Transgressing and The Village Vanguard
March 04, 2018, by Tabitha
Josh, Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, and The Blues
This whole chapter consisted mostly of a letter from Woody Guthrie to the people
at Village Vanguard a Jazz club located in Greenwich Village. Throughout his letter
he wrote what he felt about Josh White and Huddie Leadbelly. Saying that he feels
both are equally great together and follow the tradition of Blind Lemon Jefferson.
But interesting enough Guthrie states >The white folks blues quits when the Negro blues starts.
Also adding, the past hardships that African Americans been through, that their blues entails
history as a whole. This line grabbed my attention because it brings this saying I’ve heard before
called the black experience in America and it being expressed through music. Reading Gurthire’s letter, it seemed to me, what bridges the black experience in America and Blues is confinement. when he states below:
Also I have a question, were White and Leadbelly were one of the first or at least the most popular to bring blues to lower Manhattan?