Post on 03-Sep-2014
description
transcript
Blues Lecture
Congo Square Circa 1820
• “Approaching the common I heard the most extraordinary noise….
• … a crowd of 5 or 600 persons assembled in an open space or public square.”
• “Formed in circular groups… women dancing... hardly moving their feet or bodies.
• Benjamin Latrobe in Impressions Respecting New Orleans 1818-1820
• “The music consisted of two drums and a stringed instrument. An old man sat astride of a cylindrical drum about a foot in diameter, & beat it with incredible quickness with the edge of his hand & fingers. The other drum was an open staved thing held between the knees & beaten in the same manner. The most curious instrument, however, was a stringed instrument which no doubt was imported from Africa. On the top of the finger board was the rude figure of a man in a sitting posture, & two pegs behind him to which the strings were fastened. The body was a calabash. It was played upon by a very little old man, apparently 80 or 90 years old”
Historic recordings
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL0FpB26VSg
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRy5MoWPyS0
Louisiana Purchase -1803
Slavery
Charley Patton
• Born approx 1891 – died 1934
Ma Rainey – The Mother of the Blues1886 - 1939
Bessie Smith
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Who6fTHJ34
Robert Johnson