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Abbott and Seroff Trace Origins of Blues and Jazz in New Book

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Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, “Coon Songs," and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz
By Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff
University Press of Mississippi
ISBN 1-57806-901-7, hardback, $75.00

In Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, “Coon Songs," and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz (University Press of Mississippi) co-authors Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff investigate the commercial explosion of ragtime in the early twentieth century and its effect on black performers. In the introduction Abbott and Seroff proclaim that “ragtime's stunning leap from African American underclass culture into mainstream fashion provided the first real professional opportunities for a wide range of black performers; however, every prospect was mitigated by systemic racism."

Ragged but Right is impeccably researched, features 200 black-and-white illustrations, and is essential to understanding modern American popular music. The authors examine three avenues of professional opportunity that ragtime opened to black performers: musical comedy productions, sideshow bands, and traveling minstrel shows. These overlooked arenas of black entertainment were instrumental in moving blues and jazz to the forefront of American entertainment.

This is one of the fist books to confront the “coon song" phenomenon head on. “Coon songs," an ugly name that is offensive to the modern ear, typically featured lyrics in Negro dialect, caricatures of African American life, and were set to the melodious strains of ragtime music. Despite their archaic label, it is impossible to investigate black popular entertainment of the ragtime era without directly confronting “coon songs." This form of ragtime is revealed as a key phenomenon that cleared the way for the original blues.

Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, “Coon Songs," and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz uncovers an outpouring of creativity that swept thousands of black writers, performers, musicians, and entrepreneurs into the professional ranks despite the overt racism of the times.

Lynn Abbott works for the Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University. Doug Seroff is an independent scholar living in Greenbrier, Tennessee.

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