RECORD MAKERS AND BREAKERS: VOICES OF THE INDEPENDENT ROCK ‘N’ ROLL PIONEERS > John Broven

Broven is masterful, making Record Makers an essential book for anyone interested in not only American musical culture but American culture, period.

Label: University of Illinois Press
[Rating: 4 stars]

The author of the classic Rhythm and Blues in New Orleans, John Broven does the near-impossible in Record Makers and Breakers. As he explains in his preface, this canny, humane and meticulously researched book does indeed make a case for the “historical importance of the independent record men and women within a vanishing world,” and serves as a corrective to any music lover who thinks all those sounds come out of thin air. How the music business became the record business is Broven’s great subject, and you’ll meet some amazing personalities along the way: Henry Stone, who bridged the worlds of R&B and disco; Ahmet Ertegun; Jules, Saul and Joe Bihari; and disc jockeys such as Nashville’s Bill “Hoss” Allen and John Richbourg. Broven is masterful, making Record Makers an essential book for anyone interested in not only American musical culture but American culture, period.