Cross the Water Blues: African American Music in Europe

302 Pages·2007·5 MB·English

by  Neil A. Wynn

Cross the Water Blues
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CROSS
the
WATER
BLUES
AFRICAN AMERICAN
MUSIC IN EUROPE
NEIL A. WYNN
Edited by
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI / JACKSON
AMERICAN MADE MUSIC SERIES
ADVISORY BOARD
David Evans, General Editor
Barry Jean Ancelet
Edward A. Berlin
Joyce J. Bolden
Rob Bowman
Susan C. Cook
Curtis Ellison
William Ferris
Michael Harris
John Edward Hasse
Kip Lornell
Frank McArthur
Bill Malone
Eddie S. Meadows
Manuel H. Peña
David Sanjek
Wayne D. Shirley
Robert Walser
www.upress.state.ms.us
The University Press of Mississippi is a member
of the Association of American University Presses.
Copyright © 2007 by University Press of Mississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition 2007
(cid:1)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cross the water blues : African American music in Europe / edited by Neil A. Wynn.
—1st ed.
p. cm. — (American made music series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-57806-960-6 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-57806-960-2 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. African Americans—Europe—
Music—History and criticism. 2. African Americans—Music—Infl uence.
3. Popular music—Europe—History and criticism. I. Wynn, Neil A.
ML3488.C76 2007
780.89(cid:2)9607304—dc22 2007004256
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
Contents
IX PREFACE
3 1. “Why I Sing the Blues”
AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE IN THE
TRANSATLANTIC WORLD
—NEIL A. WYNN
23 2. Taking the Measure of the Blues
—PAUL OLIVER
39 3. Even Philosophers Get the Blues
FEELING BAD FOR NO REASON
—DAVID WEBSTER
51 4. Spirituals to (Nearly) Swing, 1873–1938
—JEFFREY GREEN
66 5. Black Music Prior to the First World War
AMERICAN ORIGINS AND GERMAN PERSPECTIVES
—RAINER E. LOTZ
vi CONTENTS
89 6. Fascination and Fear
RESPONSES TO EARLY JAZZ IN BRITAIN
—CATHERINE PARSONAGE
106 7. “Un Saxophone en Mouvement”?
JOSEPHINE BAKER AND THE PRIMITIVIST RECEPTION
OF JAZZ IN PARIS IN THE 1920S
—IRIS SCHMEISSER
125 8. Paul Robeson’s British Journey
—SEAN CREIGHTON
145 9. Preaching the Gospel of the Blues
BLUES EVANGELISTS IN BRITAIN
—ROBERTA FREUND SCHWARTZ
167 10. Whose “Rock Island Line”?
ORIGINALITY IN THE COMPOSITION OF BLUES AND
BRITISH SKIFFLE
—BOB GROOM
183 11. The Blues Blueprint
THE BLUES IN THE MUSIC OF THE BEATLES, THE ROLLING
STONES, AND LED ZEPPELIN
—RUPERT TILL
202 12. “The Blues Is the Truth”
THE BLUES, MODERNITY, AND THE BRITISH BLUES BOOM
—LEIGHTON GRIST
218 13. Lowland Blues
THE RECEPTION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN BLUES AND
GOSPEL MUSIC IN THE NETHERLANDS
—GUIDO VAN RIJN
CONTENTS vii
235 14. The Blues in France
—ROBERT SPRINGER
250 15. Cultural Displacement, Cultural Creation
AFRICAN AMERICAN JAZZ MUSICIANS IN EUROPE FROM
BECHET TO BRAXTON
—CHRISTOPHER G. BAKRIGES
266 CONTRIBUTORS
271 INDEX
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Preface
The centenary celebrations of W. C. Handy’s “discovery” of the blues in 20031
included considerable recognition of the influence of the classic African
American music beyond America’s shores. Much attention was given par-
ticularly to the inspirational effects of the blues on British popular music,
both in the official Year of the Blues website2 and in film documentaries such
as Red, White and Blues, directed by Mike Figgis as one of the seven-part
series Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues, broadcast on national television in
the United States and in the United Kingdom.3 While the links between the
blues and popular music in Europe are probably well-known in the United
States, there is often little appreciation of the wider impact of black music.
It is clear that African American musical influences were not just limited to
those of the blues on popular music of the 1960s, nor just to Britain. From the
time of slavery onwards, black music in one form or another, from minstrelsy,
through to gospel song and jazz, was performed and heard across many parts
of Europe—and beyond. In turn people of African and/or Afro-Caribbean
origin often took music back across the Atlantic to the United States. It was
in recognition of this significant transatlantic cultural exchange that a
conference entitled “‘Overseas Blues’: European Perspectives on African
American Music” was held at the University of Gloucestershire, supported
by the European Blues Association, in July 2004.4
ix