Book review: Mezz Mezzrow - Really the Blues (1946)

It’s many years ago since I first read this book but I was recently reminded of it during a discussion around what happens during the final part. I wouldn’t want to give a spoiler, but the book takes an extraordinary turn towards the end, which is explained in an appendix that you may or may not wish to read first. I didn’t and was totally caught unawares, wondering what on earth was going on.

Mezz Mezzrow was a clarinet player from the twenties onwards and his autobiography traces his career not only as a musician, but also as a marijuana supplier to many other, often more famous and successful musicians. He was also a white man at a time when nobody had aspirations of jazz as a ‘serious’ artform, so nobody had a problem acknowledging it as black music, or race music as it was known at the time (alongside blues and gospel).    

 

There are serious issues around the nature of writing, and how this may have worked as a diary but raises questions in its claim to be based on reflection. However, his years as a jobbing musician and pusher are enjoyable enough, and the ending should make it essential reading for anybody who is, or knows any white person obsessed with Black Music, from blues and jazz to funk and hip-hop. Steve T