Bruce Bastin
Encyclopedia
Bruce Bastin is a folklorist and a leading expert on the blues
styles of the South Eastern states of America (East Coast Blues
or Piedmont Blues
).
He is responsible for much ground-breaking research (much done with folklorist Peter B. Lowry
) over the decades.
A former secondary school geography teacher, Bastin holds a Master's degree in Folklore from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
and is the author of two books on the Piedmont Blues, Crying for the Carolines and Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast, as well as a biography of music publisher Joe Davis, Never Sell a Copyright. He has written articles for many music journals and books over the decades, plus liner note essays for LPs and CDs, not all dealing with the South Eastern blues style.
Bruce Bastin is also the managing director of Interstate Music, Ltd., West Sussex
, England
, with its labels:
for whom he has produced and/or programmed over 850 albums in many musical genres, generally "re-issue" in nature, since the days of vinyl.
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
styles of the South Eastern states of America (East Coast Blues
East Coast blues
East Coast blues casts a wide net covering all of Piedmont blues - a style that relied on fast, virtuosic fingerpicking and added influences such as ragtime - as well as the urbanized R&B of New York blues and countless smaller regional styles....
or Piedmont Blues
Piedmont blues
Piedmont blues refers primarily to a guitar style, the Piedmont fingerstyle, which is characterized by a fingerpicking approach in which a regular, alternating thumb bass string rhythmic pattern supports a syncopated melody using the treble strings generally picked with the fore-finger,...
).
He is responsible for much ground-breaking research (much done with folklorist Peter B. Lowry
Peter B. Lowry
Peter B. Lowry , is a folklorist, writer, record producer, ethnomusicologist, historian, photographer, and teacher on popular music in his seventies specializing in blues, and jazz with a primary focus on the Piedmont blues of the south-eastern United States.-Ethnomusicological Field Research:Mr...
) over the decades.
A former secondary school geography teacher, Bastin holds a Master's degree in Folklore from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
and is the author of two books on the Piedmont Blues, Crying for the Carolines and Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast, as well as a biography of music publisher Joe Davis, Never Sell a Copyright. He has written articles for many music journals and books over the decades, plus liner note essays for LPs and CDs, not all dealing with the South Eastern blues style.
Bruce Bastin is also the managing director of Interstate Music, Ltd., West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, with its labels:
- Country Routes
- FlyrightFlyright RecordsFlyright Records is a British record label incorporated in 1970 by Mike Leadbitter, Simon Napier, and Bruce Bastin. It specialises in reissuing pre and post war blues and jazz recordings.-External links:* *...
- Harlequin
- Heritage
- Krazy Kat
- MagpieMagpie RecordsMagpie Records is a British record label set up in 1976 by Bruce Bastin. It specialises in re-issuing pre and post war blues and jazz recordings.-External links:* *...
- Travelin' Man.
for whom he has produced and/or programmed over 850 albums in many musical genres, generally "re-issue" in nature, since the days of vinyl.
Publications
- Bastin, Bruce (1971) Crying for the Carolines (London: Studio Vista). ISBN 028970297.
- Bastin, Bruce (1986/1995) Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press). ISBN 0252065212, 9780252065217 at Google Books
- Bastin, Bruce "Blind Boy Fuller" in Grossman, Stefan & Fuller, Blind Boy Stefan Grossman's early masters of American blues guitar: Blind Boy Fuller Alfred Publishing, 1993 ISBN 0739043315, 9780739043318 at Google Books