Crosstown Traffic: Jimi Hendrix & The Post-War Rock 'N' Roll Revolution - Softcover

Murray, Charles Shaar

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312063245 ISBN 13: 9780312063245

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, 1991

Synopsis

Called by "Entertainment Weekly" "The best book on Hendrix", "Crosstown Traffic" rode their A-list for over two months and won the prestigious Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award. Roots-savvy British critic Charles Shaar Murray assesses the lifework of guitarist Jimi Hendrix in the context of black musical tradition, social history, and the upheaval of the 1960s.

About this title

About the Author:

Charles Shaar Murray won the prestigious Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award for Crosstown Traffic: Jimi Hendrix and the Postwar Rock 'n' Roll Revolution. He lives in England.

From Publishers Weekly:

Twenty years after his death at age 27, Hendrix's stature as an Afro-American musical innovator continues to grow. But until now discussion of his contributions has been limited to either biographical accounts or purely technical analyses. British pop journalist Shaar Murray'scq multifaceted study rectifies this by attempting to unravel the cultural contradictions that the guitarist embodied as a black performer with a white audience, who excelled in a genre that was popularized by whites yet rooted in a black musical tradition. Hendrix's catholicity crossed barriers within black culture as well: his sonic explorations with feedback and distortion paralleled developments in the Free Jazz movement but he could suddenly shift into the deepest, most primitive Delta blues, a language pointedly neglected by his black contemporaries. Clearly, Hendrix's achievements are broad-based and central to his era, as well as a daunting challenge to those wanting to digest his work whole. Shaar Murray (coauthor of David Bowie ) augments solid musical scholarship with astute social and historical commentary, and meets the challenge admirably. Photos not seen by PW .
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0312063245
• ISBN 13: 9780312063245
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256