Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)One of the problems with historical research is that we often get lost in summaries and highlights - and lose a sense of context, what it was really like to live in a distant time and space. This excellently done reference book is all about "being there" - it literally reprints music-related news stories from the black press of the period 1889-1895, along with some connecting narrative. The authors have long studied this era and give us a vivid view of the black music scene in the period when syncopated music was just emerging into the mainstream, shortly to morph into ragtime and then jazz. Many of the names will be unfamiliar (though I did sight such diverse figures as W.C. Handy and Antonin Dvorak), but any student of roots music will find this fascinating reading, not only for the "big" events, but for the little ones. There are even a few of the earliest black recording artists here (commercial recording began around 1890). There are fascinating illustrations, and extensive notation. Altogether a handsomely done book, as well as an important piece of scholarship on African-American music and history.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music, 1889-1895 (American Made Music)
"A product of old-fashioned, back-wearying, foundational scholarship, yet very readable, this book is certain to feature importantly in future studies of early jazz and its prehistory. Highly recommended." --Library Journal
"This volume makes possible the study of the rise of black music in the days that paved the way for the Harlem Renaissance--the brass bands, the banjo and mandolin clubs, the male quartets, and theatrical companies. Summing up: Essential." --Choice Outstanding Academic Title
A landmark study, based on thousands of music-related references mined by the authors from a variety of contemporaneous sources, especially African American community newspapers, Out of Sight examines musical personalities, issues, and events in context. It confronts the inescapable marketplace concessions musicians made to the period's prevailing racist sentiment. It describes the worldwide travels of jubilee singing companies, the plight of the great black prima donnas, and the evolution of "authentic" African American minstrels. Generously reproducing newspapers and photographs, Out of Sight puts a face on musical activity in the tightly knit black communities of the day.
Drawing on hard-to-access archival sources and song collections, the book is of crucial importance for understanding the roots of ragtime, blues, jazz, and gospel. Essential for comprehending the evolution and dissemination of African American popular music from 1900 to the present, Out of Sight paints a rich picture of musical variety, personalities, issues, and changes during the period that shaped American popular music and culture for the next hundred years.
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