Spreadin' Rhythm Around: Black Popular Songwriters, 1880-1930

The great, unsung African American songwriters who struggled and thrived between Reconstruction and the Depression take a bow in this lively survey. The writers (Jasen is author of Recorded Ragtime, 1897-1958; Jones is an actor and sheet music collector) show that although early stars like James A. Bland, Gussie L. Davis and Irving Jones worked in existing 19th-century genres (minstrel songs, tearjerkers and so-called coon songs), innovators of the teens and 1920s--among them Chris Smith, Shelton Brooks, W.C. Handy, Eubie Blake and Fats Waller--transformed American popular music with their creative approaches to rag, blues and jazz. Jason and Jones also demonstrate that in a field dominated by whites, black songwriters of the time depended on their own versatility in order to survive; most were performers as well as songwriters, and many were skilled entrepreneurs, impresarios and promoters (for example, record executive J. Mayo Williams, music publishers Shep Edmonds and Cecil Mack, and band and orchestra organizer James Reese Europe). Thoroughly researched and entertainingly written, the book is an impressive tribute to dozens of remarkable careers. Photos. Editor, Richard Carlin. (Aug.)