African American History - General & Miscellaneous, Popular Music - General & Miscellaneous, African American Studies, African American Music, Music - History & Criticism, Music - General & Miscellaneous
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Overview
This nonfiction series traces the influence of African traditions on African-American Arts in the areas of Dance, Music, Art, Literature/Drama/Film, and Cooking. The books integrate the African-American people into the development of each art form and are a celebration of African heritage. This series is excellent for African-American studies and Black History Month.Popular music in America over the past century has been largely borrowed from the African-American community. This book explains how the traditional African talking drums and ring shouts brought to North America and the Caribbean by slaves influenced the development of spirituals, blues, jazz, and current music. The authors discuss the contributions of African-American musicians such as W.C. Handy, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Wynton Marsalis, and Michael Jackson.
Discusses the evolution of African-American music from its roots in the rhythms and instruments from Africa through the development of the blues, gospel, and soul to modern rock and rap.
Editorials
School Library Journal
Gr 5 UpEach of these books offers social history as well as a study of the evolution of an art form. The African roots of African-American dance and music begin each volume. In Dance, the basis of minstrelsy, vaudeville, jazz dancing, disco, rock, break dancing, hip-hop, etc., are carefully discussed. The contributions and influence of stars such as Katherine Dunham, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and Alvin Ailey are acknowledged and their place in the continuum of African-American dance's development is pinpointed. The volume on music is similarly formatted. The origins of African-American music are traced to the slaves, and the music's cultural importance is emphasized. Readers follow the evolution of musical styles such as jazz, blues, and gospel singing. The advent of rock `n' roll, soul music, and rap is explained as the influence of African-American arts on white culture is documented. The history of racism in the United States underlies much of this story. Unfortunately, a questionable fact in the volume on music asserts that blacks were not permitted to go to Broadway theaters in the 1950s. Apart from this, these well-written volumes, profusely illustrated with high-quality black-and-white and full-color photos, present a thorough overview of each art form. They make good updates for James Haskins's Black Music in America (1987) and Black Dance in America (1990, both Crowell).Renee Steinberg, Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJBook Details
Published
March 1, 1997
Publisher
New York : Twenty-First Century Books, 1997.
Pages
80
Format
Binding
ISBN
9780805044829