om the fictional town of Gasoline Point, Alabama, whose education and maturation drives all four of Murrays novels. In the many interviews collected in Conversations with Albert Murray, the author describes how blues idiom sensibilities influence both his literary fiction and cultural criticism. Exp
responses from readers; we ought to argue with his works just as jazz musicians trade twelves in performances. The Soloist: Albert Murrays Blues People is the best piece in Conversations with Albert Murray. Written by the late Joe Wood, this profile both embraces and argues with Murrays ideas.
The background image for the title pages of Bakers Albert Murray is a black-and-white photograph of Lenox Avenue, specifically the segment between 132nd and 133rd streets. It shows west Harlem bracketed by the apartment towers of the Lionel Hampton Houses to the left and City Colleges white-framed
In Albert Murray and Visual Art, Paul Devlin does a good job of explaining how the spontaneous quality of Beardens collages and the visual regional detail in Murrays fiction and criticism come from the mens shared aesthetic sensibility, which he calls downhome pragmatic romanticism. Neither a
h jazz history. Theres Jones playing behind Ethel Waters or alongside Teddy Wilson and Lester Young. There he is with Hank Jones and Art Blakey and Albert Murray. But dont let Joness philosophical mien or cherubic smile fool youhis voice darts and bops as snappishly as his drumming. In a 1955 let
of Black Literary Activism. Im hoping that Devlin, with his access to Murrays papers and his deep understanding of the authors intellectual history and aesthetic development, has already begun preparing for such a workthe Omni-American, gumbo-rich, blues biography of Albert Murray.
