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Afro-American Music Odyssey
Music binds us all, celebrates the best aspects of life and has the power to transcend social and national barriers. African and American combinations in music consistently yield sublime and durable art forms: Bossa Nova, Reggae, Chicago Blues, Soul. On this journey we will look at points along a continuum of sound which developed as part of a larger movement of peoples and travel of culture. This series of articles focuses on cities, genres, and artists who work within this ever expanding form of art.
The Blues is synonymous with the African music which travelled to the Americas during centuries of slave trading and subsequent migration. Much of this music developed in a particular part of West Africa often referred to as the Sene-Gambia. The Blues idiom features the flatted third and seventh notes of the scale and emphasizes the I, IV, and V chords in composition. Similarly, call and response, a powerful and unmistakable vocal and instrumental phrasing, thrives in all African-American rooted music. These bluesy characteristics connect Jazz and Brazilian, Rock and Reggae.
American to African Influence
American recordings have become widely available in Africa over the last 3 decades and the travel of sound has come full circle with African artists such as Baaba Maal, Ali Farka Toure, and Manu Dibango clearly playing in the currents of pop, blues and jazz.
Randy Weston: A Special Case of Blues
American pianist Randy Weston has revisited the birthplace of the blues, researching the folk roots of the music by living and playing in Africa for many years. His recent cd's have melded both the straight forward raw elements of the blues with more sophisticated jazz arrangements.
Weston senses vitality in the rhythms of Africa, stating "The music of no other civilization can rival that of Africa in the complexity of and subtlety of its rhythms. All modern music-- jazz, gospel, Latin, rock, bossa nova, calypso, samba, r & b, the blues, even music of the avant-garde is in debt to African rhythms." These interrelationships can be heard as a confluence of style, tradition, and artistic vision in this song clip from Weston's Self Portraits where he consciously follows the music of Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington with a heightened sense of African folk forms.
The Afro-American Music Odyssey is an interactive mixture of sounds, images and words which will continue to grow.
Places
Africa -- The Source
In this brief overview of African American music forms and cross influences a lot of discussion is allotted to the disemination of African influence to the Americas. The availability of American popular music throughout the world has led musicians in Africa and elsewhere to incorporate the best elements into their own work, resulting in fascinating new combinations. For every Henry Kaiser or Paul Simon there is a Baaba Maal or Ali Farka Toure who communicate across the oceans in this great supra-national conversation. African American music serves as a rare bridge between cultures, one which offers so much and finally can easily be discovered on so many great recordings.
Haiti - Burning Paradise
The sound of Haiti has long been entwined with the religious
fury of Voodoo, historically linking slaves brought from the Fon of Benin
to tumultuous present day life in Haiti. Voodoo describes a belief in good
and evil spirits mixing African folklore elements, rituals and rhythms. These
rites include singing, drumbeats and dances that call down the gods or loas
from the voodoo pantheon. Haitian music exhibits a unique combination of Afro-Hispanic
roots prevalent in the Caribbean, and a resurgent blend of French/Creole culture.
Haitian musicians have to be careful to avoid political reprisals and censorship. The outspoken singer-songwrter Manno Charlemagne has remained a key figure despite a lengthy forced exile. Boukman Eksperyans - named after a 17th century revolutionary leader - utilise the popular carnival meringue or Rara style to convey their message of political hope. On the Vodou Adjae on Mango/Island Boukman Eksperyans carefully celebrate their new found social and religious freedom.
Rara and Compas styles feature large arrangements traditionally driven by accordian and guitar and now laced with salsa, jazz and, particularly in New York variations, rap (The New York SuperStars and Zin being two prime exponents). Free from the travel constraints of their Cuban cousins, Haitian bands are popular in North America - Nouvel Jenerayshun and Tabou Combo (who have now relocated to New York and can be heard on 8'eme Sacrament and Zap!- (Mini Records)) are known across the world for their Combas extravagance, often sweetened with the dance-funk sound of zouk.
A quick introduction to Haitian music can be found in filmmaker Jonathan Demme's compilation Konbit on A&M; try also the newly released Rhythms Of Rapture: Sacred Musics Of Haitian Vodou on Smithsonian Folkways Also on Smithsonian though altogether earthier is Caribbean Revels - a collection of field recordings partly executed in Haitian cemeteries. Also of interest is Marc Ribot Plays Solo Guitar Works of Frantz Casseus very fluid compositions written between 1940-80 which comprise a national music for Haiti.
Jamaican Music
Reggae Got Soul
Jamaica's incredibly rich musical lineage includes diverse
styles such as the local calypso shuffle called Mento, religious and carnival
music. After Jamaican Independence there emerged the horn based Ska and the
rock and roll knowledgeable Rock Steady. By 1968, these forms scarcely prepped
us for their earthshaking offspring, Reggae. As a Carribbean island, Jamaica
has seen a full spectrum of colonial, indigenous and African cross influences.
Reggae revived deep rootsy beats at higher speeds, highlighting the drum and
bass, inserting a chugging organ sound and laying a soul vocal on top. Since
1968 this Reggae music spread rapidly to England influencing Old Guard Classic
rockers, pill poppers, punk rockers and the Carribbean emigrant community.
Now the music is international, shared by artists in the U.S., U.K.(Finley
Quaye, UB40 and Adrian Sherwood) and Africa (Lucky Dube, Alpha Blondy). The
Reggae beat has been sliced, diced and liquified. Its influence now appears
in Rap, Trip-Hop, Modern Rock and Ambient recordings. In addition to being
widespread rebel music this is a powerfully positive music.
Bob Marley's legend has only grown since his passing in 1981 with the release
of archival material and such films as "Time Will Tell" and "Carribbean
Nights". His efforts to bring people together and messages of strength,
faith and unity in a global brotherhood are timeless. His concert for the
independence of Zimbabwe in 1980 and his on stage joining of the opposition
party leaders in a turbulent Jamaica during the 1976 election campaign exemplified
a global, political and messianic significance which carried the highest resonance
of positive vibration.
Marley's stardom has to date eclipsed the work of the many other great and deserving stars who have arrived regularly on the Jamaican scene. Among them producers such as Lee Perry, King Tubby and Bunny Lee as well as singers from Dennis Brown, Junior Byles and Johnny Clarke to Horace Andy, Burning Spear and Toots Hibbert all are more easily collectible than ever on reissued material from labels such as Heartbeat, Blood and Fire and Pressure Sounds. Dub, Dancehall and Tricky have borne out the teachings of Reggae music. Cliff, Spear, Perry, Toots and Andy toured in 1998. The saga of reggae music continues.
Brazil -- Afro-Brazil
Brazil, the fifth largest country in the world, puts out more than its share of fine music. Much of the music in the heavily populated coastal areas shows a remarkable combination of African, Native Indian, and Iberian influences. Forro, an accordian driven music popular in the Northeast of Brazil bears remarkable similarities to Zydeco. Samba derived from the older form of Choro can take many forms from the vivacious call response of samba de enredo, the music of Carnaval to samba-cancon or song samba, a more relaxed guitar and rhythm variant. Bossa Nova, which translates to New Wave, hit America big time in the Sixties with hood ornament extraordinaire, "The Girl From Ipanema" this song by the legendary composer Antonio Carlos Jobim became a classic in jazz and elevator music.
Morocco - Sounds of The Maghreb
Moroccan music lures many visitors and holds them in its trance. Paul Bowles made a trek to Morrocco in the 1950's recording for the Library of Congress. Then so did Brian Jones, William Burroughs, Bill Laswell, Randy Weston, Maceo Parker (and not to be outdone) Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, all among the many attracted to the hypnotic musical statements drawn from West African, North African, Mediterranean, Andalucian, and Islamic sources. Morocco's music yields the variety of these various strands of sound, often heard emanating from a single crowded market.
Cuba-- Still Smokin'
Cuba leads the way when it comes to hard working rhythmic dance music boasting Changui, Mambo, Rumba, Chachacha, Danzon and Son. The unique evolution of Cuban music stands in high relief against the back drop of other sites on the Afro-American music odyssey. For one, the Spanish colonists of Cuba did not prohibit their slaves from playing drums as did many fearful American colonialists. This continuity of rhythm set the foundation for a panoply of music forms which mixed the Iberian and African influence with the indigenous character of the Island nation.
Presently, three popular branches of Cuban music are Rumba, with it's strong afro-hispanic rhythms and roots, Danzon, a more genteel dancehall style with a European flavour from Haitian French colonization and Son. East Cuban with Afro-Hispanic roots, Son is possessed by rhythms central to Cuba's predominant religion - Santeria. Like all Cuban music, Son also has it's vocal base in lyrical romanticism and playful politicization, e.g. 'Cuba is a beautiful woman who commands much respect but can get out of hand sometimes!'
While Cuban exiles Celia Cruz, Gloria Estefan and Arturo Sandoval (of Irakere) continue to delight audiences around the world, Cuban music would wield even greater influence if Cuban nationals were allowed to perform in the U.S.
Great examples of Cuban style abound. For starters check out the Corason label's excellent field recordings including Cuaretto Patria: A Una Coqueta and !Ahora Si Here Comes Changui also from Qbadisc Ritmo Oriental's Historia De La Ritmo Vols. 1 and 2 and Irakere Live at Ronnie Scott's from Cema/Capitol.
New Orleans - Home of it All
New Orleans, a city of geographical and historical prominence links the interior developments of American music, Zydeco, Delta Blues, Country etc. with external sources: Carribbean, African and Latin etc. The Crescent City has seen it all. Key performers such as Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino, Allen Toussaint, The Rebirth Brass Band and the Neville Brothers show the diverse sounds in the city but only hint at its legendary depth. Full of exotic myth, superstition and tropical heat more common in a Bannana Republic than an American state-- Louisiana could be its own country. New Orleans, a vibrant cultural capital, has remained isolated enough to develop at its own rate and continues unabated in the 90's with new stars such as Wynton Marsalis, Nicholas Payton , The Iguanas, Michael Ray, Galactic, The New Orleans Klezmer Allstars and The Dirty Dozen.
Chicago-- Bright Lights, Big City
Chicago Blues provided a wealth of talent in song writing, performing and style which absorbed directly into both British and American Rock. Developed in a city with a short history, the character of Chicago was shaped in the period 1880-1960 by the rapid influx of millions of immigrants and Southerners. Key bluesmen such as McKinley Morganfield (Muddy Waters), Chester Burnett (Howlin' Wolf), Elmore James, John Lee Hooker and Buddy Guy relocated from Mississippi and recorded for Chess and other labels, establishing a strong local scene in the Windy City.
Muddy Waters epitomized the bluesman making the transition from acoustic guitar-playing sharecropper in Mississippi to electrified band leader in Chicago. He was first recorded on Stovall's Plantation by Alan Lomax in 1941 and moved to Chicago shortly afterwards. It was Waters who put over the energy which transformed guitar into a dominant voice from a solo acoustic instrument as it had been in the hands of pre-war players such as Charley Patton, Skip James, and Robert Johnson. With the Chicago style the guitar gained the amplification to lead a band which included a harp, drums, bass and piano. With sidemen like guitarists Jimmy Rodgers and later Buddy Guy, harp from Little Walter and Junior Wells, and boogie-ing piano fills from Sunnyland Slim this blues had a fuller yet equally direct sound as the Lomax solo guitar recordings. The Muddy Waters Box from Chess captures the transitions of a most dignified blues artist.
Waters on songs such as this clip of "Honey Bee" proclaimed a direct sexual connection to music which with Voodoo superstition created a mysterious, bold and alluring sound. On this track Little Walter, known for primarily for his harp, coaxes harp-like buzzes from the guitar. As the blues scene developed, Water's sidemen left to lead their own bands, always with his support. After his songs and style had fueled the careers of many British and American stars like Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones and Johnny Winter these stars performed with Waters and he embraced financial success for the first time towards the end of his career.
Providing another peak of energy and force during the same era, Howlin' Wolf conquered the electric transition with intense voice and harp work. Powerful spare guitar coming from Hubert Sumlin created a room sound on the Chess recordings which evidence a raw, minimal power which transcends the music. Songs like "Killing Floor" have a rhythmic charge and radiate a power which rock and roll artists flocked to adopt. On the original records "Moanin' at Midnight", and "Howlin' Wolf", the wail of the great blues singer says more than any description can relate. The Howling Wolf Box from Chess traces his career thoroughly. Then along came Freddy King, from Texas via Memphis and Cincinnati.
Memphis - Soul City
Above the Delta, the metropolis of the region became a home to radio dee-jays, Howlin' Wolf and B.B. King, and the destination for Elvis, Otis and Al Green. The sounds conjure images of punchy horn arrangements, gut busting soul, the groove rhythms of Booker T. and The M.G.'s, Albert King's bent notes, and the pumping piano of Jerry Lee Lewis. Memphis carries its weight against any other music town.
Cincinnati - In The Middle
Cincinnati represents the less well known points on this huge
and dynamic journey of sound. Capturing influences and performers from many
directions, Cincinnati was a major migration point and one of America's largest
cities from the days of the underground railroad until after WW II. Regular
musical visitors and residents included itinerant blues performers such as
20's stars Bessie and Mamie Smith, in the 30's Fats Waller led the band at
WLW, followed by blues guitarist John Lee Hooker and flatpicker Merle Travis
and in the 50's cocktail blues pianist Charles Brown. The two distinct trunks
of american music: hillbilly and afro-american flourished and cross pollinated
in the Ohio Valley. Later le the funk exhibited particular strength spinning
off regional acts such as the Isley Bros., Ohio Players and Bootsy Collins.
In the new milennium check out Walnut Hills grad Itaal Schur penning "Smooth"
with Rob Thomas for Carlos Santana's comeback hit, and hip hopper Hitek rapping
about the 'natti. In Cincinnati, the social climate was often more relaxed
than the colder, and more industrial North, while still offering relative
economic advantages over the South.
In the mid and late Sixties time stood still when James Brown brought his
energetic muse and New Breed of musicians to the Queen City to lay down time
defying grooves for King records. Capturing the feeling were exceptional sidemen
such as Bobby Byrd, Maceo Parker, Pee Wee Ellis, and later a young Bootsy
Collins.
Known as the J.B.'s, they reorganized the rhythms from a charging Louis Jordan styled jump blues into funk by moving the accented beat onto the one. In doing so they paved a route for bands such as George Clinton's Parliament Funkadelic, Bootsy's Rubber Band, and every rap artist from Public Enemy to The Beastie Boys. Songs like "Night Train" caused a trans-Atlantic stir all by themselves with mod bands covering James Brown and converting his hard-edged, high energy style into novel distortion guitar driven rhythm and blues variations.
The changes to the music which occurred in Cincinnati reflect a stylization of elements which also combined in other areas such as Memphis or St. Louis for a stream of sound which paralleled the movement of people and goods (including recordings) over the nation's waterways and roads.
Kansas City
18th & Vine: Streets of Dreams
Along with New Orleans' Basin Street, Beale Street in Memphis, 52nd Street in New York and Los Angeles' Central Avenue - the 18th and Vine area was a midwife to the birth of a new style of jazz. Like the spicy Bar-B-Q for which Kansas City is so widely noted, the jazz that evolved in the 18th and Vine Historic District was likewise distinctive. Simmered in the blues, Kansas City's jazz was a riff-based sound fueled by jam sessions in the district's crowded clubs.
A list of the musicians who worked and made their home in the historic district reads like a veritable Who's Who of Jazz in the 1930's and 1940's ...
| Veritable Who's Who of Jazz in the 1930's and 1940's |
||
|---|---|---|
| George E. Lee | Bennie Moten | Ben Webster |
| Lester Young | Jesse Stone | Buster Smith |
| Mary Lou Williams | Count Basie | Walter Page |
| Jay McShann | Harlan Leonard | Pete Johnson |
| Joe Turner | Andy Kirk | Julia Lee |
Kansas City's most infamous son, Charlie Parker, cut his musical teeth in the alleys behind the many clubs that dotted the area.
The clubs sported colorful names such as the Cherry Blossom, the Chez Paree, Lucille's Paradise, the Subway Club, the Sportsmen Club, the Ol' Kentuck' Bar-B-Q and Fox's. Many of the clubs featured "Blue Monday" sessions. Former bassist for Andy Kirk, Laverne Barker remembered how, "People would go to the area on Sunday Nights and would wait for Blue Monday parties to start in the clubs at midnight. The jam sessions would start and go `til Monday afternoon."
Vine Street also has been celebrated by many songs including "Vine St. Bustle," "Vine St. Boogie," "Vine St. Drag" and "Kansas City." Joe Turner immortalized the corner of 18th and Vine and club manager, Piney Brown, when he recorded "Piney Brown Blues" for the Decca label in November, 1940. Turner sang in his half-shouted style:
Well, I've been to Kansas City, girlsPaseo Hall, Lyric Hall and Lincoln Hall featured dances and battles of the bands. The rivalry between the bands was often quite spirited. In 1932, during a battle of the bands at Paseo Hall a fistfight broke out among members of the Moten band after they were defeated in a grudge match with the Thamon Hayes Band . Earlier, Bennie Moten had hired members of Walter Page's Blue Devils after they threatened his territory.
and everything is really alright.The boys jump and swing until broad daylight.
Yes, I dreamed last night I was
standing on 18th and Vine.I shook hands with Piney Brown and
I could hardly keep from crying.
The Musicians' Protective Union, Local 627 sponsored an annual
battle of the bands that often included as many as six groups. Founded in 1917,
Local 627 had 300 members by 1928. Now known as the Mutual Musicians Foundation,
the Union has occupied the same building since 1930. The Foundation still stands
as the unbroken link to the musical tradition. A Federal Historic Landmark,
the Foundation was featured in the movie, "Last of the Blue Devils." Musicians
still gather at the Foundation on Saturday nights to socialize and jam.
The historic district was much more than an entertainment center. Between
1920 and 1956, 18th and Vine was the heart of the African American community.
In the days of public segregation, the area was the bustling business district
at the center of a self-contained community. 12th Street, which was the northern
boundary, consisted of a string of bars and taxi dance halls. The southern
boundary of the community, 27th Street, was a genteel area with many fine
homes. Charlotte on the west and Benton on the east were the other demarcation
lines between the black and white worlds.
The 18th and Vine area contained everything a community required. Shoe repair
shops, tailors, beauty shops, dry cleaners, barber shops and other small-service
oriented businesses lined either side of 18th Street. Two fine clothing stores,
Matlaw's and Shick's, operated in the area. Because of these businesses, African
Americans who were denied service at the department stores and clothiers downtown,
were able to shop in their own neighborhood.
Doctors, dentists and lawyers occupied two professional buildings, the Lincoln
and Roberts Buildings. Street's Hotel, on the corner of Paseo and 18th Street,
greeted travelers in grand style. The elegant Rose Room restaurant on the
first floor offered fine dining. The Blue Room, located in the back of Street's,
was "a place to meet, to see, and be seen." Professionals flocked to the bar
in the Blue Room where a popular bartender named Kingfish held court. Another
restaurant in the area, Elnora's Cafe, which was located next to the Subway
Club, had a national reputation for good food and service. A popular gathering
place, Elnora's stayed open into the wee hours to accommodate the many late
night revelers in the district.
18th &
Vine |
18th and Vine was also the spiritual center of the African American community. It was a place to worship, celebrate and mourn. Some of Kansas City's largest African American churches were originally located in the district.
After Joe Louis knocked out Max Baer in 1935 the Kansas City Times, which rarely covered events in the "Negro community," reported that "it was a wild victory yell that last night rose out of the milling thousands at Eighteenth and Vine Streets, a yell that soared into space to break somewhere under the nearer stars."
Earlier that year, Bennie Moten's funeral procession passed that same corner followed by thousands of mourners.
Even so, the area continued remained a mecca for touring jazz musicians through the late 1940s and early 1950s . Educator, saxophonist and composer Ahmad Alaadeen recalled that
jazz greats Sonny Stitt, Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis and others hung out in the area trying to find the energy or spiritual force behind Charlie Parker. They felt that Kansas City was the driving force behind modern jazz. I asked Miles to show me some changes and he replied, `Don't worry about it, you're from Bird's home town.Ironically, the final two blows to the area, urban renewal and public accommodation laws, were intended to improve the lot of the people in the community.
In 1954, the Land Clearance for Urban Renewal authority began the first urban renewal project in Kansas City by clearing a 19-block area in the historic district. The area sat fallow and barren for five years due to poor financial planning. Not until 1961 did the area rebound with the help of Reynolds Aluminum, which wanted to show the viability of aluminum construction materials. By then, public accommodation laws had become a reality and the African American population had begun to move south. Businesses closed and years of neglect lead to a physical deterioration of the district.
Today, 18th and Vine is a pale shade of its former glory. Only a handful of small storefront businesses remain in the three block stretch of 18th Street between the Paseo and Woodland. Two buildings anchor either end the area. On the east, the Kansas City Call, one of the nation's oldest black newspapers, has occupied the same location since 1922. To the west, the refurbished Lincoln Building still serves as a professional office building. The historic district is ringed by boarded up buildings where small businesses once stood.
Today, an effort is underway to restore the 18th and Vine Historic District to its former glory. In 1989, the City Council lead by Councilman Emmanuel Cleaver allocated 20 million dollars to revitalize the 18th and Vine historic area as part of his "Cleaver Plan." Jazz and Negro Leagues Baseball museums have been established. In addition, new housing is being constructed. Cleaver, who is now mayor, is optimistic and enthusiastic about the future of the area. The hope is to transform streets of memories into streets of dreams once again.