Refuting the myth that Black American music/culture is "Europeanized".

[IllmaticDelta]

African American Grave Decoration

African Americans have a long-standing tradition of grave decoration. As part of this burial custom, African Americans would decorate the dead’s grave with objects referred to as grave goods.[1] These assorted objects are placed on the graves in belief that they will honor and represent the spirit, protect the spirit, guide the spirit to the ancestor world to prevent it from haunting the living, and satisfy the spirit.[2] The Africans of the Congo introduced this tradition of decorating graves with grave goods to America. They did this by using pots and shells as grave goods to signify certain statuses or traits, honoring and protecting the spirit.[3] This tradition has continued through the twentieth century and has evolved over time. These material objects have developed from pots and shells to face jugs and memory jugs to personal items of the deceased to bottles, and finally to death masks. To the unknown observer, these materials could seem like junk but to family and friends of the departed they represent the person buried at that spot. The death masks are a twentieth century representation of this age-old African American tradition. The African American artist behind these works was Isaac Nettles Sr. (1885-1957). He was a little known inventor who created these four death mask headstones that lie in Mt. Nebo Cemetery in Clarke County, AL.[4] The death masks are concrete “masks” of the subjects that were cast when they were still alive. Three of the four death masks are cast of Nettles’ family members and the fourth is of Manul Burell, a community resident.[5] These death masks are a unique representation of the timeless tradition of African American grave decoration. The death masks both mark a sacred burial spot of the dead and represent the deceased in an eternal way. They represent a combination of all of the versions of the African American grave decoration tradition. This exhibition shows the different representations of an ancient African American burial tradition in the twentieth century.


Unknown Artist, A Congo Chieftain’s grave, ca. 1830, West Central Africa. Century Magazine, Vol. I.

This is the grave of a Congo chieftain in West Central Africa. The image was drawn by a white man who was visiting and observing the Congo in the early nineteenth century. This picture is a great example of typical Congo grave decorations that inspired the African American grave decorating traditions. The grave is bordered by bottles that are partially buried in the ground. According to Congo tradition, the mound is surrounded by bottles to keep evils from the spirit and the spirit from wandering into the living world. [6] There is also a large pot, bottles, pitchers, plates, and cups, lying on top of the grave. Most of the items on the grave are broken. This is due to the belief that the broken items will release the spirit of the dead, allowing it to travel to the next world and serve its owner.




Afro-American burial enclosed in seashells, 1975, South Carolina.

This African American grave is decorated with different grave goods than the Congo grave but has some similarities. It is marked with seashells, which were believed to contain the everlasting presence of the soul. The shells were placed to surround the grave, again meaning to keep evil out and the spirit in. Shells were often found on graves because they are related to water and it was the Congo belief that the spirits pass through a world of water on their crossing to the afterlife.[7] These types of burial decorations became a popular way for slaves to mark graves when they could not afford headstones for the dead. [8]




Attributed to Unknown African American slave, Face Jug, ca. 1850.

This ceramic face jug was discovered in the mid-1800s in the South. Enslaved African Americans made bricks and pottery for use on the plantation and in their spare time, they created these jugs with faces. They usually used white clay on the dark clay of the jugs to make the human eyeballs and teeth but sometimes they would make sharp jagged teeth out of discarded pieces of porcelain.[9] The exact reason for the creation of these jugs is not certain but it is highly is speculated that they were made for African American burial purposes.






Attributed to an African American slave, Face Jugs, Edgefield, ca. 1850, South Carolina.



These jugs were significant because it is thought that African Americans made these face jugs for burial decorations. The belief was that their intense and crude facial features would ward off evil from the grave. Many of these jugs were found at African American burial sights or along the Underground Railroad, showing how highly valued they were in the African American culture. The use of the jugs also progressed. They eventually became popular for the sale of moonshine because the details on the jugs stood out from the others on the shelf.[10] The extreme and ugly facial expressions on the jugs also kept children from touching them.



Memory Jug, ca. 1865-75.

Memory jugs were a very personal form of grave goods that represented the life of the dead. The jugs were first covered with a layer of putty or cement and then embedded with items such as rocks, buttons, glass, and small personal items while the adhesive was still damp.[11] These items either belonged to or represented the deceased. The jugs were then placed on their grave to commemorate them. These personal connections to the items on the jug were thought to help embody the spirit of the dead and keep it alive.[12]







Asberry Davis, Untitled, ca. 1950, South Carolina.

Davis was born in Hampton County, South Carolina. He had very little education and little is known about him. Asberry Davis dedicated this grave decoration to his mother. He created this pile of grave goods by turning a chair upside down on his late mother’s grave and placing her clothes on top of the chair. The over turned chair is significant because it symbolizes the inverted nature of the spirit world. African ancestors believed that the spirit could become restless in the grave because they may get irritated if others were handling their personal belongings. They believe that if this happens the spirit may return to the living world to collect their possessions. To prevent this family members, like Asberry, often decorate their loved one’s graves with personal belongings to satisfy the spirit’s possessive behavior.[13]



Bottle Trees, 1997, Bibb County, Alabama.

Congo-derived bottle trees, such as this one, are trees “garlanded” with bottles and other vessels to protect the household through the “invocation” of the dead.[14] Tradition says that if you hang bottles on trees, they will protect your house or property from evil, repelling or trapping the “malevolent” spirits into the bottles.[15] The bottles and objects that are hung from trees surrounding the home are to have been used by the people who have died. This is because the objects that were used by the deceased are thought to preserve the power of the spirits of the people who died, and the glass bottles are said to “preserve their talents and skills from fading away”.[16]



Isaac Nettles, Ezella Nettles Death Mask, 1933-1946, Mt. Nebo Cemetery, Clarke County, Alabama

Isaac Nettles Sr. grew up in Clarke County, Alabama and was a little known African American inventor and self-taught artist. Nettles created these masks by having his subjects press their faces in a box of sand while still living, making a mold of their face. From this mold he cast “masks” of concrete, paper, and wire.[17] This particular sculpture is the mask of his family member, Ezella Nettles. These masks are Nettle’s own form of African American grave decoration.













Isaac Nettles, Selena Nettles Death Mask, 1933-1946, Mt. Nebo Cemetery, Clarke County, Alabama

This headstone contains the faces of Nettles’ three daughters, Pauline, Marie, and Clara. Although his daughters faces are on this headstone, it marks the burial site of his wife, Korean, who died in 1933.[18] It appears that Nettles had at one time placed hair on the bust of some of these statues, attempting to add realism to the faces. This displays his creativity and use of personal items in art.















Isaac Nettles, Manul Burell Death Mask, 1933-1946, Mt. Nebo Cemetery, Clarke County, Alabama.

This third headstone of Nettles’ contains a crumbling face of a local man named Manul Burell who died in 1946. Nettles was able to sculpt a button down shirt on this death mask making it a bit more detailed and showing the development of his skills. He also personalized Burrell’s death mask by hand inscribing, “He Is At Rest”, across the chest.[19] Nettles originally made four death masks, the fourth was of his mother, Selena, but only three remain in tact today.













Each of the unique items in this exhibition display the different traditions and beliefs of African American grave decoration. Most of these traditions were adapted from the Congo Africans when they arrived in America. These burial customs mainly consist of placing grave goods upon the resting spot of the dead. African Americans used these grave goods as a type of headstone for their loved ones’ graves. Although some of these grave decorations may look like junk to outsiders they have many different significances for African Americans. Grave decorations such as bottles, shells, and face jugs were important because they were believed to protect the spirit by warding off outer evils. Other objects such as personal items of the deceased and memory jugs were placed upon the dead’s grave to keep their spirit at peace. They also commemorated the dead and the lives they lived. As the tradition continued, some grave decorations such as the death masks of Isaac Nettles combined the aspects of several grave goods. In his masks, he used the “frozen face” aspect to immortalize the departed and capture part of their spirit, freezing it for all eternity.[20] The “frozen face” was meant to protect the dead by intimidating evil spirits and scaring them off. He also used personal items such as hair to represent the spirits and satisfy them in the afterlife. Isaac Nettles’ death masks embody a combination of grave goods and are a twentieth century representation of this African American tradition.

http://southernart.ua.edu/african-american-grave-decoration/

 

[IllmaticDelta]

The memory jug

Here’s a memory jug from the collection of Melver Jackson Hendricks (1867-1933) who served in the North Carolina House of Representatives in the early 1920’s. Memory jugs made from bottles, urns, bowls and other vessels have been found on graves, particularly in the South, and almost always on African American graves. Often they are decorated with trinkets including seashells, glass shards, jewelry, coins, mirrors or other visual reminders of a loved one.

The memory jug shown here is currently in the North Carolina Museum of History. The museum’s information on the provenance of the jug is a bit sketchy. Its creation date is estimated at about 1900, probably because of the gray salt glaze used on it and the specific items attached to it, and the museum assumes it was local to Davie County, where Hendricks lived.

It’s easy to conclude that memory jugs existed as inexpensive memorials for poor families who couldn’t afford headstones for loved ones. But that explanation too easily overlooks the influence of Africa’s Bakongo culture on slaves brought to America.

The Bakongo culture believed that the spirit world was turned upside down, and that they were connected to it by water. Therefore, they decorated their graves with water bearing items such as shells, pitchers, jugs or vases, which would help the deceased through the watery world to the afterlife. They also adorned graves with items such as crockery, empty bottles, cooking pots and/or personal belongings of the deceased that he/she may need in the afterlife. Items were placed upside-down, which symbolizes the inverted nature of the spirit world.

Items were also broken to release the loved one’s spirit and enable it to make the journey. The fragmented possessions, reconformed in the memory jug, paid homage to and simultaneously appeased the spiritual beings, encouraging them not to interfere with the lives of the living. The container could be placed on a grave or held in the home to contain the unquiet spirit.

A memory jug can be any type of vessel or container that has first been covered with a layer of adhesive, such as putty, cement, or plaster. Then, while the adhesive is still damp, a variety of objects are embedded into the surface, including beads, buttons, coins, glass, hardware, mirrors, pipes, scissors, seashells, tools, toys and watches. The endless variety of adornment causes the surface to take on such importance that the form becomes secondary. Memory jugs are also called forget-me-not jug, memory vessel, mourning jug, spirit jar, ugly jug, whatnot jar, and whimsy jar.

A grass-roots revival of ‘Memory Jug Making’ swept through Appalachia and the African-American south in the 1950’s and 60’s.

http://www.appalachianhistory.net/2011/09/memory-jug.html

 

[Poitier]

I will be referencing this thread for years to come

 

[IllmaticDelta]

 

[cole phelps]

 

[IllmaticDelta]

An Analysis of the Message of the Negro Spirituals…

The music had its origin on shores distant from the land where its people eventually came to dwell for generations. They were stripped physically and metaphorically of their native trappings. Those who survived what came to be called the “Middle Passage,” would have to build community among people from disparate tribes. Although the languages were different and the religious customs varied, it was the music and the inherent sense of community that would be reinforced and would help to keep the hope of freedom forever alive.

Work songs, sorrow songs, laments, moans and chants; the musical genre that has come to be known as the Negro Spiritual emanated from the folk song of the enslaved African. Once thought to be simple expressions of Christian faith from an illiterate people, objective scholarship over the years has come to understand the Spiritual as more than that. Although composed and formed on the shores of the New World, the music has definite African roots. Wyatt Tee Walker writes, “Wherever the Africans and their progeny touched New World shores, no matter what the condition of their existence, they maintained their musical identity. The rhythm forms and musical idioms were kept alive through the desperate need of the Africans for humanness, which the slave system forcibly stripped from them” (Walker 48, 29). The American slave system was brutal, oppressive and dehumanizing. Although many freedoms were lost the enslaved African retained the freedom to think and thereby was able to develop a longing for freedom and liberation from bondage, providing the foundation from which they would hope for and look forward to a better day. This message, as communicated in selected Spirituals, is analyzed in the context of Jürgen Moltmann’s concept of hope.

How does the theology of a 20th century German theologian intersect with the message of hope found in songs created by enslaved Africans during the antebellum period of American history? Moltmann places hope within the framework of Christian eschatology which is the doctrine of last things or the culmination of history – usually associated with the second coming of Jesus Christ. Moltmann reiterates this usual understanding of eschatology but does not leave it in the realm of events that will happen at the end of history. Moltmann believes that relegating these events to the ‘last day’ robs them of what he calls their directive, uplifting and critical significance for all the days which are in the present. This hope begins with a definite historical reality – the resurrection of Jesus. Moltmann writes:

Hope finds in Christ not only a consolation in suffering, but also the protest of the divine promise against suffering… [F]aith, wherever it develops into hope, causes not rest but unrest, not patience but impatience. It does not calm the unquiet heart, but is itself this unquiet heart in man. Those who hope in Christ can no longer put up with reality as it is, but begin to suffer under it, to contradict it. (Theology Hope 21)

Hope then becomes a double-edged sword; it brings consolation in the midst of oppressive circumstances, but it also causes those oppressed to yearn for better than what they are presently experiencing. For the enslaved African, the unrest came in knowing that things should be different; that God did not want them to be slaves and treated in an inhumane manner. In this context hope becomes the impetus to bring about necessary change because, again quoting Moltmann, it “takes seriously the possibilities with which all reality is fraught”



What survives from the antebellum period of American history regarding African Americans is the song. This is why the Spiritual serves as the source for discovering the message of hope that the enslaved Africans were able to maintain in order to not only survive the ordeal of slavery but also to thrive and carve out a place for themselves in what would become their home. The foundations of life, religion and culture that were part of the African heritage helped to sustain the captive African in his captivity. In the inhumane circumstance of slavery, the African did not abandon his identity or sense of self. James Cone says of the spirituals: “The basic idea of the spirituals is that slavery contradicts God; it is a denial of God’s will. To be enslaved is to be declared nobody and that form of existence contradicts God’s creation of people to be God’s children. Because black people believed that they were God’s children, they affirmed their somebodiness, refusing to reconcile their servitude with divine revelation…They contended that God willed their freedom and not their slavery” (Cone 33).

It is a mistake to label the Spiritual as strictly religious music. There is a social or political aspect to it. However, in order to see this in the Spirituals we need to understand that in the context of African traditional religion and culture, there is not a separation of the sacred and secular, the religious from everyday life; they are interconnected. So when we hear a Spiritual that speaks of freedom such as “Oh Freedom” or the “Gospel Train,” it is not just an otherworldly freedom. When these songs were sung in meetings, those assembled were looking to the possibility of freedom in the present. Howard Thurman writes:

“The existence of these songs is itself a monument to one of the most striking instances on record in which a people forged a weapon of offence and defence (sic) out of a psychological shackle. By some amazing, but vastly creative spiritual insight, the slave undertook the redemption of a religion that the master had profaned in his midst” (Thurman 17).

And additionally from James Cone: “The slave songs reveal the social consciousness of blacks who refused to accept white limitations placed on their lives… the spirituals were the slave’s description and criticism of his environment and the key to his revolutionary sentiments and his desire to fly to free territory” (Cone 14).

There were laws enacted against singing some of these songs because of the ideas contained in them. A song such as “Oh Freedom” implies the possibility of rebellion:

Oh freedom, Oh freedom, Oh freedom over me my Lord

And before I be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave

And go home to my Lord and be free. [1]

Listen: Oh Freedom



The line “before I be a slave I’ll be buried in my grave,” conveys the idea of fighting or participating in armed rebellion in order to achieve liberation.

Another song, which is based on the Old Testament Exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt, is one of many in the style of call and response, a retention of an Africanism which is found in the Spirituals. The leader sings a line and the rest of the members of the group respond with a repeated line. “Go Down Moses” is just such a song. The repeated line is “Let my people go” which would be sung by all members of the group. Imagine this song being sung in secret by a group of people who believe that the possibility of their freedom not only should but could happen at any time. Also, as you listen consider why such a song would be deemed as dangerous.


Go down, Moses/’Way down in Egypt Land,

Tell Ole Pharaoh To Let My People Go


When Israel was in Egypt’s land/Let My People Go

Oppressed so hard they could not stand/Let My People Go


Thus said the Lord bold Moses said/Let My People Go

If not I’ll smite your first born dead/Let My People Go

Listen: Go Down Moses



Some think this was the first of the Spirituals to be written down; others that it was written to honor Nat Turner’s slave revolt. Either way, this was the song of a people who longed for freedom, not just in death but held out hope for freedom in this present life.

All this is not to say that the sorrow of present circumstance was not acknowledged. Community was very important in African cultural heritage and remained so in the midst of slavery because they only had each other to count on in many areas of life: work and basic survival. Escapes depended on the cooperation of others in the community. It was within a group meeting that one could sing the following and know that there were others who understood and could acknowledge the same sense of loss.

Sometimes I feel like a motherless child/Sometimes I feel like a motherless child

Sometimes I feel like a motherless child/A long ways from home True believer

A long ways from home.


Sometimes I feel like I’m almos’ gone/ Sometimes I feel like I’m almos’ gone

Sometimes I feel like I’m almos’ gone A long ways from home True believer

A long ways from home.

Listen: Motherless Child



By sharing the song with the group, the singer acknowledges his condition and in vocalizing the situation shares it. Death and separation from children and other family members was a constant specter which overshadowed the slave community and was jointly felt. It is in sharing these feelings with the community the singer is then no longer alone and he/she receives support of the community.

Even in the midst of the horrific circumstance of slavery there was comfort found within their faith. This was not a passive acceptance but a realization that although physical comfort may be lacking, inner comfort and peace was found in knowing God cared and that just as God acted in history with the Israelites so God would eventually act on behalf of the enslaved African. The prophet asks in Jeremiah 8:22, “is there no balm in Gilead?” And the response is:

There is a balm, in Gilead to make the wounded whole

There is a balm in Gilead, to heal the sin-sick soul.


Sometimes I feel discouraged and think my work’s in vain

But then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again


There is a balm, in Gilead to make the wounded whole

There is a balm in Gilead, to heal the sin-sick soul.

Gilead



The Spiritual answers, yes there is a balm, comfort, and it can “heal the sin sick soul.” It tells us we can, according to Howard Thurman, “continue to hope against all evidence to the contrary because hope is fed by a conviction deeper than the process of thought…” (Thurman Deep River 30).

Yet, even in the inner peace and comfort there was still the unrest and hope for freedom, not in death but in the present. This is evidenced in a song that asks a question that might be framed by a theologian.

Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel?

Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel/An’ why not every man?


He delivered Daniel f’om the lion’s den/Jonah from the belly of the whale,

An de Hebrew chillum f’om de fiery furnace, An’ why not every man?


Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel?

Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel/An’ why not every man?

Daniel



What ideas in the Bible are universal? Was freedom from oppression only for the people of Israel or did God intend for the idea of liberation to extend to all those who found themselves in bondage? If God worked to bring about freedom in the lives of individuals and communities in the Bible, does He not still do the same throughout history? Yes, God continues to work, and since this is true, redemption and freedom will come to us who are now enslaved.

One song almost universally listed in literature that has to do with the Spiritual in relation to its religious, political and hidden message is “Steal Away.” This song was sung for a variety of purposes: to call the community to a gathering, social or religious; or to cover or signal the escape of a member of the community.

Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus/ Steal away, steal away home,

I ain’t got long to stay here.


My Lord, He calls me,/ He calls me by the thunder

The trumpet sounds within-a my soul

I ain’t got long to stay here.


My Lord, He calls me,/ He calls me by the lightning

The trumpet sounds within-a my soul

I ain’t got long to stay here.

Steal Away



The Spirituals point to the hope of freedom from physical and mental bondage. William E. B. Dubois writes: “Through all the sorrow of the Sorrow Songs there breathes a hope – a faith in the ultimate justice of things” (186). Just as the soul is freed from the bondage of sin, so should the body should be free in this life from the shackles imposed by others. Moltmann’s idea of the rest and unrest of the heart which hope produces can be found in the Spirituals. Within the realm of the Black experience Moltmann writes: “From the black perspective, Christian hopes mean participating in the world and making it what it ought to be” (Experiences 214). For the enslaved African this meant a release from bondage and acknowledgment of his humanity. This is the dynamic aspect of hope found in Moltmann’s theology and in the message of the Negro Spirituals.

http://coastlinejournal.org/2010/07...ontext-of-jurgen-moltmann’s-theology-of-hope/

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Some of the pages are missing

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Dr. Horace Clarence Boyer (born in Winter Park, Florida on July 28, 1935; died in Amherst, Massachusetts, July 21, 2009) was one of the foremost scholars in African-American gospel music.

Dropping some knowledge

 

[KOohbt]

This thread is just

The fact that we are this fukking creative no matter the situation is mind boggling. I'm so fukking inspired right now.

 

[Blackking]

u p

 

[IllmaticDelta]

..cont from African influence(s) in Negro Spirituals->Gospel that were then passed off to ALL POPULAR MUSIC AROUND THE WORLD

Clapping On Two and Four

African American approach to performance has many aspects, some of which, such as improvisation and emotional intensity, are frequently cited. This essay will address two seminal, albeit frequently overlooked, characteristics of public performance in the Black cultural context. The first aspect is the use of the music as a language and the second is the function of performance as a means of achieving social stability and cohesion.

A Black, or more precisely, African-heritage, approach to public performance necessarily includes music. Even with the visual arts, masks and costumes dance, i.e. they are made to move rhythmically. Indeed, Black music is often characterized as rhythm-driven.

Jazz, blues, and their sacred cousin, gospel music, all have a rhythm-device in common: the back-beat. Indeed, the back-beat, a heavy emphasis on two and four, is a hallmark of African American music and remains dominant as a rhythmic device into the 21st century. An interesting note about the back-beat with respect to gospel music is the flipping of rhythmic emphasis. In the then-popular waltz form, the emphasis was usually ONE-two-three, ONE-two-three. But in gospel, when three-four time is used, as it frequently is, the practictioners usually clap on two and three, thus getting a one-TWO-THREE, one-TWO-THREE rhythm. The back-beat.

None of the other popular musics of the African diaspora (whether from the Caribbean, Central America, or South America) employs a heavy back-beat unless the particular form in question, such as salsa, reggae, or soca, is a form that was significantly influenced by Black music from America. This absence of the back-beat is distinctive especially given that most African diaspora music heavily uses drums, or quasi-drum instruments (steel pans for example). This is a curious development that is made even more curious by the fact that for the most part the drums of the diaspora remained hand-drums and it was in the United States that the mechanical drum, or the drum kit, commonly called the trap drum or traps, was developed. So the place where the drum had the least continuity in terms of usage and the direct retention of African poly-rhythms is the place where the back-beat was emphasized and the drum kit was developed!

The majority of African Americans are descended from peoples of West and Central Africa, from peoples whose spoken language was often tonal and for whom singing accompanied nearly every aspect of daily life—particularly work and ritual activity. The American insistence that the Negro speak English and the American prohibition against the use of African languages would seem to mitigate the retention of tonality as a part of language, but again, similar to the emphasis of the back-beat in a culture where the drum was outlawed, tonality is asserted as a prominent feature of Black music. Specifically, instrumentalists developed techniques to make their horns sound like they were talking, singing, or laughing while simultaneously singers developed techniques to make their voices sound like instruments. In essence, that which was suppressed reappears as a dominant characteristic.

http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/clap_on_2_4.html


...the Gospel roots you rarely hear talked about/people tend to forget


Musicologist Steve Baur takes us through the history of the backbeat.

host Bob McDonald presents the people behind the latest discoveries in the physical and natural sciences go to CBC .ca/ works podcast downloads and more will

dwell in music and music theory the beach is the basic unit of time. now the backbeat if the accent on the offbeat, and the element of music that has driven popular American music since the early nineteen fifties but the history behind the backbeat contains the story of the people beating back against violent oppression musicologist Steve Bauer has spent the last few years researching the history even associate professor of in the music department at Dalhousie University. need drinking right now. welcome to Main Street thief makes for having me, so I just gave a definition of the backbeat but what your definition of the backbeat. how would you phrase it out pretty close to yours of the backbeat refers to emphatic accents on the so-called weak beats typically played by a drummer in the context of popular music since the mid- twentieth century typically Western music? music is in four four meter we count for beads to measure and historically Western music is emphasized. the first and third beats as the so-called strong beats one two three four one to the backbeat is an inversion of that one two three four that becomes popularized with rock 'n roll music in the nineteen fifties, but it has a long prehistory before it erupts onto the mainstream is a drama yourself. I know this is the sort of thing that makes your heart saying and how you beat out where the back seat come from in and. time to research dealing with him. I'm looking mostly at late nineteenth century early twentieth century and the recording industry doesn't come along until early twenty century. so what happens in nineteenth century as it is up to speculation but I've found what I consider the three most important streams for the development of the backbeat one being the prison work songs in African-American prisons in the South the other being African American church music. the gospel tradition with Bartleby percussion clapping out backbeats and finally the genre of popular music called the hokum blues that emerges in the nineteen twenties, where back beats seem to be central, essential so that genre. I knew Brad 's early recordings with you. I'm starting out with one that deals with the backbeat in prison yards. can you talk about that how it's being used therein and set up to hear the clip absolutely well in the South during eighteen seventy seven prisons used actually contractor their prisoners out to private companies for labor, so working was part of being a prisoner and you would be working usually with shovels axes you name it a whole be outdoor labor and we find after American prisoners this time starting to use these tools of oppression as musical instruments actually creating a rhythmic backdrop to their workday and unlike typical Western music where one in three year emphasized they tended to emphasize the second and fourth beats the so-called backbeat the so-called weak beats and in this context I'll I would say the backbeat functions as as a means of resistance you can make this work you can force us in these horrible conditions but working to make a groove. nonetheless and oh, using tools of oppression as music was written to allow Afro-American prisoners at this time in and again, we don't get recordings of his delivered the nineteen forties. one I brought in this from the early nineteen forties, but it represents a turn, a practice that had been going on for decades before and we hear these lyrics often having to deal with the oppressive conditions of the work camp emphasized with these forceful percussive backbeats. each line. it's accented with with the percussive hit on to them for an in a and in a

to you all you love him and on to

that that is a will

soon the context the back the

occurs in situation when the body is under horrible present certain stances and through this kind of musical confirmation the situation though the labor cancer art the possibility of the body being aside of pleasure rather than a side of pain and oppression is made possible through the back be this this rhythmic accompaniment to the workday at the name that's the team lead away. that's pretty strange. yes pretty strain it refers to the train that takes you home after you've served your time in prison would be pretty told as well. at the time the backbeat is present in the world of African-American gospel that right, particularly in so-called Pentecostal or sanctified churches where there's a notion that spirituality is and should be a fully embodied experience in African-American religious traditions. we don't have the kind of mind, body or mind spirit split that we have in the West as a more holistic understanding of human nature and when African-Americans are forced to adopt Christianity under slavery. they put their own spin on it and in gospel churches, particularly the Pentecostal sanctified churches, we find that body percussion is part of the religious experience in fighting this. to possess you not just spiritually but actually physically being possessed and the rhythmic clapping that we here in the gospel churches is a means to achieve this kind of spiritual/ physical transcendence to the clip. I do this is Betsy Johnson and her Memphis sanctified singers, and this is part of. she belonged to the Church of God in Christ, which is one of the biggest Pentecostal churches. it centered in Memphis which of course is to be one of the centers for rock the development of rock 'n roll and here we hear her congregation clapping out to them for as she sings that she's got the key to the kingdom in him and him and him and will him and him and him and a

and will I and all you and in a that old recordings from nineteen twenty seven cell using the body as as the instrument to to Anna and Pfeffer backbeat absolutely and and in this case music number one enables the spirits to to possess one and also was a sign of having the spirit in you. this kind of rhythmic fully embodied performance, so I also at this time the backbeat finding its way into the blues. that's right and in my research and due to the particular strain of the blues that seems to be the earliest genre of commercial popular music that incorporates the backbeat the so-called hokum blues which is a genre blues that incorporates lyrics that have thinly veiled double entendre was referring to sex and in this case we hear the backbeat in a way replicating the rhythms of sex often the songs have lyrics that have to do with the world of prostitution. many of the performers participated in that world both both male and female performers and the recording abroad in today is right Lil' Johnson and barrelhouse Annie comes from nineteen thirty seven Chicago and so-called must get mine in front and it tells the story of a woman who works in the bakery and she's selling her jelly rolls jelly roll being a long-standing metaphor for the female ripped up reproductive organ in this tradition, wink wink wink nod nod and as she says yes also you might my jungles but you are not on credit. yet the pay first sign that letter that ran up and down in a row and all in him and him and I know now that you and how long is the name, you're going up the river is gone knowing that they will him and him. what is the real thing. I am, and him and in him and mine 's see into this research. well I got into because of what I keep these call G from the outside. really, I'm a drummer, and when I go to graduate school, I learned that there's really no room for drugs in the world musicology. historically the field is called. he's been very conservative, and has been unwilling to deal with popular music. that all changed in that eighties and I was very fortunate to be at UCLA at a time when they brought in one of the pioneers of musicology who was making it okay to study popular music and since popular music is become a legitimate area of study within my field of musicology, there's been an explosion of research and popular music history, but most of it has not dealt with rhythm, which as we know is central to the effect of popular music release many genres of popular music, so I saw a hole in the scholarly canon that needed filling why the backbeat specifically because it's so ubiquitous it is arguably since the mid- nineteen fifties the most prevalent and common musical device in popular music and completely unstudied to this point okay, so he is done in this work. this look into this area in the last eight years. what is your water. semi- your biggest takeaways from your time spent looking at well first and foremost all musical conventions are rooted in social history sometimes difficult social histories and we need to honor that and that all musical prices have the potential to carry social meanings, and I've laid out three areas here, where the backbeat I I would consider Kerry 's very significant social meanings, and I think if we fail to remember that if we takes her knees go conventions for granted and ignore the history of them were missing the opportunity for a greater understanding and a deeper musical experience. thanks a lot for coming in today and speaking me my pleasure

http://www.voicebase.com/voice_file/public_detail/257908 ---> (click on it)

 

[IllmaticDelta]

the off-beat-backbeat (1 2 3 4 ). That's one of the defining rhythmic qualities of Black Gospel music. This offbeat rhythmic quality in Black Gospel is described perfectly below by the famous White Southern Gospel group, The Jordanaires...


3:04-->4:00




White people/europeans are programmed to clap on the 1 and 3

On October 6th, 1993, the blues musician Taj Mahal gave a solo concert at the Modernes Club in Bremen, Germany. The concert was later released as the album An Evening of Acoustic Music. On the recording, Taj Mahal begins to play “Blues With A Feeling,” and the audience enthusiastically claps along. However, they do so on beats one and three, not two and four like they are supposed to. Taj immediately stops playing and says, “Wait, wait, wait. Wait wait. This is schvartze [black] music… zwei and fier, one TWO three FOUR, okay?” He resumes the song, and the audience continues to clap on the wrong beats. So he stops again. “No, no, no, no. Everybody’s like, ONE, two, THREE, no no no. Classical music, yes. Mozart, Chopin, okay? Tchaikovsky, right? Vladimir Horowitz. ONE two THREE. But schvartze music, one TWO three FOUR, okay?” He starts yet again, and finally the audience claps along correctly. To reinforce their rhythm, Taj Mahal continues to count “one TWO three FOUR” at various points during the song.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Pattin' Juba aka Hambone

The Juba dance or hambone, originally known as Pattin' Juba (Giouba, Haiti: Djouba), is a style of dance that involves stomping as well as slapping and patting the arms, legs, chest, and cheeks. "Pattin' Juba" would be used to keep time for other dances during a walkaround. A Juba Dance performance could include:

• counter-clockwise turning, often with one leg raised
• stomping and slapping
• steps such as "the Jubal Jew," "Yaller Cat," "Pigeon Wing" and "Blow That Candle Out."

History of the dance

The Juba dance was originally from West Africa. It became an African-American plantation dance that was performed by slaves during their gatherings when no rhythm instruments were allowed due to fear of secret codes hidden in the drumming. The sounds were also used just as Yoruba and Haitian talking drums were used to communicate.[2] The dance was performed in Dutch Guiana, the Caribbean, and the southern United States.[3]


Related songs
"Juba Juba", a popular song about the Juba:[2]

Juba dis and Juba dat,
and Juba killed da yellow cat,
You sift the meal and ya gimme the husk,
you bake the bread and ya gimme the crust,
you eat the meat and ya gimme the skin,
and that's the way,
my mama's troubles begin
A song about the hambone from Step it Down (v.s.):

Hambone Hambone pat him on the shoulder
If you get a pretty girl, I'll show you how to hold her.
Hambone, Hambone, where have you been?
All 'round the world and back again.
Hambone, Hambone, what did you do?
I got a train and I fairly flew.
Hambone, Hambone where did you go?
I hopped up to Miss Lucy's door.
I asked Miss Lucy would she marry me.
(falsetto)"Well I don't care if Papa don't care!"
First come in was Mister Snake,
He crawled all over that wedding cake.
Next walked in was Mister Tick,
He ate so much it made him sick.
Next walked in was Mister c00n,
We asked him to sing us a wedding tune,
Now Ham-....
Now Ham....

It's the same thing as the Bo Diddley beat


Bo Diddley beat

The Bo Diddley Beat is a kind of syncopated five-accent clave rhythm. The Bo Diddley beat is named after Bo Diddley, who introduced and popularised the beat with his self-titled debut single. Although Bo Diddley was a rhythm and blues musician essentially, the beat is widely used in rock and roll and pop music.[2][3][4]

How he came upon it

How did the song "Bo Diddley" come about?


He was playing the hambone beat, as I said. He was singing, "Papa gonna buy his babe a diamond ring," and playing the hambone beat. And I suggested, why don't you say Bo Diddley? That's how that name came into the picture. 'Cause instead of saying papa gonna buy his babe a diamond," why don't you say, "Bo Diddley's gonna buy his babe a diamond ring." That's how that word, and that's how--I wrote some of the lyrics on the song, about three of the verses. And we made up on the same song on, just as me suggesting. Why don't you say Bo Diddley gonna buy his babe a diamond ring. Because there was a guy at Indiana Theater, which had Midnight Rambler shows on Saturday night. And his name was Bo Diddley, he was a comedian. And they had Butterbeans & Susie, Big Bill Broonzy. Every Saturday night at midnight, they had what they called a Midnight Rambler. Memphis Minnie would play there sometimes, Big Bill Broonzy played there. They'd feature one major blues star every Saturday night.

The first time I heard the word Bo Diddley, I was playing with him on the street in 1951. And the bass player said, "Hey Ellas, there go Bo Diddley," talking about this guy that played the Indiana Theater. And I thought that was the funniest word in my life, I just cracked up. I never forgot that name, Bo Diddley.

So we was doing this recording thing. We had "I'm a Man," we had which was later changed to "You Don't Love Me, You Don't Care," and we had a song called "Little Girl," and we had a song called "Little Grenadier." He had the Bo Diddley type of rhythm, the hambone rhythm on a guitar. He was singing, "hey dirty mother"...and we had to make up a lyric, 'cause that kind of lyric wouldn't have went on the record. Leonard Chess wanted to know, what did Bo Diddley mean? He thought that was a derogatory word or something, 'cause he had never heard it. So I explained that it meant a comical, bow-legged type of a guy. We didn't know--we made the song up, as I said I wrote three of the verses. I was too young to capitalize on getting half the song. I didn't even pay any attention to that. When the record came out, to our surprise, the song was "Bo Diddley," and to our surprise, he named the artist Bo Diddley.

We figured that he might use the word Bo Diddley for the song, but we didn't know that he gonna call the artist Bo Diddley. We thought the record was gonna be Ellas McDaniels and the hipsters singing "Bo Diddley." When we saw the record, it was "Bo Diddley" by Bo Diddley. So that's how the word Bo Diddley and the song "Bo Diddley" came about. It was like a fluke, you know. It wasn't something that was made up in his hands.

It was a hit record because of the beat and the guitar. It ain't nothing but the hambone beat, actually. But he's playing it on the guitar with the tremolo. It had that organ effect, and the words was comical. The fact that it was called Bo Diddley might have helped.

http://www.richieunterberger.com/arnold.html

The "Bo Diddley Beat" (1955) is perhaps the first true fusion of 3-2 clave and R&B/rock 'n' roll.

The Bo Diddley beat is essentially a 3-2 clave rhythm, one of the most common bell patterns found in Afro-Cuban music, and its origin goes back to the sub-Saharan African music traditions.[5] But there is no documentation of a direct Cuban connection to Bo Diddley's adaptation of the clave rhythm. Bo Diddley has given different accounts regarding how he began to use this rhythm.

Which is the same/similar as the Afro-Cuban Clave beat because we (afro diasporans) share common African backgrounds.The beat comes from a West/West Central African bell pattern.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

 

[Supper]

Pattin' Juba aka Hambone










It's the same thing as the Bo Diddley beat


Bo Diddley beat



How he came upon it





http://www.richieunterberger.com/arnold.html








Which is the same/similar as the Afro-Cuban Clave beat because we (afro diasporans) share common African backgrounds.The beat comes from a West/West Central African bell pattern.

The "Bo Diddley Beat" (1955) is perhaps the first true fusion of 3-2 clave and R&B/rock 'n' roll.

The Bo Diddley beat is essentially a 3-2 clave rhythm, one of the most common bell patterns found in Afro-Cuban music, and its origin goes back to thesub-Saharan African music traditions.[5]But there is no documentation of a direct Cuban connection to Bo Diddley's adaptation of the clave rhythm. Bo Diddley has given different accounts regarding how he began to use this rhythm.

Now, THAT'S Awesome!

Now for a visual representation of the Hambone or Pattin da Juba.........



Jola girls doing what they call "pat pat"


Also, there's a word to be said about Caribbean nationalities that keep trying perpetuate the false notions that African aspects of African-American music/culture comes from their nations, but I wont derail the thread with all that for now.