Editor's introduction.

The development of black music research during the past twenty years can be traced in the issues of the Black Music Research Journal (BMRJ). The first issue (1980), then an annual published by the Fisk University Institute for Research in Black American Music, set the pattern. It included three articles on the then-current state of the research: on gospel music (pp. 63-70), on rhythm and blues (pp. 71-79), and on black concert and recital music (pp. 80-94). The next issue (1981-1982) included "Towards a Philosophy of Black Music Scholarship," by the editor, Samuel A. Floyd Jr. (pp. 72-93).

The third issue (1983), published jointly by Fisk and Columbia College Chicago, included Floyd's "On Black Music Research" (pp. 46-57), in which he described the functions of black music research as "to unearth, explore, and explain ideas, facts, events, phenomena, and records that have been neglected, forgotten, ignored, falsified, and unknown" (46). He went on to comment, "There are nine basic areas in which much work needs to be done: musico-iconographical studies ... sources for out-of-print books, pamphlets, music, sound recordings, and other materials ... oral history studies ... biographical studies of black musicians ... critical studies on music of black composers ... music's role in the Harlem Renaissance ... manuscript collections ... lexicographical studies ... negative black images, [and] ... the black roots of American country music" (49-54), a tall order to say the least. But succeeding issues of BMRJ have gone far to fill it.

A measure of the success of Floyd's efforts appeared in the BMRJ for spring 1996 (16, no. 1) with Guthrie Ramsey Jr.'s article "Cosmopolitan or Provincial? Ideology in Early Black Music Historiography, 1867-1940." (The dates in the References List belie the cut-off date, including books and materials as late as 1995.) Ramsey reported, "Work on black music ... has featured research rich in variety and scope: musical biography and autobiography, archival and oral histories, systematic research on jazz and blues, the compilation of bibliographies and indices, ethnographic studies, critical editions, [and] ... the recent introduction of contemporary cultural and social theory into the field" (11).

Ramsey gives special attention to the "curiosity about black vernacular musical practices, ... a forerunner to work conducted later within the disciplines of ethnomusicology and folklore ... concerned ... primarily with issues of repertory, preservation, transcription, and performance practice" (18-19).

Later in the same issue, Jay Rahn raises another problem--the inability of "the Europe-derived discipline of music theory [to handle well] constant syncopation, off-beat phrasing, turning the beat around, backbeat, cross-rhythm, anticipation, ... call-and-response phrasing, riffs, vamps, [and so forth] (71).

BMRJ has published individual articles on a wide range of subjects as well as special issues devoted to specific topics such as Contemporary Theory and Black Music (11, no. 2 [1991]), Duke Ellington's Black, Brown and Beige (13, no. 2 [1993]), New Perspectives on Thelonius Monk (19, no. 2 [1999]), Blind Lemon Jefferson (20, no. 1 [2000]), and European Perspectives on Black Music (20, no. 2 [2000]).

Individual articles range from the pragmatic--"Books on Black Music and Black Musicians for Juveniles" (1981-1982, pp. 151-154)--to the recondite--"Aural Archetypes and Cyclic Perspectives in the Work of John Coltrane and Ancient Chinese Music Theory" (21, no. 1 [2001], pp. 75-105). Musical examples are frequent. As stated in the first issue, "articles ... are Institute [and later, CBMR] generated. Unsolicited manuscripts are not accepted." [At present, unsolicited manuscripts are accepted, although a number of the issues consist of commissioned papers on a single topic. The articles in BMRJ have always been peer-reviewed--both those that were commissioned by the Institute or CBMR and those that were unsolicited.--Ed.]

On November 18, 2002, a letter was sent to a group of scholars who are eminent in appropriate fields of scholarship, inviting them to be part of a ten-person committee that would help select the best articles published in BMRJ for republication as recognition of the twentieth anniversary of the Center for Black Music Research. The twenty most-cited BMRJ articles listed in the Humanities Citation Index formed the core of articles to be considered. Each member of the committee was asked to rate those twenty articles and was given the privilege of nominating one additional article for consideration. One committee member nominated an additional article, bringing the number of articles evaluated to twenty-one.

Criteria for republication included frequency of citation, significance, originality at the time of writing, scholarship, and influence on subsequent scholarship. The ten articles with the highest ratings would be chosen for republication. The committee members were sent a form for each article, on which they were asked to rate each of the criteria on a scale of 1 to 5, from least to most. When all of the evaluations had been received, the scores for each article were totalled and placed on a chart that was organized by the names of the committee members. The totals of all the scores for each article were then added, giving an aggregate score for each. The ten articles with the highest aggregate scores were chosen for inclusion in this issue.

The following scholars were the members of the committee.

T. J. Anderson
Dominique-Rene de Lerma
Scott DeVeaux
Robin D. G. Kelley
Doris McGinty
Ronald Radano
Guthrie Ramsey Jr.
Cynthia Schmidt
Sterling Stuckey
Helen Walker-Hill
Robert Witmer

I would like to express my gratitude for their participation in this process.

As a result of this process, ten articles have been chosen for inclusion in this issue. Their authors are Samuel A. Floyd Jr., Lawrence Gushee (two articles), Lawrence Kramer, George Lewis, Peter Narvaez, Carol Oja, Gary Tomlinson, Bruce Tucker, and Mark Tucker. The eleven articles considered in the committee's assessment process but not reprinted here, listed alphabetically by author, are: "Zydeco/Zarico: Beans, Blues, and Beyond," by Barry Jean Ancelet (8, no. 1 [1988]); "The 'Blues Aesthetic' and the 'Black Aesthetic': Aesthetics as the Continuing Political History of a Culture," by Amiri Baraka (11, no. 2 [1991], Bruce Tucker, guest editor); "Sounds Authentic: Black Music, Ethnicity, and the Challenge of a Changing Same," by Paul Gilroy (11, no. 2 [1991], Bruce Tucker, guest editor); "How the Creole Band Came to Be," by Lawrence Gushee (8, no. 1 [1988]); "Filiation or Innovation?: Some Hypotheses to Overcome the Dilemma of Afro-American Music's Origins," by Denis-Constant Martin (11, no. 1 [1991]); "Theorizing the Body in African-American Music," by Susan McClary and Rob Walser (14, no. 1 [1994]); "Turning the Analysis Around: Africa-Derived Rhythms and Europe-Derived Music Theory," by Jay Rahn (16, no. 1 [1996]); "Carnival Celebrations in Africa and the New World: Junkanoo and the Black Indians of Mardi Gras," by Rosita M. Sands (11, no. 1 [1991]); "James Reese Europe and the Infancy of Jazz Criticism," by Ron Welburn (7 [1987]); "'Most of My Heroes Don't Appear on No Stamps': The Dialogics of Rap Music," by Elizabeth A. Wheeler (11, no. 2 [1991], Bruce Tucker, guest editor); "Black Instrumental Music Traditions in the Ex-Slave Narratives," by Robert B. Winans (10, no. 1 [1990]). Of course, there are many worthy articles that were not considered because of the selection criteria, to give just one example, Guthrie Ramsey's "Cosmopolitan or Provincial?: Ideology in Early Black Music Historiography, 1867-1940."

The range of subjects discussed in this issue is impressive: ring shout (Floyd), jazz (Tomlinson, Gushee, and Mark Tucker), rock 'n' roll (Bruce Tucker), William Grant Still (Oja), New Orleans musicians (Gushee), African elements (Kramer, Lewis), and Hispanic influences (Narvaez). The articles that are not reprinted have an equal range, including ethnicity, improvisation, zydeco, rap, Junkanoo, and aesthetics.

The end is not in sight. Volume 21, no. 2 (2001), a special issue devoted to Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, concludes with a call for "Future Research" (pp. 289-294). The following issue (22, no. 1 [2002]) included "Bridging South America and the United States in Black Music Research," by Gerard Behague, and "Musical Thoughts on Unresolved Questions and Recent Findings in Big Drum Research," by Lorna McDaniel. A promising future seems assured.

DENA J. EPSTEIN is the author of Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War (University of Illinois Press, 1977). She has served as a member of the CBMR International Advisory Board since 1983.