BLACK MUSIC MATTERS

By Ross Altman, PhD

My father came from Duluth, Minnesota; Bob Dylan did too, before he was raised in Hibbing, Minnesota. So it’s a state I have a lot of good feelings for—at least I did, before this latest terrorist incident. Northern trees bear a “Strange Fruit” too.

Bystanders tried to save George Floyd’s life—begging and pleading with the four officers—including the one whose knee was crushing Mr. Floyd’s neck—all to no avail. So Phil Ochs’ stark cautionary tale “And I’m sure it wouldn’t interest anybody outside of a small circle of friends,” may no longer apply.

But another Phil Ochs song still rings true today: Cops of the World. It happened on Memorial Day—the lynching of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. His last words were “I can’t breathe–” before he cried out for his mother, who had been dead for two years.

Black Music Matters is therefore the theme of this column—to go along with Black Lives Matter, and all the protest marches that have taken place from sea to shining sea, and from the redwood forests to the gulfstream waters since Memorial Day. The range of this column includes concert, theatre, film, museum and CD reviews, feature articles, previous columns and obituaries —all of black musicians I have covered for FolkWorks, most recently this March, just before the lockdown.

Let me conclude by noting four of the iconic artists celebrated: Marian Anderson, Billie Holiday, Paul Robeson, and Lead Belly—the Mt. Rushmore of Folk Music.

–>CLICK ON THE PICTURES BELOW TO READ THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS<-

Buddy Guy at the Saban Theatre.	Ballad of Black-Like Me.	Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill by Lanie Robertson.	The B Side Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons.
Hope and-History.	Cotten Picking Good.	Lead Belly Dylan and Marley Scandalizing Their Names.	Scandalizing Paul Robeson.
Polly Stewart – Lynching in Maryland.	Odetta and Obama.	Shining in Selma –Odetta, Dylan and Len Chandler.	The Resurrection of Paul Robeson.
All Alone with Paul Robeson.	The Blind Boys of Alabama.	Sweet Honey in the Rock at CAP-UCLA.	Rhiannon Giddens.
In Search of the First Blues Song.	Jerron Blind Boy Paxton in Concert.	The Jones Family Singers.	Keb Mo at the Grammy Museum.
How Did You Celebrate Martin Luther King’s Birthday.	Woody Guthrie’s Home Town Lynching.	RIP Julius Lester.	Remembering Bruce Langhorne.
Remembering Leslie Perry.	Remembering Richie Havens.	Lead Belly King of the 12 String Guitar.

 

Ross Altman has a PhD in Modern Literature from SUNY-Binghamton (1973); belongs to Local 47 (AFM); writes for FolkWorks; email: greygoosemusic@aol.com