Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music, 1889-1895 (American Made Music Series)

Rating:
Summary: an excellent resource
Review: One of the problems with historical research is that we often get lost in summaries and highlights - and lose a sense of context, what it was really like to live in a distant time and space. This excellently done reference book is all about "being there" - it literally reprints music-related news stories from the black press of the period 1889-1895, along with some connecting narrative. The authors have long studied this era and give us a vivid view of the black music scene in the period when syncopated music was just emerging into the mainstream, shortly to morph into ragtime and then jazz. Many of the names will be unfamiliar (though I did sight such diverse figures as W.C. Handy and Antonin Dvorak), but any student of roots music will find this fascinating reading, not only for the "big" events, but for the little ones. There are even a few of the earliest black recording artists here (commercial recording began around 1890). There are fascinating illustrations, and extensive notation. Altogether a handsomely done book, as well as an important piece of scholarship on African-American music and history.

Rating:
Summary: an excellent resource
Review: One of the problems with historical research is that we often get lost in summaries and highlights - and lose a sense of context, what it was really like to live in a distant time and space. This excellently done reference book is all about "being there" - it literally reprints music-related news stories from the black press of the period 1889-1895, along with some connecting narrative. The authors have long studied this era and give us a vivid view of the black music scene in the period when syncopated music was just emerging into the mainstream, shortly to morph into ragtime and then jazz. Many of the names will be unfamiliar (though I did sight such diverse figures as W.C. Handy and Antonin Dvorak), but any student of roots music will find this fascinating reading, not only for the "big" events, but for the little ones. There are even a few of the earliest black recording artists here (commercial recording began around 1890). There are fascinating illustrations, and extensive notation. Altogether a handsomely done book, as well as an important piece of scholarship on African-American music and history.