"There were over fifty New York performances of the Rhapsodie Negre in 1929 alone (Howard 1954, 422)."

In fact, a New York Times article from Jan. 29, 1929 ("'Rhapsodie Negre' Given Brilliantly: Powell Work Has 50th Performance at Orchestral Society's Concert") states that this performance was...]]>Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Books+and+articles+on+black+music.-a0202488084
Articles on Black Music in North America and the Circum-Caribbean in Major Music Journals, 1990-2007

Included in this bibliography are articles on music created by or performed by people who identify themselves as "black" and who are from North America or the Circum-Caribbean. The bibliography reveals a great deal about the state of research on black music among scholars in...]]>Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Signs%2c+symphonies%2c+signifyin(g)%3a+African-American+cultural+topics+as...-a0202488083Considering the volume and strength of the recent work in black music scholarship, much work is still needed in many areas, particularly those of scholarly criticism, interpretation, and analysis of concert works by black composers. Certainly, turning our attention to more details of pitch, harmony, rhythm, and form will enlighten our interpretations of works by black composers and fortify the...]]>Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Black+music+and+writing+black+music+history%3a+American+music+and...-a0202488082My aim in this paper is to draw attention to ways of writing American music history and to draw from its narrative approaches implications for black music research. In the process, I touch upon three subjects: narrative strategies for writing American music history, an impediment to the writing of a complete history of American music, and an idea for the construction of a model for the latter...]]>Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+%22robot+voodoo+power%22+thesis%3a+Afrofuturism+and...-a0202488081In 1999 Alondra Nelson, then a graduate student in American studies at New York University, launched an online community dedicated to the study of what might be best described to the uninitiated as black science fiction. Nelson named the forum the "AfroFuturism" listserv after a term coined by Mark Dery in his set of interviews about black artists whose works displayed a uniquely...]]>Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Appropriating+the+master's+tools%3a+Sun+Ra%2c+the+Black+Panthers%2c+and...-a0202488080In 1971 avant-garde jazz musician Sun Ra was expelled from a house in Oakland, California, owned by the Black Panther Party (Szwed 1997, 330). It was the same year that he taught a course entitled "Sun Ra 171" in Afro-American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, the readings for which reflected his eclectic interest in subjects including black literature, bible studies, ancient...]]>Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Unequal+temperament%3a+the+somatic+acoustics+of+racial+difference+in...-a0202488079You know, composition is only one of my many interests. In time I hope to do my bit in helping to solve the race problem.

--John Powell, interviewed in the Musical Courier, May 2, 1918 (Kushner 1984, 104)

In 1924 the Congress of the United States passed the Johnson-Reed Act, which restricted the immigration of "non-white" Europeans such as the Irish, Italians, and Slavs. This was...]]>Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/%22Bridging+the+gap%22%3a+Creed+Taylor%2c+Grover+Washington+Jr.%2c+and+the...-a0202488078"As jazz, his music is not very interesting. He is a capable but rather anonymous sounding player with an undistinguished sound on the tenor, occasional intonation problems on the soprano, and a determinedly low-keyed approach.... and at present the saxophonist is the best-selling artist on Taylor's CTI label."