The Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History from Africa to the United States - Hardcover

Floyd, Samuel A. Jr.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195082354 ISBN 13: 9780195082357

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1995

Synopsis

Floyd has written a path-breaking book on the development of African-American music and its influence in America. He shows how African myths and ritual - especially the "ring-shout" dances that were ubiquitous in West Africa - have underlain the development of all black music in America. It puts black music - and American music in general - into a new and exciting perspective.

About this title

Review:

"Floyd...diligently traces the history of Black music in America (the jazz of New Orleans funeral parades, blues, bebop, 1960s concert hall composers, rock)--its African influences and evolution."--Emerge
"Floyd's work shows an uncanny coordination of ear, heart, and intellect. The author brings his subject into the realm of ideas while manifesting a love for the music and respect for the people who have made it. His grasp of the continuity of ring-shout values, and of what it means to Signify
musically, uncovers and explains the vital core of African-American music making more convincingly than any other account I have read."--Richard Crawford, Professor of Music, University of Michigan
"The most scholarly and imaginative exploration yet of the origins and development of black music....An invaluable contribution."--Sterling Stuckey, Professor of History and Religious Studies, University of California, Riverside
"African American music deserves but seldom gets as much attention from academics as from music critics. Floyd takes a rare scholarly approach to it and sets a standard for subsequent studies. The range of genres he discusses is comprehensive...and the connections he makes are particularly
perceptive....Academics, critics, scholars, and fans alike stand to gain much from carefully reading this impressive work."--Booklist
"Floyd...diligently traces the history of Black music in America (the jazz of New Orleans funeral parades, blues, bebop, 1960s concert hall composers, rock)--its African influences and evolution."--Emerge
"Floyd's work shows an uncanny coordination of ear, heart, and intellect. The author brings his subject into the realm of ideas while manifesting a love for the music and respect for the people who have made it. His grasp of the continuity of ring-shout values, and of what it means to Signify
musically, uncovers and explains the vital core of African-American music making more convincingly than any other account I have read."--Richard Crawford, Professor of Music, University of Michigan
"The most scholarly and imaginative exploration yet of the origins and development of black music....An invaluable contribution."--Sterling Stuckey, Professor of History and Religious Studies, University of California, Riverside
"African American music deserves but seldom gets as much attention from academics as from music critics. Floyd takes a rare scholarly approach to it and sets a standard for subsequent studies. The range of genres he discusses is comprehensive...and the connections he makes are particularly
perceptive....Academics, critics, scholars, and fans alike stand to gain much from carefully reading this impressive work."--Booklist
"Floyd...diligently traces the history of Black music in America (the jazz of New Orleans funeral parades, blues, bebop, 1960s concert hall composers, rock)--its African influences and evolution."--Emerge
"Floyd's work shows an uncanny coordination of ear, heart, and intellect. The author brings his subject into the realm of ideas while manifesting a love for the music and respect for the people who have made it. His grasp of the continuity of ring-shout values, and of what it means to Signify musically, uncovers and explains the vital core of African-American music making more convincingly than any other account I have read."--Richard Crawford, Professor of Music, University of Michigan
"The most scholarly and imaginative exploration yet of the origins and development of black music....An invaluable contribution."--Sterling Stuckey, Professor of History and Religious Studies, University of California, Riverside
"African American music deserves but seldom gets as much attention from academics as from music critics. Floyd takes a rare scholarly approach to it and sets a standard for subsequent studies. The range of genres he discusses is comprehensive...and the connections he makes are particularly perceptive....Academics, critics, scholars, and fans alike stand to gain much from carefully reading this impressive work."--Booklist
"Floyd...diligently traces the history of Black music in America (the jazz of New Orleans funeral parades, blues, bebop, 1960s concert hall composers, rock)--its African influences and evolution."--Emerge

"Floyd's work shows an uncanny coordination of ear, heart, and intellect. The author brings his subject into the realm of ideas while manifesting a love for the music and respect for the people who have made it. His grasp of the continuity of ring-shout values, and of what it means to Signify musically, uncovers and explains the vital core of African-American music making more convincingly than any other account I have read."--Richard Crawford, Professor of Music, University of Michigan

"The most scholarly and imaginative exploration yet of the origins and development of black music....An invaluable contribution."--Sterling Stuckey, Professor of History and Religious Studies, University of California, Riverside

"African American music deserves but seldom gets as
"Diligently traces the history of Black music--its African influences and evolution."--Emerge

"Dares to take on the whole span of black musical history."--Chicago Tribune

"Important...An exceptionally erudite and thoroughly readable work."--I.S.A.M. Newsletter

"Impressive."--Booklist

-Diligently traces the history of Black music--its African influences and evolution.---Emerge

-Dares to take on the whole span of black musical history.---Chicago Tribune

-Important...An exceptionally erudite and thoroughly readable work.---I.S.A.M. Newsletter

-Impressive.---Booklist

From the Back Cover:

Bold and original, The Power of Black Music offers a new way of listening to the music of black America, and appreciating its profound contribution to all American music. Striving to break down the barriers that remain between high art and low art, it brilliantly illuminates the centuries-old linkage between the music, myths, and rituals of Africa and the continuing evolution and enduring vitality of African-American music. Inspired by the pioneering work of Sterling Stuckey and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., author Samuel A. Floyd, Jr., advocates a new critical approach grounded in the forms and traditions of the music itself. He accompanies readers on a fascinating journey from the African ring, through the ring shout's powerful merging of music and dance in the slave culture, to the funeral parade practices of the early New Orleans jazzmen, the bluesmen in the twenties, the beboppers in the forties, and the free jazz, rock, Motown, and concert hall composers of the sixties and beyond. Floyd dismisses the assumption that Africans brought to the United States as slaves took the music of whites in the New World and transformed it through their own performance practices. Instead, he recognizes European influences, while demonstrating how much black music has continued to share with its African counterparts. Floyd maintains that while African Americans may not have direct knowledge of African traditions and myths, they can intuitively recognize links to an authentic African cultural memory.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0195082354
• ISBN 13: 9780195082357
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 332