Yours for business" : the commercialization of the blues, 1920-26.
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Abstract
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In this volume, Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff complete their groundbreaking trilogy on the development of African American popular music, authoritatively connecting the black vaudeville movement with the explosion of blues that followed. At the end of the nineteenth century, vaudeville began to replace minstrelsy as America's favorite form of stage entertainment. Segregation necessitated the creation of discrete African American vaudeville theaters. When these venues first gained popularity, ragtime coon songs were the standard fare. Black vaudeville theaters provided a safe haven where coon songs could be rehabilitated. Dynamic interaction between the performers and their audience unleashed creative energies that accelerated the development of the blues. The first blues star of black vaudeville was Butler "String Beans" May, a blackface comedian, pianist, singer, and dancer from Montgomery, Alabama. Before his senseless death in 1917, he was recognized as the "blues master piano player of the world." His legacy, elusive and previously unacknowledged, is preserved in the repertoire of country blues singer-guitarists and pianists of the Race recording era. While male blues singers remained tethered to the role of blackface comedian, female "coon shouters" acquired a more digni ed aura in the emergent persona of the "blues queen." Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and most of their contemporaries came through this portal; while others, including forgotten blues heroine Ora Criswell and her protégé Trixie Smith, recon gured the use of blackface for their own subversive purposes. In 1921 black vaudeville was effectively nationalized by the Theater Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A.). In collusion with the emergent Race recording industry, T.O.B.A. theaters featured touring companies headed by blues queens with records to sell. While the 1920s was the most celebrated and remunerative period of vaudeville blues, the previous decade was arguably the most creative, having witnessed the emergence, popularization, and early development of the original blues in southern theaters--Publisher description.
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Subject
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Blues (Music)-- To 1931-- History and criticism.
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Subject
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Vaudeville-- United States-- History and criticism.
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Subject
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African American theater.
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Subject
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Blues (Music)
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Subject
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Blues
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Subject
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Schwarze
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Subject
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Vaudeville
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Subject
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Vaudeville.
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Subject
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United States.
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Subject
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USA
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Dewey Classification
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781.64309/041
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LC Classification
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ML3521.A23 2017
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Added Entry
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Seroff, Doug
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Parallel Title
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Emergence of the blues in African American vaudeville
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