Awards

• Winner of Winner, Best History in category of Best Historical Research in Recorded Popular Music, Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence.

Overview

A new biography of one of the key composers of 20th-century American popular song and jazz, Eubie Blake: Rags, Rhythm and Race illuminates Blake's little-known impact on over 100 years of American culture. A gifted musician, Blake rose from performing in dance halls and bordellos of his native Baltimore to the heights of Broadway. In 1921, together with performer and lyricist Noble Sissle, Blake created Shuffle Along which became a sleeper smash on Broadway eventually becoming one of the top ten musical shows of the 1920s. Despite many obstacles Shuffle Along integrated Broadway and the road and introduced such stars as Josephine Baker, Lottie Gee, Florence Mills, and Fredi Washington. It also proved that black shows were viable on Broadway and subsequent productions gave a voice to great songwriters, performers, and spoke to a previously disenfranchised black audience. As successful as Shuffle Along was, racism and bad luck hampered Blake's career. Remarkably, the third act of Blake's life found him heralded in his 90s at major jazz festivals, in Broadway shows, and on television and recordings.Tracing not only Blake's extraordinary life and accomplishments, Broadway and popular music authorities Richard Carlin and Ken Bloom examine the professional and societal barriers confronted by black artists from the turn of the century through the 1980s. Drawing from a wealth of personal archives and interviews with Blake, his friends, and other scholars, Eubie Blake: Rags, Rhythm and Race offers an incisive portrait of the man and the musical world he inhabited.

Full Product Details

9780190635930

Table of Contents

Reviews

Along with many others, I have been waiting for a new, scholarly, thorough, and insightful biography of this one-of-a-kind American figure. Finally, we have one, nicely-illustrated and carefully documented. * John Edward Hasse, author of Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington * Blake, in his ten decades of life, persevered through some highs and many lows, only to be truly celebrated for his remarkable talents when he reached his nineties.That we never, ever really know a person is a much-said truism. And yet, Carlin and Bloom, through their extensive and exhaustive research, will make a reader feel and believe that he indeed does know Eubie Blake. * Peter Filichia, critic emeritus of The Newark Star-Ledger * I've been 'just wild' about Eubie Blake since I was a kid, and after reading Carlin and Bloom's multi-layered and historically deep book my appreciation has still managed to grow by leaps and bounds. Placing Blake in both the social and musical contexts of a fast-changing century has greatly added to my enjoyment and full-throated respect for his amazing life, music, and music career. * Benjamin Bierman, Associate Professor of Music at John Jay College, City University of New York * Authors and music specialists Richard Carlin and Ken Bloom present a densely packed, meticulously researched, and painstakingly incisive portrait of a jazz icon and his times. * Deb Miller, DC Metro Theater Arts *

Along with many others, I have been waiting for a new, scholarly, thorough, and insightful biography of this one-of-a-kind American figure. Finally, we have one, nicely-illustrated and carefully documented. * John Edward Hasse, author of Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington * Blake, in his ten decades of life, persevered through some highs and many lows, only to be truly celebrated for his remarkable talents when he reached his nineties.That we never, ever really know a person is a much-said truism. And yet, Carlin and Bloom, through their extensive and exhaustive research, will make a reader feel and believe that he indeed does know Eubie Blake. * Peter Filichia, critic emeritus of The Newark Star-Ledger * I've been 'just wild' about Eubie Blake since I was a kid, and after reading Carlin and Bloom's multi-layered and historically deep book my appreciation has still managed to grow by leaps and bounds. Placing Blake in both the social and musical contexts of a fast-changing century has greatly added to my enjoyment and full-throated respect for his amazing life, music, and music career. * Benjamin Bierman, Associate Professor of Music at John Jay College, City University of New York *

Carlin and Bloom have created an all embracing and unique musical chronicle of Eubie Blake that is compelling, heartbreaking and ultimately joyous thanks to his late life rediscovery. With the use of voluminous first hand research artifacts, they have created a multi faceted account of Blake's life and in the process, have given us one of the truest depictions of the endemic racism and cut throat culture of 20th Century show business. -- Michael Feinstein well-written ... a significant achievement. -- Steve Ramm, The Antique Phonograph Authors and music specialists Richard Carlin and Ken Bloom present a densely packed, meticulously researched, and painstakingly incisive portrait of a jazz icon and his times. -- Deb Miller, DC Metro Theater Arts Blake, in his ten decades of life, persevered through some highs and many lows, only to be truly celebrated for his remarkable talents when he reached his nineties.AThat we never, ever really know a person is a much-said truism. And yet, Carlin and Bloom, through their extensive and exhaustive research, will make a reader feel and believe that he indeed does know Eubie Blake. -- Peter Filichia, critic emeritus of The Newark Star-Ledger Along with many others, I have been waiting for a new, scholarly, thorough, and insightful biography of this one-of-a-kind American figure. Finally, we have one, nicely-illustrated and carefully documented. -- John Edward Hasse, author of Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington

Author Information

Richard Carlin is a Grammy Award-winning author of numerous books on popular music, including Country Music: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2019), The Big Book of Country (1995), and Worlds of Sound: The Story of Smithsonian Folkways (2008). Ken Bloom is a Grammy Award-winning author of Show and Tell: The New Book of Broadway Anecdotes (OUP, 2016), Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time (2004), and Broadway: An Encyclopedia (2004). He is the co-founder of Harbinger Records, has been a Broadway correspondent for NPR and the CBC, and has directed and produced shows at Town Hall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, among other venues.

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