"Red White Blues: an Anthology of America's Music charts the interlocking histories of jazz, oil and American nation building in the first half of the twentieth century.
Jazz is often described as 'the only true American art form', and it came into existence at the same time as US global dominance—embodying many of its contradictions.
Red White Blues explores the race and class relations built into jazz and the record industry, as well as a rising reliance on petroleum that made vinyl records—and an audience for them—possible. By looking at jazz records as physical artefacts, the whole edifice of American power comes into focus."
