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I bought this for a gift but would like one for myself I love this book. I need to order more of Crumbs work.
The info lead me to explore the artitists I hadn't been familier with in other formats. Lots of fun. I bought it with a few others to get free shipping.One caveat, this is a small book about the size of a Daytimer Journal, so don't expect coffee table size. See youtube videos on Wingy Mannone, the one armed trumpet player for example.The book itself was worth the cost never mind an additional CD. I just pick it up and read a few randomly. I wish the Bio's were a bit more in depth but their length is understandable seeing as they derived from the original Tobacco Card Format.
Best, the images are colorful and capture the feel of the musicians more than a standard photograph could have done. not hanging up on that one note, the point is that these are rare, dated, regional gems that might've died had they not been placed inside this book. This collection of portraits and brief info pages on early and obscure musicians of blues, swing and jazz is wonderful stuff.
Darn well done.The accompanying CD of rare recordings features what must be the first ever version of Canned Heat's rock classic ON THE ROAD AGAIN as a light-hearted "cheatin' man" set of lyrics that include the infamous N word. Whether you like blues (yes) or hate country bluegrass or boogie, or melt at a rare jazz platter, here's a wonderful Mason jar full of preserves that are fading from this planet but still sound great but with the added haunt of all of them being long, long dead. We get so intimidated by being politically correct and yet, a dirty old delta blues platter doesn't burst into flames and pretty much helps liberate what was, and ought to be classified as, out-of-use insider-slang used within one culture and not intended beyond those gates.
For a guy whose works almost always ended up in some underground collection that drew more from porn than art, Crumb has had some sort of epiphany, somewhere. There's more soul in these lines and paints than any history book could've done better. If Crumb's trying to turn his creepy kharma, he's doing it well.
Just enough biographical edit balances against Crumb's monoweight linework illustrations with a few superb variations of style thrown in. In his simple style, Crumb captures some of the spirit of the people in this tome.
They are great, well worth the price--IF you like Crumb's work and IF you are interested in classic jazz, old-time country, and blues. There's a CD with examples of old 78 cuts by some of the artists, but the selection was limited to cuts that had appeared on one reissue label.
In sum, if you're really into R. I wasn't generally impressed with the selections.
This book contains illustrations that Crumb originally did some years ago, to be used like baseball bubblegum cards inserted into record albums. There's enough to help you follow-up with Google, but that's about it.
Crumb's work, get this book; otherwise, forget it. That never worked but the illustrations have gone thru several incarnations and reprintings, now as a book.
I'd hoped to learn more about the artists, but the text, about a paragraph on each artist, is very brief and gives minimal info.
And the book is hardcover.The recording artists clearly have more pep and originality than today's recording stars. Finally, the choice of recordings is excellent. Lyrics are clever and the instrumental work is driving and enthusiastic. This excellent book and CD provides biographical information and sound recordings for numerous jazz, blues, and rural musicians from the early 78 rpm era.The drawings alone in this book are worth far more than the asking price. Next, an interesting bio is provided for each group or performer.
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