Dated but Excellent
By far, this is the best, most concise account of where and when the unique American musical art form known as the blues (and jazz) came to be. Leroi Jones was a trusted source for music as well as social knowledge and he combines the two as a means of explaining and describing the growth of blues music up through the 1960s. The final chapter takes a quick look at where blues/jazz went after the pop music industry got involved with spin-off genres like funk, for example. Jones puts ownership of blues and jazz where it belongs: with the African-Americans who created it.
