I was impressed immediately with this book’s physical presence. It’s hefty, and I momentarily thought it was sized to mimic a 1940s record album. Actually, it’s even bigger. You must spread this beautifully constructed book out on a table to enjoy.
This is a showcase of the ephemera and created imagery that developed around the black music business between roughly 1915 and 1965. The focus on blues isn’t a substantial issue for the jazz fan. The bulk of the book, and surely the most fascinating portion, is dedicated to the prewar years. Before the war the record companies and promoters behind much of the material on display sorted by race, not genre. Gospel, jazz, and country blues were offered side by side both in catalogs and advertisements.
The race line wasn’t absolute, and a few white artists sneak into the book. Ladd’s Black Aces, a pseudonym for the white band known as the Original Memphis Five are featured in a Gennett catalog listing represented by a picture of an unidentified black outfit.
The focus on black communities, mostly urban, as hives of musical culture has rewards for the historian. Each chapter contains several two-page magazine style sidebars. One of these highlights the Hooks Brothers Photography Company in Memphis. These lucky fellows posed everyone from W.C. Handy with an orchestra in 1910 to a young B.B. King in 1949. The found time in bet
