W.C. Handy: The Life and Times of the Man Who Made the Blues [Hardcover]

In his new biography of the African American composer W.C. Handy (1873 -- 1958), David Robertson tells the story of how Handy discovered the force of the blues. Handy, then living in Clarksdale, Mississippi, described in his autobiography a musical epiphany he had in 1903 or 1904 at the railroad station in Tutwiler:

"A lean, loose-jointed Negro had commenced plunking a guitar beside me while I slept. His clothes were rags; his feet peeked out of his shoes. His face had on it some of the sadness of the ages. As he played, he pressed a knife on the strings of a guitar in a manner popularized by Hawaiian guitarists who used steel bars.
'Goin where the Southern cross the Dog'. The singer repeated the line three times, accompanying himself on the guitar with the weirdest music I ever heard." (Handy, quoted in Robertson, p. 95)

From this time forward, Handy began to integrate the blues he heard into the performances by his band of marches, dances, and ragtimes. Handy ultimately was to describe himself as the "father of the blues." But more broadly, Handy became what he described as "an American composer." Educated and urbane, Handy knew that the classical composer Antonin Dvorak had visited the United States and developed the "Dvorak Manifesto." Dvorak predicted that the national music of the United States would ultimately be based upon spirituals and other music of African Americans. (Robertson, p. 9) Handy set out to prove Dvorak correct.

Robertson has written a moving biography of Handy's life and accomplishments, placing his story in the context of the development of both popular and classical American music. Born in a log cabin in Florence, Alabama, Handy's father and grandfather had been ministers. To the chagrin of his father, Handy became acquainted with the legendary black musician Joe Turner. Handy bought a cornet, taught himself to play, and formed the ambition of living a life of music. As young men, Handy and four companions hoboed their way to the Chicago World's Fair only to find it had been postponed for a year. Handy then travelled alone to St Louis where he struggled with poverty and lived the life later immortalized in "St. Louis Blues."

For many years, the young Handy led the life of a wanderer. Handy performed in minstrel shows, with their patronizing and stereotyped attitude towards blacks. He married, moved to Clarksdale, and then to Memphis. In both these southern cities, he was a band leader trying to make a living performing for both white and black audiences. The turning point in Handy's life came when he discovered the rural blues at the Tutwiler railroad station where he heard "the sadness of the ages."

Handy's reputation rests upon a small number of blues songs he composed from about 1909-1920, including his most famous song "St Louis Blues". Composed in 1914, the song was little-noticed until 1920, but it has been recorded and performed innumerable times since then. With its haunting combination of blues and tango, "St. Louis Blues" has become one of the iconic works of American music. Handy's other compositions include the "Memphis Blues" (Handy foolishly sold the copyright to this work almost literally for a song -- $50), the "Beale StreetBlues", "Yellow Dog Blues" and "Aunt Hagar's Blues". These songs are worthy achievements for any composer.

In the 1920s Handy moved to New York where he turned his attention from composition to writing. In 1926, he coauthored, together with the Wall Street Lawyer Jacob Niles and the Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias, a seminal work on the early blues titled, "The Blues: an Anthology." In 1941, Handy wrote his autobiography, "The Father of the Blues" detailing, among other things, the bawdy life on Beale Street, Memphis of his day. Late in the 1930s, Handy became interested in and edited an anthology of Spirituals. Blinded by a subway accident in 1943, Handy lived until 1958, when he died an American legend.

Handy has been somewhat slighted in recent years in favor of the Delta Blues musicians such as Charlie Patton and Robert Johnson. But the blues had many roots. Handy knew Patton and rural blues. But Robertson shows that blues was also heavily influenced by ragtime. (The connection will be apparent to anyone who studies ragtime on the piano.) A trained musician, Handy incorporated many strains into his blues. Handy's blues were in their turn incorporated into both American jazz and classical music, particularly George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."

Robertson tells the story of Handy's musical, personal, and business life with eclat. He portrays the development of Handy's music through the ministrel shows, band and march music, ragtime, blues, and tin pan alley. He also offers a rare look into the publishing world, as Handy, in spite of his lack of business sense, became a successful African American entrepeneur and music publisher with his friend Harry Pace and then with his brother, Charles Handy.

Robertson's study confirms Handy's importance to American music and offers a great deal of insight into the development of the blues. Readers with an interest in the blues and in American music will benefit from this book.

Robin Friedman