From Blues to Bop

by Richard N. Albert

Gathers twenty stories dealing with jazz, by Langston Hughes, Eudora Welty, Shelby Foote, Leonard Feather, Jack Kerouac, James Baldwin, Donald Barthelme, and Steve Allen

295 pages, Paperback

First published January 19, 1992

Reviews

[Mia]

On balance, a good collection of stories with representation from classic authors -- Hughes, Welty, Baldwin, Kerouac -- and some nicely done parody of the language of the time. The only thing that marred the collection was returning to themes told once and quite well with something that didn't expand on it much -- once you have "Sonny's Blues" you don't need more about dissolution and collapse, for instance.

[Troy]

Every note can be recognized, but every story, no matter the overarching theme, has it's own sound. Sure, the blues has its own rhythm, and bop and avant garde and all of that, but no matter how many stories I get of down-on-luck bluesmen, of the women on the bandstand, of places foreign and domestic, I can't get enough, and I look extra close for the characters that makes it ever different from its compatriots.