The Blue Devils of Nada is a powerful and profound introduction to and elaboration of the blues aesthetic by one of the most percipient observers of the American cultural scene. It gives the refined essence of Albert Murray's lifetime meditation on the blues as it informs American life. Here are incisive essays on writing, music, and art that go beyond the social-science fiction of Negrohood to describe in no uncertain terms what it means to be an American.

Whether he is commenting on "The Intent of the Artist," "Regional Particulars and Universal Implications," "Duke Ellington Vamping Till Ready," "Comping for Count Basie," "The Blues as Representative Anecdote," "Armstrong and Ellington Stomping the Blues in Paris," "The Visual Equivalent to Blues Composition: Bearden Plays Bearden," or "Ernest Hemingway Swinging the Blues and Taking Nothing," Albert Murray always cuts to the chase.

He is at once insightful and inspiring, for he knows that the blues are not cries of Negro misery but idiomatic or, rather, stylized expressions of transcendence through sheer style, always informed by an awareness of the vicissitudes of life.