Hot Music, Ragmentation, and the Bluing of American Literature

Steven C. Tracy is Distinguished University Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He served as Fulbright Senior Specialist at the University of Konstanz in Germany and also as ChuTian Scholar at Central China Normal University. He has authored, edited, coedited, or introduced nearly thirty books. A singer-harmonica player, he has opened for B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and others.

Focusing on ‘hot jazz,’ the music that most influenced modern literature, Tracy has written an important book about the influence of blues and jazz on American writers. His treatment is rich, thorough, and unencumbered by academic jargon, and he is joyously passionate in the illustrations he offers for each idea or theme. Highly recommended."" - CHOICE""Hot Music, Ragmentation and the Bluing of American Literature is a highly original study which applies fresh ideas and perspectives to an aspect of modern American literature and culture which has often been discussed but never adequately examined and understood."" - African American Review""Steven Tracy’s magisterial study fills one of the gaping holes in our historic understanding of American expressive culture. As no one else before him has done, Tracy explores in detail the role of the art form known as the blues, which is rooted in the southern black experience, in shaping not simply our national popular music but also our most acclaimed and even revered literature. Tracy brings to this achievement both his unusual gifts as a practicing bluesman and also his finely honed skills as an academic, one able to meet complex challenges in research and interpretation and write about them with clarity and grace. This is an extraordinary, indispensable book from a remarkable American scholar."" - Arnold Rampersad, author of Ralph Ellison: A Biography and The Life of Langston Hughes""An extensive, meticulously detailed analysis of various ways that blues, jazz and ragtime, loosely considered ‘hot music,’ had an impact on a wide range of American authors during the decade of the 1920s—often referred to as ‘The Jazz Age.’ . . . This is a tremendous resource for researchers, not only for Tracy’s insightful analyses, but also for the sheer volume of recordings and texts that he has consulted and referenced in this study."" - Living Blues""Hot Music, Ragmentation, and the Bluing of American Literature is a monumental contribution to our understanding of the deep, enduring influence of blues on American literature. Steven Tracy ranges across the fields of literature, literary criticism, cultural anthropology, American studies, and folklore, and he offers the reader a refreshingly broad, interdisciplinary vision of blues and American literature."" - William Ferris, author of The Storied South: Voices of Writers and Artists and Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues""Steven Tracy’s book is a highly original study which applies strikingly new ideas and approaches to an important aspect of modern American culture which has never been adequately examined and appreciated. Tracy’s unique credentials as an accomplished blues performer and a distinguished literary scholar enable him to explore ‘the emergence of the blues in mainstream culture’ in ways that are both comprehensive and penetrating. This book will make a major contribution to our understanding of the diverse ways in which African American music has broadly influenced American life and literature."" - Bob Butler, author of The Open Journey in African American Literature and Native Son: The Emergence of a New Black Hero