During the last fifty years the University of Illinois Press (UIP) has published nearly 250 titles in its Music in American Life series. Moreover, in 2007, the Press created its African American Music in Global Perspective series, adding to the already palpable importance that this press holds in the study of American music in its many manifestations. These series combined, along with the Press’s numerous journals dedicated to American music and culture, including Black Music Research Journal, American Music, Ethnomusicology, Jazz and Culture, and the Journal of American Ethnic History, place this press as a cornerstone in the study of American music and culture today. The recent publication of the two-volume compilation Music in Black American Life covers the period from 1600 to 2020 and further adds to the significance that the Press holds in this oft-overlooked segment of American culture.
The set is a collection of articles previously published by UIP from their pool of journals and is compiled by Laurie Matheson, director of the University of Illinois Press. As the title indicates, these articles document the importance of music in African American culture from 1600 to 2020. However, and more significantly, they recognize the importance of this music in the broader American consciousness. In the preface to the set, Matheson outlines her belief in the importance of these two compilations. She states, “these volumes celebrate the influential work of scholars devoted to illuminating and understanding the Black musical experience” (vii).
Matheson’s selections for volume 1 of this compilation are excellent. The eleven articles that complete this volume address the questions of why Black music scholarship deserves its own scholarly philosophy as well as how the varied forms of musical contributions made to American culture by African Americans reached wider audiences. In the chapter titled “White folks do as they please, and the darkies do as they can,” from her 2014 publication, Ring Shout, Wheel About: The Racial Politics of Music and Dance in North American Slavery, Katrina Dyonne Thompson presents to the reader keen insights into the African American experience as it pertains to their musical and life practices during the early years of slavery in this country. She does not simply present a series of facts, but rather offers quotes from African Americans who were living these experiences at that time. This article outlines the many obstacles faced by African Americans as they struggled to maintain their musical and dance heritage.
This collection also presents an exhaustive study of the innovators of the Jubilee Singers and the many imitators vying to cash in on the Jubilee’s success. The article titled “The Origin and Development of Black Musical Theatre” by Eileen Southern, as well as a short but exceedingly interesting article, “Rural Black String Band Music” by Charles Wolfe, which investigates the seminal musical influence from the eighteenth century that would ultimately lead to Appalachian music and bluegrass, provide excellent introductions to early African American influences on the more widely accepted music of the day.
A stand-out article in this collection is Harriet Ottenheimer’s work, “The Blues Tradition in St. Louis.” Ottenheimer gives a brief but informative look at the growth of the blues from Scott Joplin and W. C. Handy’s influences in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to a virtual who’s-who of St. Louis blues through the 1980s. Another chapter of note is Stephen Wade’s “Nashville Washboard Band: Something Out of Nothing,” from his book The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience. In this chapter, Wade visits the innovators of this musical experiment and, beyond that, the importance of musicologists such as the luminary Alan Lomax, who never wavered in his enthusiasm for the pursuit of documenting the importance of every aspect of world music.
There are several other chapters in Music in Black American Life, 1600-1945 that I have not mentioned in this review due to space limitations; however, the entirety of this volume is worthy of reading, study, and discussion. Some may argue that the lion’s share of these articles is available digitally through most major universities, and that these volumes are therefore unnecessary. But this argument leaves out students studying in smaller institutions or community college settings. The appeal of this volume is its one-stop-shopping presentation for both those teaching undergraduates and undergraduates themselves who have a keen interest in how these histories have influenced what they and their peers are enjoying today. The compilation offers an easily accessible introduction to the history of African American music for anyone exploring this field of study.
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[Review length: 722 words • Review posted on April 30, 2024]