This text provides comprehensive coverage of black American music, from the arrival of the first Africans in the English colonies to contemporary developments in African-American history. The book draws on authentic documents, from colonial times to the present, to illuminate the history of black music. The book also provides thorough treatment of black women musicians, including Lil Hardin Armstrong, Marian Anderson, Billie Holiday, Leontyne Price and Ella Fitzgerald.
The African legacy (Music in West Africa. The colonial era)
The colonial era (Music in the colonies. Congregational singing: Psalmody and hymnodie. Recreational music. Development of musical skills. Slave festivals in the African tradition)
Two wars and the new nation (Black musicians in the armed services. The post-revoluionary period. The black church. Independentblack denominations. The camp meeting. Ethiopian minstelsy)
Antebellum urban life (Black musicians and the general state of music. Urban music in the north and in the south. Music if the black church. The anti-slavery movement. Songs on the waterfront)
Antebellum rural life (The musical sources. Daily life on the plantation. Songs of narration and social comment. Worksongs. Recreational music. Entertainment for the masters. Importance of music to the slaves. The worship services. An origin for the spiritual. Character of the folk music.
The war years and emancipation
After the war (Sissemination of the spirituals. Black Ethiopian minstrelsy. The concert stage. Traveling road shows. Festivals and extravaganzas. Brass bands and dance orchestras...)
The new century (Music nationalism. In the concert world. Music educators. Symphony orchestras. opera companies and choral societies. Theaters and theater music. Shows on the road. Caudeville and musical comedies. Musicals on and off Broadway. Black entertainers abroad. Military music. The music business. Early recordings for black musicians. Professional organizations
Precursors of Jazz (The emergence of ragtime. The blues. Brass bands and string bands. World war I)
The Jazz age (Characteristics of jazz. Race records. Jazz band recording. The big bands. The swing era. Jazz women as bandleaders. White musicians and jazz)
The Harlem renaissance and beyond (Musical organizations. Composers and composer / Educators. Black musicals on Broadway. The media: Films and radio. The emergence of gospel)
The mid-century decades (World war II. The black revolution. New developments in jazz (Bebop, Free Jazz, Innovations of the seventies...). The urban blues (The Mississippi Delta blues, Chicago blues, Library of congress recordings...). Popular music (Pop soloists, pop quartets, Rhythm 'n' Blues, Soul music, Rock 'n' Roll, New dance music)
Singers, instrumentalists and composers (The world of opera. Composers. Black Musicals on Broadway. Other forms of theater music)
Currents in contemporary arenas (Jazz improvisers and composers. A new generation. Blakey's kids. Aspects of the new music. The young lions. The professors. "Classical composers and improcisors. Concert artists. Opera. Black singers on stage. Symphony orchestras: The conductors. Symphony instrumentalists. Symphony of the new world. Festivals. Cabaret divas. Resources of the past (Ragtime, Blues revivals, popular music, the new pop msuic: Rap). Women in black church music. Gospel since the 1980s. A gospel greek myth)