Black and Blue: The Life and Lyrics of Andy Razaf

by Barry Singer

Chronicles the life and Prohibition-era times of the legendary songwriter whose lyrics include those for ""Honeysuckle Rose"" and ""Ain't Misbehavin'"" and whose musicals pioneered a distinctive African-American musical theater on Broadway.

Genres: Nonfiction

444 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Barry Singer writes extensively about the arts and has been a regular contributor to The New Yorker, New York magazine, The New York Times Magazine, Opera News and, for more than a decade, The New York Times Arts & Leisure section, writing about theater, musical theater and popular music. He has blogged about the arts, literature and Winston Churchill for Huffington Post and written about theater and music for Playbill.
His biography, 'BLACK AND BLUE: The Life and Lyrics of Andy Razaf,' was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He also is the author of 'ALIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD,' which won an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music writing and' CHURCHILL STYLE: The Art of Being Winston Churchill.'
His newest book, EVER AFTER: Forty Years of Musical Theater and Beyond -1977-2020-, will be published in September.
Barry Singer also is the proprietor of the only standing bookshop in the world devoted to the writings of Winston Churchill:
CHARTWELL BOOKSELLERS in New York City, which he opened in 1983.

Reviews

[Rickeclectic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andy Razaf was the author of innumerable songs that are burned into jazz and popular music, yet few people know him. They should. He lived at a critical time in the evolution of popular music and jazz. Songs he wrote or co-wrote or contributed to or wrote and did not get appropriate credit for include: Ain't Misbehavin, Alligator Crawl, Black and Blue, Blue Turning Grey over You, Dinah, Honeysuckle Rose, In the Mood, The Joint is Jumpin, Keeping out of Mischief Now, Stompin at the Savoy and hundreds more that we no longer hear. He worked closely with Fats Waller and many others. If you care about American music, he is worth knowing and remembering.

[Jerry Rabushka · Rating 5 out of 5]

What's really cool about this book (that can go off the rails in some books, but it doesn't) is how the author sets the scene of what's going on in Razaf's world (basically the Harlem music scene, Tin Pan Alley, etc) and then shows how Razaf fits into it. All that said, this means there's a lot of "Not about Andy Razaf" going on here, but when Razaf makes his appearance in a chapter, it makes perfect sense what he's doing and why.

Lots of info about Fats Waller, as they often collabed on songs together. Also lots of info on how race tended to get in the way of just about everything going on at the time. Lots of hard livin' on the part of many of the players here, perhaps as a coping mechanism for dealing with the music industry, or maybe they just liked to party, or a bit of both.

Anyway, a really good book.