The Inconvenient Lonnie Johnson

Lonnie Johnson is a blues legend. His virtuosity on the blues guitar is second to none, and his influence on artists from T-Bone Walker and B. B. King to Eric Clapton is well established. Yet Johnson mastered multiple instruments. He recorded with jazz icons such as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstron...

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Huvudupphov: Simon, Julia
Materialtyp: Online
Språk:engelska
Utgiven: Penn State University Press 2025
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author Simon, Julia
author_browse Simon, Julia
author_facet Simon, Julia
author_sort Simon, Julia
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description Lonnie Johnson is a blues legend. His virtuosity on the blues guitar is second to none, and his influence on artists from T-Bone Walker and B. B. King to Eric Clapton is well established. Yet Johnson mastered multiple instruments. He recorded with jazz icons such as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, and he played vaudeville music, ballads, and popular songs. In this book, Julia Simon takes a closer look at Johnson’s musical legacy. Considering the full body of his work, Simon presents detailed analyses of Johnson’s music—his lyrics, technique, and styles—with particular attention to its sociohistorical context. Born in 1894 in New Orleans, Johnson's early experiences were shaped by French colonial understandings of race that challenge the Black-white binary. His performances call into question not only conventional understandings of race but also fixed notions of identity. Johnson was able to cross generic, stylistic, and other boundaries almost effortlessly, displaying astonishing adaptability across a corpus of music produced over six decades. Simon introduces us to a musical innovator and a performer keenly aware of his audience and the social categories of race, class, and gender that conditioned the music of his time. Lonnie Johnson’s music challenges us to think about not only what we recognize and value in “the blues” but also what we leave unexamined, cannot account for, or choose not to hear. The Inconvenient Lonnie Johnson provides a reassessment of Johnson’s musical legacy and complicates basic assumptions about the blues, its production, and its reception.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1585562025-04-18T04:02:59Z The Inconvenient Lonnie Johnson Simon, Julia Popular music Ethnic studies Modern philosophy: since c 1800 Lonnie Johnson is a blues legend. His virtuosity on the blues guitar is second to none, and his influence on artists from T-Bone Walker and B. B. King to Eric Clapton is well established. Yet Johnson mastered multiple instruments. He recorded with jazz icons such as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, and he played vaudeville music, ballads, and popular songs. In this book, Julia Simon takes a closer look at Johnson’s musical legacy. Considering the full body of his work, Simon presents detailed analyses of Johnson’s music—his lyrics, technique, and styles—with particular attention to its sociohistorical context. Born in 1894 in New Orleans, Johnson's early experiences were shaped by French colonial understandings of race that challenge the Black-white binary. His performances call into question not only conventional understandings of race but also fixed notions of identity. Johnson was able to cross generic, stylistic, and other boundaries almost effortlessly, displaying astonishing adaptability across a corpus of music produced over six decades. Simon introduces us to a musical innovator and a performer keenly aware of his audience and the social categories of race, class, and gender that conditioned the music of his time. Lonnie Johnson’s music challenges us to think about not only what we recognize and value in “the blues” but also what we leave unexamined, cannot account for, or choose not to hear. The Inconvenient Lonnie Johnson provides a reassessment of Johnson’s musical legacy and complicates basic assumptions about the blues, its production, and its reception. 2025-04-18T04:02:58Z 2025-04-18T04:02:58Z 2025-04-17T09:49:51Z 2022 book ONIX_20250417_9780271093734_61 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/100951 9780271093734 9780271092553 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/158556 eng American Music History open access image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/100951/1/9780271093734.pdf Penn State University Press Penn State University Press e4e05b94-0f85-49a1-ba66-543b1dd40087 Penn State University 25eaec65-b556-4602-ba6d-ed286e74dde5 9780271093734 9780271092553 Penn State University Press 236 University Park [...] open access
spellingShingle Popular music
Ethnic studies
Modern philosophy: since c 1800
Simon, Julia
The Inconvenient Lonnie Johnson
title The Inconvenient Lonnie Johnson
title_full The Inconvenient Lonnie Johnson
title_fullStr The Inconvenient Lonnie Johnson
title_full_unstemmed The Inconvenient Lonnie Johnson
title_short The Inconvenient Lonnie Johnson
title_sort inconvenient lonnie johnson
topic Popular music
Ethnic studies
Modern philosophy: since c 1800
topic_facet Popular music
Ethnic studies
Modern philosophy: since c 1800
url ONIX_20250417_9780271093734_61
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