(Smith 55) As a recap, I couldn't ask for more. ... (Smith 54) Insight? ... In her discussion of other essays on "Go Down, Moses", such as Black Song: The Forge and the Flame, by John Lovell, Smith successfully discusses the spiritual's "powerful and clear" style. ... (Smith 56). ... (Smith 55). ...
He is one of those people just on the cusp of escaping the contemporary and slipping into the historical-John Coltrane would have turned eighty-eight this year; Martin Luther King, Jr., would have turned eighty-five-people who could still be with us but who feel, at times, very far away, as though they lived centuries ago. ... " The tinny sound from my laptop was Bessie Smith singing "I'm Wild About That Thing," a filthy blues number and a masterpiece of plausible deniability: "Don't hold it baby when I cry Give me every bit of it, else I'd die I'm wild...
Mamie Smith is the woman who started Blues on record. ... Mississippi John was from the Delta region, but his guitar playing had much more in common with the more sophisticated finger-picking of Piedmont style Blues. Lastly, Bessie Smith defines the term of "classic" Blues singer; earned the title of "Empress of the Blues" with her sassy, bold songs that earned the respect of both Blues and Jazz artists. ... Dorsey, who used to accompany Bessie Smith, but converted to church music and turned his considerable talents to writing religious music. ... Mahalia's earliest influences of music ...
The diaspora of Africans into the Americas brought strong cultural roots that have survived more than six hundred years. The correlation between popular music in the United States and traditional African music is evident even today. Specifically, the influence stems from traditional Sub-Saharan mu...
