A must for all who would more knowledgeably appreciate and better comprehend America s most popular music. -- Langston Hughes The path the slave took to citizenship is what I want to look at. And I make my analogy through the slave citizen s music--through the music that is most closely associated with him: blues and a later but parallel development jazz... [If] the Negro represents or is symbolic of something in and about the nature of American culture this certainly should be revealed by his characteristic music. So says Amiri Baraka (previously known as LeRoi Jones) in the Introduction to Blues People his classic work on the place of jazz and blues in American social musical economic and cultural history. From the music of African slaves in the United States through the music scene of the 1960 s Baraka traces the influence of what he calls negro music on white America--not only in the context of music and pop culture but also in terms of the values and perspectives passed on through the music. In tracing the music he brilliantly illuminates the influence of African Americans on American culture and history.