Eubie Blake: Rags, Rhythm, and Race - by Richard Carlin

New biography of one of the key composers of 20th-century American popular song, Eubie Blake, who created Shuffle Along with Noble Sissle and went on to compose for films and other Broadway shows, eventually finding a second career as a ragtime raconteur in the 1960s. His skills as a pianist, gifts as a storyteller and entertainer, and appearances on major TV shows from Johnny Carson and David Frost to the Today Show led him to a new career as a concert artist. The authors also illustrate the wider history of post-minstrel black entertainment, from pianists working in bordellos and dance halls through ragtime, Broadway, and film, showing both the new opportunities available to contemporary black performers and the limitations that black musicians still struggled to overcome. Draws from a wealth of personal archives and interviews with Blake, his friends, and other scholars.

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Publisher: Oxford Univ Press

Released: 2020