Moore - The Cambridge Companion to Blues and Gospel Music

The Cambridge Companion to Blues and Gospel Music

From Robert Johnson to Aretha Franklin, Mahalia Jackson to John Lee Hooker, blues and gospel artists figure heavily in the mythology of twentieth-century culture. The styles in which they sang have proved hugely influential to generations of popular singers, from the wholesale adoptions of singers like Robert Cray or James Brown, to the subtler vocal appropriations of Mariah Carey. Their own music, and how it operates, is not, however, always seen as valid in its own right.

This book offers an overview of both these genres, which worked together to provide an expression of twentieth-century black U.S. experience. Their histories are unfolded and questioned; representative songs and lyrical imagery are analyzed; perspectives are offered from the standpoint of the voice, the guitar, the piano, and also that of the working musician. The book concludes with a discussion of the impact the genres have had on mainstream musical culture.

ALLAN MOORE is Head of the Department of Music at the University of Surrey, U.K. He has written widely on popular music and is author of The Beatles: Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (Cambridge, 1997), and Rock: The Primary Text (1993, 2002).

Cambridge Companions to Music

Composers

The Cambridge Companion to Bach

Edited by John Butt

The Cambridge Companion to Bartk

Edited by Amanda Bayley

The Cambridge Companion to Beethoven

Edited by Glenn Stanley

The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten

Edited by Mervyn Cooke

The Cambridge Companion to Berg

Edited by Anthony Pople

The Cambridge Companion to Berlioz

Edited by Peter Bloom

The Cambridge Companion to Brahms

Edited by Michael Musgrave

The Cambridge Companion to John Cage

Edited by David Nicholls

The Cambridge Companion to Chopin

Edited by Jim Samson

The Cambridge Companion to Debussy

Edited by Simon Trezise

The Cambridge Companion to Handel

Edited by Donald Burrows

The Cambridge Companion to Ravel

Edited by Deborah Mawer

The Cambridge Companion to Schubert

Edited by Christopher Gibbs

The Cambridge Companion to Stravinsky

Edited by Jonathan Cross

Instruments

The Cambridge Companion to Brass Instruments

Edited by Trevor Herbert and John Wallace

The Cambridge Companion to the Cello

Edited by Robin Stowell

The Cambridge Companion to the Clarinet

Edited by Colin Lawson

The Cambridge Companion to the Organ

Edited by Nicholas Thistlethwaite and Geoffrey Webber

The Cambridge Companion to the Piano

Edited by David Rowland

The Cambridge Companion to the Recorder

Edited by John Mansfield Thomson

Cambridge Companion to the Saxophone

Edited by Richard Ingham

Cambridge Companion to Singing

Edited by John Potter

The Cambridge Companion to the Violin

Edited by Robin Stowell

Topics

The Cambridge Companion to Blues and Gospel Music

Edited by Allan Moore

The Cambridge Companion to Jazz

Edited by Mervyn Cooke and David Horn

The Cambridge Companion to the Musical

Edited by William Everett and Paul Laird

The Cambridge Companion to the Orchestra

Edited by Colin Lawson

The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock

Edited by Simon Frith, Will Straw and John Street

.................

EDITED BY
Allan Moore

PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK
40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA
477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia
Ruiz de Alarcn 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain
Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa

http://www.cambridge.org

Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521806350

Cambridge University Press 2002

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2002

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

Typeface Minion 10.75/14 pt System LATEX 2 [TB]

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 0 521 80635 6
ISBN 0 521 00107 2

Matt Backer was born in New Orleans and has lived in Mexico City, Brussels, Caracas, New York, and Leamington Spa. He studied at the Berklee College of Music and the University of Warwick, but threw it all away in order to become a freelance guitarist. Artistes he has worked with include Emmylou Harris, Joe Cocker, Steve Earle, Aimee Mann, Julian Lennon, and Alan Partridge. He also composes music for film and television and his eagerly awaited solo debut Is That All is available on Warmfuzz Records.

He woke up this morning and had the blues.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Graeme M. Boone received his A.B. in Music from the University of California at Berkeley (1976); a Premier prix in music history from the Conservatoire National Suprieur de Musique, Paris (1979); and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Music from Harvard University (1987). He recently co-edited a collection of analytical essays on rock music (Understanding Rock, Oxford University Press, 1997), and wrote a monograph on the relationship between musical and verbal rhythm in fifteenth-century song (Patterns in Play, University of Nebraska Press, 1999). A documentary history of jazz is in preparation (Readings in Jazz History, Norton).

Don Cusic is the author of twelve books, including The Sound of Light: A History of Gospel and Christian Music. He is currently Professor of Music Business at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.

David Evans received his M.A. (1967) and Ph.D. (1976) degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, in Folklore and Mythology. He is currently Professor of Music at the University of Memphis. Evans has been a researcher of blues music since the 1960s. His Tommy Johnson (1971) and Big Road Blues: Tradition and Creativity in the Folk Blues (1982) are based on his field research in Mississippi and other southern states. Evans has written many articles, chapters, and record album notes, and has produced many albums of field and studio recordings of blues.

Dave Headlam is Associate Professor of Music Theory at the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester. Headlams book, The Music of Alban Berg, published by Yale University Press in 1996, received an A.S.C.A.P. Deems Taylor Award (1997). Along with colleague Mark Bocko of the Electrical and Computing Engineering Department at the University of Rochester, Headlam has received three National Science Foundation Grants for research into acoustics and the development of a Music Research Lab. Headlam has published widely on musical topics ranging from popular music to the use of computers in music research.

Barb Jungr is a singer, performer, and writer. Her CDs on Linn Records have included new translations of the works of Brel and Ferre and a forthcoming collection of the songs of Bob Dylan,