The Music of Black Americans: A History [Hardcover] Review

Have you ever heard about The National Negro Opera Company? Founded by Mary Cardwell Dawson, the company made its debut in Pittsburgh in 1941. This is but one of the fascinating things you can discover in this marvelous book. If you have an interest in music of whatever variety, your library is incomplete without this book.
This 3rd edition was done in 1997, thus it is quite up-to-date in its coverage of classical, jazz, rock, pop, gospel, swing, ragtime or blues. If it is music as practiced, performed or composed by people of color, this is where you'll find valuable information about it. Beginning with Africa and continuing to the present day, the four sections detail this rich history: Song in a Strange Land (1619-1775); Let My People Go (1776-1865); Blow Ye the Trumpet (1865-1919) and Lift Every Voice (1920-1996). The latter section is particularly informative reading with sections on Jazz, The Harlem Renaissance, and the Mid-Century Decades. It is these years in which artists of color finally took their well-deserved place on the musical stages of the world. Of course, they had been visible in their own world, and the popularity of such major composers as Scott Joplin and Duke Ellingtonallowed them to more or less effortlessly cross-over to the 'white' world. Lena Horne, the Mills Brothers, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway were--and still are--names to be reckoned with in any list of fabulous performers.
And then there was Marion Anderson who finally made her way to the Metropolitan Opera at the very end of her career, making way for Robert McFerrin, Leontyne Price, Jessye Norman, Simon Estes and George Shirley, who were very much pioneers in their respective repertoire. Today, thankfully, artists of color are not at all rare on the concert and/or opera stages of the world. But lest we forget the individual trauma these artists suffered in order to be able to compete in this way, we need to remember the past while we are glorying in the present. This book will, if you let it, open your mind and your ears to wonderful, glorious sounds, without which our world would be a much quieter and poorer place.
The author of this book is the renowned Eileen Southern (Professor Emerita of Music and Afro-American Studies at Harvard University) who is herself a musician as well as a writer, and is eminently qualified to illuminate The Music of Black Americans to the world in general.
Pages 613 through 646 comprise a rich bibliography and discography; the index takes up 41 pages. NO music lover should be without this invaluable reference work.

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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 provides thorough treatment of black women musicians, including Lil Hardin Armstrong, Marian Anderson, Billie Holiday, Leontyne Price and Ella Fitzgerald.

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Music in the USA: A Documentary Companion [Hardcover] Review

"Music in the USA" is essential for the student, professor, or enthusiast. Never before has such an array of primary source documents been collected into a single volume. Easy to browse, "Music in the USA" makes for a fantastic research tool as well as a great read for pure enjoyment- one can easily read up on any segment of American musical culture throughout our history. As a student, I highly recommend picking up this book. I have used it many times in my studies, and will surely reference it in my continuing pursuit into the music industry.

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Music in the USA: A Documentary Companion charts a path through American music and musical life using as guides the words of composers, performers, writers and the rest of us ordinary folks who sing, dance, and listen. The anthology of primary sources contains about 160 selections from 1540 to 2000. Sometimes the sources are classics in the literature around American music, for example, the Preface to the Bay Psalm Book, excerpts from Slave Songs of the United States, and Charles Ives extolling Emerson. But many other selections offer uncommon sources, including a satirical story about a Yankee music teacher; various columns from 19th-century German American newspapers; the memoirs of a 19th-century diva; Lottie Joplin remembering her husband Scott; a little-known reflection of Copland about Stravinsky;an interview with Muddy Waters from the Chicago Defender; a letter from Woody Guthrie on the "spunkfire" attitude of a folk song; a press release from the Country Music Association;and the Congressional testimony around "Napster.""Sidebar" entries occasionally bring a topic or an idea into the present, acknowledging the extent to which revivals of many kinds of music play a role in American contemporary culture. This book focuses on the connections between theory and practice to enrich our understanding of the diversity of American musical experiences.Designed especially to accompany college courses which survey American music as a whole, the book is also relevant to courses in American history and American Studies.

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Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop [Hardcover] Review

Race Music is a wonderful example of music scholarship. Ramsey's work provides a rigourous, fresh, and inciteful look into African American Music. Unlike many music scholars who unsuccessfully negotiate the academic and popualar terrains simultaneously, Ramsey presents an unflinchingly academic book in a way that allows the lay public access into his wonderful world of idas. A must read!!!!

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African American Music: An Introduction [Hardcover] Review

Co-edited by Mellonee V. Burnim and Portia K. Maultsby for a college-level introduction perfect for classroom text use or library reference, you can't go wrong with African American Music: An Introduction - it gathers thirty essays by leading scholars to survey major Afro-American musical genres both sacred and secular over the extent of American history, uses studies from both ethnographic fieldwork and recordings, and adds biography, photos and illustrations, and references which bring the scholarly focus to life. The blend of scholarly research, field research and cultural observation makes African American Music: An Introduction the perfect text for study.

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African American Music: An Introduction is a collection of thirty essays by leading scholars whch survey major African American musical genres, both sacred and secular, from slavery to the present. The work brings together, in a single volume, treatments of African American music that have existed largely independent of each other. The research is based in large part on ethnographic fieldwork, which privileges the voices of the music-makers themselves, while interpreting their narratives through a richly textured mosaic of history and culture. The book is replete with references to seminal recordings and recording artists, musical transcriptions, photographs, and illustrations that bring the music to life as expressions of human beings. At the same time, it includes the kind of musical specificity that brings clarity to the structural, melodic, and rhythmic characteristics that both distinguish and unify the music of African-Americans.



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The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music: From Rock, Pop, Jazz, Blues and Hip Hop to Classical, Country, Folk, World and More [Hardcover] Review

This book attempts to cover the whole musical spectrum, which sections devoted to pop, rock, jazz, blues, country, folk, classical, world, dance, hip hop, reggae, soul / R+B, gospel, electronic and soundtracks / theatre, each of which is divided into sub-styles. There's a final section headed popular and novelty, which coverscontemporary Christian music, novelty songs, music hall, children's songs, Christmas songs, easy listening, lounge music and nostalgia. I guess that covers everything, however briefly, remembering that each main chapter covers a wide range. At the end of each section is an index of artists for that section, but there's also an overall index at the end of the book. The overall index is the essential one, because artists may not always be classified the way you expect them to be.

The perennial problem of classification is never far way. How do you define the boundaries of each musical style? Where does one musical style begin and other end? It is, of course, an impossible task, but in a book such as this, the editor had to make some kind of decision. You may not agree with his classification, but since the book is divided up according to styles, you'll have to get used to it if you buy the book. Each section contains an introduction giving a general history of the music, before exploring each sub-style in turn. As far as the editor is concerned, pop music began in the fifties, which is a fair enough decision, though not everybody will agree with it. Older music can be found scattered among other sections including jazz (Glenn Miller), easy listening (Bing Crosby) and nostalgia (Vera Lynn), although I consider those artists to be among the pop stars of their time. It's even more telling to see that Bing and Vera are classified differently. Both of them continued recording well into the seventies and each of them could be classed as nostalgia or easy listening, as could Glenn Miller.

The first section is about pop music. Accepting (however grudgingly) the editor's assumption that it started in the fifties, this 64-page section does a good job in tracing the changing face of pop music from then until the start of the new millennium. Next is the 44-page section on rock music. The editor suggests that rock music began as pop music with attitude, and that while pop music often tells us that everything is OK, rock music tells us that it's not OK, but we can change it. That's an interesting definition, but hardly a clear one and not always accurate, although it's never been easy to define the dividing line between pop and rock. A look at the sub-styles in the two categories make the division look easier than it really is.

Subsequent sections provide great overviews of jazz (36 pages), blues (28 pages), country (30 pages) and folk (28 pages). The 26-page classical section mainly sticks to the traditional music, but acknowledges that the music is being challenged as never before to retain a distinctive identity. (Jazz, folk and country all face this problem, as pop and rock influences encroach into all of them, but I suspect that classical music faces the biggest challenge of them all.) The remaining chapters are all excellent, though I wish there could have been more than one page about Christmas songs. Actually, I wouldn't have expected there to be more, but I'm wondering (since this book was published in 2003) whether Bing Crosby's White Christmas was still the biggest-selling single of all time even then. I thought Elton John's tribute to Princess Diana had surpassed it, but I must check that. I'd also dispute the list of leading exponents of Christmas music, some of whom only recorded one Christmas song.

Because this book covers so much ground, it can't cover anything in depth, but I knew that a book such as this one could barely scratch the surface (many big names don`t even get mentioned, or only do so briefly), especially as the same publisher released a similarly-sized volume devoted exclusively to country music, which is restricted to thirty pages here. You'll want to buy specialist books about your favorite styles, but this book is particularly useful at providing the basic information about those musical styles that you aren`t sufficiently interested in to buy a specialist book (well, not yet anyway) but which you`d like to read a little about.

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Music touches us all, from the dancing and rebellion of youth to the quiet contemplation of the older listener. Music provides the beat to the rhythm of our lives, introducing TV programs, selling advertisements, blasting out from market stalls or along the aisles of superstores.
The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music is the ultimate guide for anyone with a passing or a passionate interest in music. Authoritative, informative, accessible, and entertaining, the book conveys the spirit and substance of practically every type of music one might listen to, from rock, pop, jazz, folk, blues, hip-hop, reggae, and dance, to classical music, country, gospel, R&B, soul, soundtracks, musical theater, and world music.
Organized by genre, the book presents a concise introduction to each music form, listing its major exponents, offering a four-bar sample of its style, and provides information on major musicians, performers, composers, and songwriters - over 12,000 names in all - highlighting their main period of activity and cross-references to the relevant music style section.
Also included are three useful appendices. A short "Instruments" glossary covers all key instruments mentioned in the narrative, showing the reader which type of music each instrument is normally used in, with examples of its best or most rewarding use. "How to Read Music, the Basics" instructs the reader on how to read music, providing a simply understanding of the four bar examples of music offered with each major genre. The appendices contain a comprehensive bibliography as well.
Bringing the world of music to life are 800 colorful illustrations of musicians, instruments, album covers, music engravings, and more.
Whether passionate or casual listener, anyone interested in music will find The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music a must-have for both enjoyable reading as well as for reference.
Foreword provided by the legendary Beatles producer, Sir George Martin.

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