Really the Blues (Barnes & Noble Rediscovers Series)

Delightful Autobiography

Found in the discount pile of books, I got "Really the Blues" home and read the jacket. I didn't want to put it down; I gobbled it from Chapter 1 past the index all the way through the Afterword written by Bernard Wolf. At first it was hard to catch on but after the first chapter or so I was immersed in Mezz's era. His descriptions of so many famous musicians brought them to life and made them dance and sing in front of me. His description of Bessie Smith brought home to me a depth that I had not read before and the way he spoke of her death was genuine. "They took her and murdered her down South--murdered her in cold blood because, like she said, she wasn't no high yaller, just a beginner brown, and more real woman than those Jim Crow mammyjamming whites would know what to do with." I kept looking up musician names, groups and song titles in You Tube just to listen to the music Mezzrow was writing about.