ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, May 5, 1996                    TAG: 9605040005
SECTION: BOOKS                    PAGE: 4    EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY BOB FISHBURN 

WHERE DID THE BLUES COME FROM?

THE HISTORY OF THE BLUES. By Francis Davis. Hyperion. $14.95.

This no-nonsense account of the American musical form and its influences on other music as told by a pop-music critic is, simply stated, about as good as it gets.

Blessedly free of socio-babble and windy theories, it provides a tragicomic romp from field hollers to contemporary blues, with emphasis on the musicians and their backgrounds. Along the way, Davis punctures several myths, the most persistent being that the blues predated jazz and was a primary influence on the musical revolution that took place mainly in New Orleans. He contends that they developed almost simultaneously in different parts of the South.

One paragraph neatly points out the futility of the search for "authentic" blues: "Let's just say the blues has a large extended family and bears a strong resemblance to many of its relatives. Especially in its younger years, it was frequently sighted in places it may or may not have been, and mistaken for blood relatives long since forgotten." Ditto for "original" jazz.

The only disappointment lies outside the book: It is billed as a companion piece to a planned three-part PBS series of the same name, but a call to PBS yielded no knowledge of such a series. Blues fans can only hope that the series is still on the drawing board, perhaps in some Godforsaken corner of the building, the corporate equivalent of the Mississippi Delta.

SPIRIT CATCHER: The Life and Art of John Coltrane. By John Fraim. Greathouse. $14.95.

The title should be a warning: This is a mystical, often mystifying account of the career of jazz saxophonist Coltrane, perhaps the main span in the bridge from bebop to "free" jazz in the '50s and '60s.

Fraim, whose studies have included history, law and psychology, has written more of a psychological study of "Trane" than a standard biography. What the reader gains in occasional insights into the jazzman's "spiritual quest" does not make up for a loss in comprehension and cohesiveness. The "biography" is weirdly organized, repetitious and often simply impenetrable, with passages like: "The great sound surrounds Coltrane, permeating every cell of his existence, and he becomes a medium for it. Everything was sacred and worthy of expression in the awe-struck hushed reverence of psalm." Dig it? It is not so much a biography as a long-winded, pseudo-poetic chant to a man he calls, repeatedly, a jazz "prophet" known, appropriately enough, for his long-winded solos.

Bob Fishburn is former editor of this newspaper's commentary page.

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