Every stranger should visit Congo Square
The variety of sounds at Congo Square was commented on by James Creecy who, visiting fifteen years after Latrobe's description (1818) and more favorably disposed to the experience, saw ''banjos,…
Afro-Baroque New Orleans and the Jazz era
There is a marvelous recording of music from The Ursulines' manuscript, performed by the French early music group Le Concert Lorrain. EDIT APRIL(...) “Le soleil heraut de sa gloire” (The…
The African sense of using song for purposes of satire and praise
And then there was Black Benny, the drummer, six foot six, nothing but muscle. He was handsome in some sort of African way. He was all man, physically. He feared…
Are there any other characteristics of West African Music that survive in jazz today?
Grenadier Guards, Band of Toro - Photo by Rev A.L. Kitching, 1908. Published in "Tramps round the Mountains of the Moon and through the back gate of the Congo State"…