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Writer, musicologist, archivist, singer, DJ, filmmaker, record, radio and TV producer, Alan Lomax was a man of many parts. Without him the history of popular music would have been very different.
Armed with a tape-recorder and his own near-flawless good taste, Lomax spent years travelling the US, particularly the south, recording its heritage of music and song for posterity, bringing to light the talents of performers ranging from Jelly Roll Morton to Leadbelly and Muddy Waters, and crucially influencing generations of musicians from Pete Seeger to the Stones, from Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan.
His influence continues: recordings made by Lomax are the core of the sound-tracks of Oh Brother, Where art Thou? and Gangs of New York, and even featured, remixed, on Moby's Play.
John Szwed's biography is the first ever of this remarkable and contradictory man (whom he both knew and worked with for ten years); through it Szwed will tell the story of a musical and political era, as he did so successfully in his previous book on Miles Davis.
Armed with a tape-recorder and his own near-flawless good taste, Lomax spent years travelling the US, particularly the south, recording its heritage of music and song for posterity, bringing to light the talents of performers ranging from Jelly Roll Morton to Leadbelly and Muddy Waters, and crucially influencing generations of musicians from Pete Seeger to the Stones, from Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan.
His influence continues: recordings made by Lomax are the core of the sound-tracks of Oh Brother, Where art Thou? and Gangs of New York, and even featured, remixed, on Moby's Play.
John Szwed's biography is the first ever of this remarkable and contradictory man (whom he both knew and worked with for ten years); through it Szwed will tell the story of a musical and political era, as he did so successfully in his previous book on Miles Davis.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
`Szwed's biography is a worthy testament to Lomax's passions and ideals, which gifted the world some of the most important American recordings ever made.' --Yo Zushi, New Statesman
`[a] highly detailed biography ... the book is an even-handed portrait of a dedicated and driven professional...An absorbing portrait of a fascinating life - whether or not you give two figs about folk music.' --**** Sharon O'Connell, Time Out
`a full account of Lomax's extraordinary, globe-trotting life, supported by excerpts from his letters ... Where Szwed's book really comes good is in methodically describing Lomax's collecting trips, from rural America to the recesses of Europe after being blacklisted during the McCarthy era. The charming, impulsive, passionate Lomax's trips were strewn with incident and they build into a travelogue like no other.' --**** Andrzej Lukowski, Metro
`In covering pretty much everything Lomax did, which includes writing numerous books, making scores of radio and television programmes, turning unknown blues and folk singers into stars and dying in poverty in the Bronx in 2002 aged 87, Szwed has formidably large ground to cover. He deals with this by adopting clear, unpretentious prose, rigorous research and a resistance to any form of judgement to let events unfold and tell their own story ... In capturing his multifaceted life, Szwed has succeeded in the kind of Herculean task that his subject would have tackled with relish.' --Will Hodgkinson, The Times
`What this biography does is convey vividly is a life lived in frenetic motion, one which changed the experience of listening to music for millions. Lomax's most famous `discovery' was undoubtedly the convict singer and guitarist Lead Belly, whom he and his father found toiling on Louisiana's Angola prison farm in 1933. But his behind-the-scenes accomplishments included persuading the post-war Italian Left to reconsider its view of folk song as a feudal embarrassment; pioneering the technique of oral history to record Jed Roll Morton's account of the origins of jazz in New Orleans; and bequeathing thousands of hours of recordings of music sung and played by the `unheard majority' (some of which has resurfaced in such places as the soundtrack to Joel and Ethan Coen's O Brother, Where Art Thou? And, in sampled form, Moby's album Play). As the Voyager mission advances, Lomax's impact on listening habits may yet extend into more distant realms.' --Daniel Matlin, Literary Review
`Remarkable ... John Szwed's excellent new biography does full justice to a man whose work was of historical importance but whose personal life was remarkable and chaotic ... Szwed, a thorough researcher and balanced observer, is constantly appreciative of Lomax but the book is not fawning and he sheds light on a rather tumultuous personal life ... Lomax's legacy will last. Maybe even a billion years.' --Daily Telegraph
`This is an impressive biography that backs up its claim that Lomax was "one of the most influential Americans of the 20th century" ... [Szwed] records Lomax's life as much as Lomax recorded musicians on field trips, taking care to present the man and his achievements in their social, political and intellectual context ... [he] succeeds magnificently.' --Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Financial Times
Book Description:
`[a] highly detailed biography ... the book is an even-handed portrait of a dedicated and driven professional...An absorbing portrait of a fascinating life - whether or not you give two figs about folk music.' --**** Sharon O'Connell, Time Out
`a full account of Lomax's extraordinary, globe-trotting life, supported by excerpts from his letters ... Where Szwed's book really comes good is in methodically describing Lomax's collecting trips, from rural America to the recesses of Europe after being blacklisted during the McCarthy era. The charming, impulsive, passionate Lomax's trips were strewn with incident and they build into a travelogue like no other.' --**** Andrzej Lukowski, Metro
`In covering pretty much everything Lomax did, which includes writing numerous books, making scores of radio and television programmes, turning unknown blues and folk singers into stars and dying in poverty in the Bronx in 2002 aged 87, Szwed has formidably large ground to cover. He deals with this by adopting clear, unpretentious prose, rigorous research and a resistance to any form of judgement to let events unfold and tell their own story ... In capturing his multifaceted life, Szwed has succeeded in the kind of Herculean task that his subject would have tackled with relish.' --Will Hodgkinson, The Times
`What this biography does is convey vividly is a life lived in frenetic motion, one which changed the experience of listening to music for millions. Lomax's most famous `discovery' was undoubtedly the convict singer and guitarist Lead Belly, whom he and his father found toiling on Louisiana's Angola prison farm in 1933. But his behind-the-scenes accomplishments included persuading the post-war Italian Left to reconsider its view of folk song as a feudal embarrassment; pioneering the technique of oral history to record Jed Roll Morton's account of the origins of jazz in New Orleans; and bequeathing thousands of hours of recordings of music sung and played by the `unheard majority' (some of which has resurfaced in such places as the soundtrack to Joel and Ethan Coen's O Brother, Where Art Thou? And, in sampled form, Moby's album Play). As the Voyager mission advances, Lomax's impact on listening habits may yet extend into more distant realms.' --Daniel Matlin, Literary Review
`Remarkable ... John Szwed's excellent new biography does full justice to a man whose work was of historical importance but whose personal life was remarkable and chaotic ... Szwed, a thorough researcher and balanced observer, is constantly appreciative of Lomax but the book is not fawning and he sheds light on a rather tumultuous personal life ... Lomax's legacy will last. Maybe even a billion years.' --Daily Telegraph
`This is an impressive biography that backs up its claim that Lomax was "one of the most influential Americans of the 20th century" ... [Szwed] records Lomax's life as much as Lomax recorded musicians on field trips, taking care to present the man and his achievements in their social, political and intellectual context ... [he] succeeds magnificently.' --Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Financial Times
First biography of the ultimate unsung hero in the history of popular music, Alan Lomax
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- PublisherWilliam Heinemann
- Publication date2010
- ISBN 10 0434012327
- ISBN 13 9780434012329
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages448
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