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

For their contributions to the inspiration and support I needed to undertake this project, I would like to thank James Winn, director of the Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan, whose fellowship support allowed me to explore the implications of critical theory to black music inquiry; Richard Crawford, professor of music at the University of Michigan, whose friendship, sharp and scholarly eye, and helpful criticism made my introductory article in this area better than it otherwise would have been; Orin Moe, my remarkably well-read friend who called my attention to Peter Kivy's four books on the philosophy of music and Lawrence Kramer's work on musico-literary analysis ; and Bruce Tucker, guest editor of an issue of the Black Music Research Journal, for inviting me to submit the article in which many of these issues were first raised, for contributing to the identification of one of the seminal ideas in that piece, and for reading portions of the present work. It was Bruce, a former colleague at Fisk University and now a freelance writer, who encouraged me to write The Power of Black Music from a personal perspective. Rich Crawford, Marsha J. Reisser, and singer William Brown read the entire manuscript and offered corrections and valuable content and editorial suggestions. William Komla Amoaku critiqued chapter 1 and offered valuable suggestions; Calvert Bean, Orin Moe, and Mark Tucker, all of whom serve on the editorial board of Black Music Research Journal, read chapter 9; composer T. J. Anderson read and critiqued chapters 7 and 8; and Eileen Southern read the manuscript's early chapters. Chapter 10 profited from Douglas Dempster's astute comments on the philosophical issues I discuss there. Early in my research, Horace Boyer provided me with recorded examples of certain performances of gospel music, which proved helpful, and information about the Boyer Brothers' recordings; his brother James provided me with a recording that had proved otherwise impossible to obtain. Country-music scholar Charles Wolf directed me to DeFord Bailey's recordings, and record collector Roger Miscewicz provided recordings of the blues pieces I discuss in chapter 9. My discussion in chapter 5 of the Chicago flowering of the Negro Renaissance was aided greatly