This was an interesting anthology with an interesting premise, but would have likely benefitted from a bigger page count. Read Full Review

You know, I _really_ wanted to like this book. I really did. But half of the writing is choppy and/or rushed and clearly intended for people who are already familiar with the subject(s), and the other half is downright condescending and made me feel talked down to, as if the authors wanted to say "Now you know how Black people must have felt in those days". Same goes for the art, which varies from OK to downright _bad_ (I mean, just look at page 7 of "Black Russians"... was the editor pressed for time, so they just snuck it in?) and if you want to do a piece on an important Black musician, GET HELP from someone who can draw guitars, keyboards[1] & drums, or at least use reference photos. (The Internet has millions of those.) If mr Prince really started out on a guitar like that, it's a bl**dy miracle he progressed anywhere beyond the C major chord.

You had the chance to do something beautiful here. And then you blew it. :'(

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[1] This is the easiest one, so pay attention! Any ordinary keyboard is divided into groups of 7 white keys, called C D E F G A B + repeat until you run out of keys (or, if you're into the Sound of Music, which I must have seen 7 times when I was a child: doe, ray, me, far, sew, la, tea & back to doe), with the C on the left of the 2 black keys. (To complicate matters: not all keyboards start with a C, so you need to know where to find one!) In between those 7 white keys are 5 (FIVE!) black keys, grouped as 3, skip 1, 2, skip 1, so the order becomes: W B W B W B W + W B W B W (& repeat). End of lesson! ;) more