Overwhelmingly the mass of writings on African American music have been written about music produced in the 20th century owing to the importance of the invention of recorded sound as a reliable object of study. However most studies which include discussion of early African American music and its religious inflections will include some speculation on its relationship to slavery, Reconstruction and the semi-freedom of the Jim Crow Period.
In the further pursuit of materials related to Du Bois discussion of the development of the music of the slaves in Chapter 10 "Faith of Our Fathers" and in his final chapter on the Sorrow Songs in The Souls of Black Folk, the following crucial texts come highly recommended by me:
Dena J. Epstein, Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War. University of Illinois Press 1977.
Shane White and Graham White, The Sounds of Slavery: Discovering African American History through Songs, Sermons and Speech. Beacon Press 1992.
Robert Darden, People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music. Continuum 2004.
Michael W. Harris, The Rise of the Gospel Blues: The Music of Thomas Andrew Dorsey in the Urban Church. Oxford University Press 1992.
Bernice Johnson Reagon, If You Don't Go, Don't Hinder Me: The African American Sacred Song Tradition. University of Nebraska Press 2001.
Eileen Southern, Readings in Black American Music. Second Edition, Norton Press 1983.
Showing posts with label Gospel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gospel. Show all posts
12/1/11
Dubois Concerning Black Music
I am a writer and a professor of English at the City College of New York, and the CUNY Graduate Center. My books include Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman (1979), Invisibility Blues (1990), Black Popular Culture (1992), and Dark Designs and Visual Culture (2005). I write cultural criticism frequently and am currently working on a project on creativity and feminism among the women in my family, some of which is posted on the Soul Pictures blog.
9/11/08
Norton Anthology--Audio Files
DISC 1: MUSIC
Maple Leaf Rag, Scott Joplin
Maple Leaf Rag, Jelly Roll Morton
Go Down, Moses, Paul Robeson
Steal Away to Jesus, Bernice Johnson Reagon
Been in the Storm So Long, Fisk Jubilee Singers
Ezekiel Saw de Wheel, Tuskegee Choir
This Little Light of Mine, Viola James & Congregation
Soon I Will Be Done, Mahalia Jackson
Take My Hand, Precious Lord, Clara Ward
Rosie, Inmates of Parchman Farm
You May Go But This Will Bring You Back, Zora Neale Hurston
Good Morning Blues, Leadbelly
C. C. Rider, Ma Rainey
Sunnyland, Elmore James
Backwater Blues, Bessie Smith
Beale St. Blues, Big Maybelle
Rock Me, Baby, Lightnin’ Hopkins
My Handy Man, Alberta Hunter
Trumpet Mouthpiece Blues, Clark Terry
It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing), Duke Ellington
(What Did I Do To be So) Black and Blue, Louis Armstrong
Strange Fruit, Billie Holiday
Parker’s Mood, King Pleasure
Four Women, Nina Simone
Dancin’ in the Street, Martha and the Vandellas
A Love Supreme, John Coltrane
DISC 2: SPOKEN WORD
Atlanta Address [excerpt], Booker T. Washington
Autobiography, W. E. B. DuBois
If We Must Die, Claude McKay
Strong Men, Sterling A. Brown
The Creation, James Weldon Johnson
The Way Out Is to Pray Out, Rev. G. I. Townsel
The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Langston Hughes
Heritage, Countee Cullen
Elder Eatmore’s Sermon on Generosity, Bert Williams
For My People, Margaret Walker
Those Winter Sundays, Robert Hayden
a song in the front yard, Gwendolyn Brooks
We Real Cool, Gwendolyn Brooks
Summer Words of a Sistuh Addict, Sonia Sanchez
Nikki-Rosa, Nikki Giovanni
Wailers, Amiri Baraka
How Long Has Trane Been Gone? Jayne Cortez
Dear John, Dear Coltrane, Michael Harper
From Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
Rita Dove introduces the Thomas and Beulah poems, the Event
I Have a Dream, Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Ballot or the Bullet, Malcolm X
The Message, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five
Selections are subject to change.
Maple Leaf Rag, Scott Joplin
Maple Leaf Rag, Jelly Roll Morton
Go Down, Moses, Paul Robeson
Steal Away to Jesus, Bernice Johnson Reagon
Been in the Storm So Long, Fisk Jubilee Singers
Ezekiel Saw de Wheel, Tuskegee Choir
This Little Light of Mine, Viola James & Congregation
Soon I Will Be Done, Mahalia Jackson
Take My Hand, Precious Lord, Clara Ward
Rosie, Inmates of Parchman Farm
You May Go But This Will Bring You Back, Zora Neale Hurston
Good Morning Blues, Leadbelly
C. C. Rider, Ma Rainey
Sunnyland, Elmore James
Backwater Blues, Bessie Smith
Beale St. Blues, Big Maybelle
Rock Me, Baby, Lightnin’ Hopkins
My Handy Man, Alberta Hunter
Trumpet Mouthpiece Blues, Clark Terry
It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing), Duke Ellington
(What Did I Do To be So) Black and Blue, Louis Armstrong
Strange Fruit, Billie Holiday
Parker’s Mood, King Pleasure
Four Women, Nina Simone
Dancin’ in the Street, Martha and the Vandellas
A Love Supreme, John Coltrane
DISC 2: SPOKEN WORD
Atlanta Address [excerpt], Booker T. Washington
Autobiography, W. E. B. DuBois
If We Must Die, Claude McKay
Strong Men, Sterling A. Brown
The Creation, James Weldon Johnson
The Way Out Is to Pray Out, Rev. G. I. Townsel
The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Langston Hughes
Heritage, Countee Cullen
Elder Eatmore’s Sermon on Generosity, Bert Williams
For My People, Margaret Walker
Those Winter Sundays, Robert Hayden
a song in the front yard, Gwendolyn Brooks
We Real Cool, Gwendolyn Brooks
Summer Words of a Sistuh Addict, Sonia Sanchez
Nikki-Rosa, Nikki Giovanni
Wailers, Amiri Baraka
How Long Has Trane Been Gone? Jayne Cortez
Dear John, Dear Coltrane, Michael Harper
From Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
Rita Dove introduces the Thomas and Beulah poems, the Event
I Have a Dream, Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Ballot or the Bullet, Malcolm X
The Message, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five
Selections are subject to change.
I am a writer and a professor of English at the City College of New York, and the CUNY Graduate Center. My books include Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman (1979), Invisibility Blues (1990), Black Popular Culture (1992), and Dark Designs and Visual Culture (2005). I write cultural criticism frequently and am currently working on a project on creativity and feminism among the women in my family, some of which is posted on the Soul Pictures blog.
8/14/08
Recommended Films and Reading
The Great Jazz Day, Photo by Art Kane, Esquire 1959
Music Films--For Reference
20s
"The Portrait Collection of Louis Armstrong," Decca UM--DVD 2008
Compilation Documentary Film, 1930s through 1960s
Song Titles:
Includes: I Cover the Waterfront
When Its Sleepy Time Down South
Dinah
Basin Street Blues
Shine
Mack The Knife
Black and Blue
TV Interview
40s
"They Filmed The War in Color (WWII)"
Color Footage in the Pacific including Pearl Harbor. Amazing.
Dir: Rene-Jean Bouyer, Koch Vision DVD 2000
ISBN 1-4172-2922-5
50s
*Documentary Film: "A Great Day in Harlem."
Dir: Rene-Jean Bouyer, Koch Vision DVD 2000
ISBN 1-4172-2922-5
50s
*Documentary Film: "A Great Day in Harlem."
B&W Video 60 minutes
DirProducer: Jean Bach, Castle Hill Productions/BWE Video 1995
ISBN: 1-57742-283-x
DirProducer: Jean Bach, Castle Hill Productions/BWE Video 1995
ISBN: 1-57742-283-x
This isn't such a great film but the event from a photographic and historical point of view is highly instructive. First, that so many key figures in music gathered at the same time on a Harlem street, and then second the distinctive manner in which they consented to take a picture together and the various embedded narratives in the image.
Book: The Great Jazz Day edited by Charles Graham, Da Capo Press 2000
Essays by Dan Morgenstern, Whitney Balliet, Gary Giddins and Ralph Ellison
Photographs by Art Kane, Dizzy Gillespie and Milt Hinton
Cover Photograph for Esquire: The Golden Age of Jazz, January 1959
Jazz Icon Series:
Duke Ellington, Live in '58, B&W Holland, 80 minutes
AVRO, Commentary by Sjef Hoefsmit
Concert Film: Performance at Concertgeboux, November 2, 1958
Johnny Hodges(alto sax), Russell Procope (alto sax & clarinet), Paul Gonsalves (tenor sax), Ray Nance (trumpet, violin, vocals)
Clark Terry (trumpet), Sam Woodyard (drums), Ozzie Bailey (vocalist)
Book: The Great Jazz Day edited by Charles Graham, Da Capo Press 2000
Essays by Dan Morgenstern, Whitney Balliet, Gary Giddins and Ralph Ellison
Photographs by Art Kane, Dizzy Gillespie and Milt Hinton
Cover Photograph for Esquire: The Golden Age of Jazz, January 1959
Jazz Icon Series:
Duke Ellington, Live in '58, B&W Holland, 80 minutes
AVRO, Commentary by Sjef Hoefsmit
Concert Film: Performance at Concertgeboux, November 2, 1958
Johnny Hodges(alto sax), Russell Procope (alto sax & clarinet), Paul Gonsalves (tenor sax), Ray Nance (trumpet, violin, vocals)
Clark Terry (trumpet), Sam Woodyard (drums), Ozzie Bailey (vocalist)
"At Amsterdam in 1958, throughout the first concert, Hoefsmit watch AVRO cameramen plot their angles, note soloist positions and time solos to prepare for smooth, efficient operation during Concert Number Two. Apparently Ellington noticed, too, and, not wanting to be considered predictable or be taken for granted, altered the program in the second concert, sending the men with the cameras scrambling."
Sarah Vaughn, Live in '58 & '64
Concert Films; Sweden (SVT July 9, 1958), Holland 1958 (AFRO June 16, 1958), and Stockholm, Sweden (January 10, 1964)
Dave Brubeck, Live in 64 & 66
Concert Films: Belguim 1964; Germany 1966, 2007
60s
Documentary Film: "Sweet Honey in the Rock: Raise Your Voice," 84 minutes color
Dir: Stanley Nelson, Firelight Media 2005 DVD www.firelightmedia.org
Subject: Civil Rights Movement, Gospel and Spirituals, Protest Songs,
Bernice and Toshi Reagon
Documentary/Fiction Film: Warming By The Devil's Fire, 106 minutes
Dir/Writer: Charles Burnett, Vulcan Road Movies DVD 2003
Subject: The Blues, Willie Dixon, New Orleans
Documentary Film: "Only the Strong Survive: A Celebration of Soul," 96 minutes
Dir: Chris Hegedus and DA Pennebaker, Miramax DVD 1993
Subject: Rufus and Carla Thomas, Jerry Butler, The Chi-Lites, Isaac Hayes, Wilson Pickett, Mary Wilson
Concert/Documentary Film: Wattstax, Fantasy, 103
Director: Mel Stuart DVD 1973
Subject: Isaac Hayes, Richard Pryor, The Staples Singers, Johnny Taylor, Luther Ingram, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, The Emotions
Gospel!
Documentary/Fiction Film: Warming By The Devil's Fire, 106 minutes
Dir/Writer: Charles Burnett, Vulcan Road Movies DVD 2003
Subject: The Blues, Willie Dixon, New Orleans
Documentary Film: "Only the Strong Survive: A Celebration of Soul," 96 minutes
Dir: Chris Hegedus and DA Pennebaker, Miramax DVD 1993
Subject: Rufus and Carla Thomas, Jerry Butler, The Chi-Lites, Isaac Hayes, Wilson Pickett, Mary Wilson
Concert/Documentary Film: Wattstax, Fantasy, 103
Director: Mel Stuart DVD 1973
Subject: Isaac Hayes, Richard Pryor, The Staples Singers, Johnny Taylor, Luther Ingram, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, The Emotions
Gospel!
Documentary Concert Film: Happy Day, 2004 60 minutes.
RECOMMEND TEXTS
Albert Murray, Stomping the Blues, The Da Capo Press 1976.
RECOMMEND TEXTS
Albert Murray, Stomping the Blues, The Da Capo Press 1976.
Marc Miller ed., Louis Armstrong: A Cultural Legacy, Queens Museum 1994.
ISBN: 0-295-97382-8
Michael Cogswell, Louis Armstrong: The Offstage Story of Satchmo 2003.
Michael Cogswell, Louis Armstrong: The Offstage Story of Satchmo 2003.
ISBN 1-888054-81-6
I am a writer and a professor of English at the City College of New York, and the CUNY Graduate Center. My books include Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman (1979), Invisibility Blues (1990), Black Popular Culture (1992), and Dark Designs and Visual Culture (2005). I write cultural criticism frequently and am currently working on a project on creativity and feminism among the women in my family, some of which is posted on the Soul Pictures blog.
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