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Celebrating African-American Music Month

Celebrating African-American Music Month

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June is African-American Music Month, intended to celebrate the important contributions of African-American entertainers in the music industry.  Most American popular music is rooted in Black music traditions dating to the founding of the country, a fact not always acknowledged in society, and these traditions range from instrumentation to musical style to vocalization.  This blog highlights a handful of influential African-American musicians whose work is part of American collective social memory. Gladys Bentley Openly lesbian and among the first well-known drag king performers in American history, Gladys Bentley (1907-1960) was born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, and grew up in Philadelphia.  She left home at 16 to perform in jazz clubs in New York, under her own name but dressed in formal … Continued
The Archives of Traditional Music

The Archives of Traditional Music

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On wax cylinders, aluminum and lacquer discs, open reel tape, wire and cassette tape, Chinese folk songs commingle with Native American narrative songs and Sea Islands protest songs.  Here the works of Hoagy Carmichael rub shoulders with traditional songs of the Ainu, a people native to the island of Hokkaido in northern Japan.  With over 120,000 audio recordings spread out over 4000 collections, the Archives of Traditional Music is one of the country’s most important repositories of recorded music history.  This blog will dive into a handful of the collections available there. The Lawrence Gellert Collection Collector Lawrence Gellert (born 1898, disappeared 1979) possessed a sincere, if homegrown, interest in Black folk music.  His family immigrated to the US from … Continued
Music for social movements

Music for social movements

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Music is essential to social movements throughout American history.  From the Revolutionary War to modern civil rights protests, music has invigorated the masses, served as a cultural touchstone for future generations, and galvanized communities to take action.  This is true not only in the United States but throughout the world.  A quick overview of protest music, with a look at the future of the form, is important to understanding the role of music in securing rights and freedoms.  The very first American protest song was written probably in 1755 by a British doctor.  Known today as “Yankee Doodle”, it was originally written as a taunt to American colonists who were viewed as childish, immature and lacking in strength.  When the … Continued
A brief history of Gennett Records

A brief history of Gennett Records

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The empty tower that looms over Whitewater Gorge in Richmond, Indiana is the last vestige of what was once a highly influential American recording label.  While never very profitable, Gennett Records holds a number of distinctions important to the development of American music.  It was here, in Richmond, that some of the first jazz recordings were made, and a series of other important performers, from Wilbur Sweatman to Guy Lombardo to Gene Autry, waxed their music in the cramped, overheated studio built just off the railroad tracks. Gennett Records was founded in 1917 and named after Henry Gennett, then the president of the Starr Piano Company.  In 1915, Starr Piano started building phonograph machines to compete with models such as … Continued
Women in Protest Music

Women in Protest Music

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Women have played an integral role in American protest for the last 100 years, from raising their voices for equality to securing rights for themselves and others.  While the earliest women’s protest songs were written primarily by men, women have taken over as songwriters and have produced some of the most important protest music in American recorded history. Here is a profile of six of these remarkable performers, who come from a variety of backgrounds, religions and regions of the country.  United Mine Songwriters: Florence Reece and Aunt Molly Jackson Mining has always been dangerous work, made even more so by a lack of safety controls and, more importantly, dismal pay (sometimes not in cash but scrip, which undercut miners’ … Continued