David Aretha - Awesome African-American Rock and Soul Musicians

Ready to Rock?

Did you know that rock n roll can trace its musical roots back to a variety of music styles like gospel and blues? Soul music has a longer history, and has its roots in gospel and blues music. Awesome African-American Rock and Soul Musicians looks at nine of the greatest rock n roll and soul musicians, from Chuck Berry and Aretha Franklin to James Brown and Prince.

This is a handy introduction to the world of African American Rock and Soul musicians.

About the Author

David Aretha has authored more than twenty books for young people, including Americas TeamThe Dallas Cowboys.

For decades, the myth persisted that white musicians created rock n roll in the mid-1950s. Rock Around the Clock (1955), by Bill Haley and His Comets, was credited as the breakthrough rock n roll record. Elvis Presley, the King of Rock n Roll, burst onto the scene with Hound Dog in 1956. Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Hollytwo other white singerselectrified the late 1950s. However, most people didnt realize that rock n roll had begun to evolve before the mid-1950s.

Much of rock n roll was steeped in white musical styles such as country music and folk music. However, such African-American styles as gospel, boogie-woogie, blues, and rhythm and blues were even stronger influences. The contribution of black artists to rock n roll cant be overstated, said Tim Moore, communications director for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. The music of the black church and the music of the blues are the bedrock of what became known as rock n roll.

African Americans Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard were among the giants of early rock n roll. But while they were successful in their day, audiences largely overlooked them in favor of white rockers. Little Richards explosive 1955 recording Tutti Frutti rose to No. 17 on the pop music charts. But a year later, clean-cut white singer Pat Boone went to No. 12 with a tame cover version of that song. That year, Elvis took the nation by storm with Hound Dog. But few knew that Big Mama Thornton, a black woman, had recorded the song three years earlier. The other big hit by Bill Haley and His Comets, Shake, Rattle and Roll, was first recorded by Big Joe Turner.

Singer, composer, and pianist Fats Domino in 1956

Bo Diddley and his distinctive guitar in the 1950s

Looking back on his idols, Beatles legend John Lennon said: Berry is the greatest influence on earth. So is Bo Diddley, and so is Little Richard. There is not one white group on earth that hasnt got their music in them. And thats all I ever listened to. The only white person I ever listened to was Presley on his early music, and he was doing black music. Black musicians also influenced the Rolling Stones. In fact, the band was named after the Muddy Waters song Rollin Stone.

The black roots of rock n roll run deep. In such cities as New Orleans and Chicago in the early 1900s, African Americans played the blues in local clubs. Over time, musicians added rhythm to these sad songs to create livelier music. This genre, which came to be known as rhythm and blues, was called race (black) music in the 1930s and 1940s. It was great music, but white radio stations never played these black records. Many white listeners never got to hear songs such as Rock and Roll Blues (1949) by Erline Harris.

By the early 1950s, a few white disc jockeys began playing race records to multiracial radio audiences. Cleveland DJ Alan Freed introduced the term rock n roll to the masses. In the 1956 film Rock Rock Rock, Freed declared: Rock n roll is a river of music, which has absorbed many streams: rhythm and blues, jazz, ragtime, cowboy songs, country songs, folk songs. All have contributed greatly to the Big Beat.

A heavy guitar element and a strong backbeat (emphasis on the second and fourth beat of each four-beat measure) made rock n roll distinctive. It was also played at a faster, more exciting pace, which young people loved. Said Little Richard, Played up-tempo [fast], you call it rock n roll; at a regular tempo, you call it rhythm and blues.

Black musicians produced much of the great rock n roll music of the 1950s. Many historians credit Rocket 88, a 1951 song by African-American Jackie Brenston, as the first real rock n roll hit. Other great early black rock n rollers not featured in this book include:

• T-Bone Walker: pioneered the electric guitar sound in the 1930s
• Louis Jordan: a 1940s singer, saxophonist, and bandleader known as the Father of Rhythm and Blues and Grandfather of Rock n Roll
• Muddy Waters: a blues legend who played a killer electric guitar
• Bo Diddley: an inventive musician whose strong rhythms and hard guitar sound helped lay the foundation for rock n roll
• Fats Domino: a pianist, singer, and songwriter who sold 65 million records beginning in the 1950s

By the early 1960s, African Americans influence on rock n roll began to fade. White rock bands from Great Britain began to dominate the music scene, a turn of events known as the British Invasion. Said Tim Moore: I think what happened in the 1960s, with the advent of the Civil Rights Movement, blacks began to look down on blues as being too passive and rock n roll as being too happy. So we moved on to a more soulful music, and left whites with rock music and the ability to define it as they pleased.

Soul music is hard to define. Its like electricity, said soul singer Ray Charles, we dont really know what it is, but its a force that can light a room. In this genre, performers sing from the soul. Their voices capture the pain, anguish, elation, and other strong emotions of the African-American experience.

Muddy Waters in the late 1940s or early 1950s

Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, photographed on March 15, 1963

Soul music has its roots in both blues and gospel music (passionate, Christian-themed music sung in black churches). Mahalia Jackson, a legendary gospel singer who emerged in the 1930s, traces soul music back to the days of slavery. It started, she said, with the groans and moans of the people in the cotton fields. Before it got the name of soul, men were sellin watermelons and vegetables on a wagon drawn by a mule, hollerin watermellllon! with a cry in their voices. And the men on the railroad track layin crosstiesevery time they hit the hammer it was with a sad feelin, but with a beat.

Soul singers James Brown, Ray Charles, and Aretha Franklinthe Queen of Soulare profiled in this book. But so many others are worthy of mention. Here are but a few, along with their signature song:

• Sam Cooke: You Send Me
• Jackie Wilson: (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher