Page 8 Portland Observer, September 21, 1983
D ~ . _ L , '« . 0 ^ 1 1 .
From Ragtime to Rock'n
Roll:
weeks
Black music exploited in America
“ I'm the originator
No imitator
Sole inspirator
By the C r e a to r..
Jimmy C liff
“ Get the funk out a my fa c e .. . "
Brothers Johnson
by Hick M itchell
art o f the officially unrecog
P
nized hiitory o f this country i*
the great contribution o f Black
sicians to American culture down
through the centuries. African-derived
musical concept* have influenced all
forms o f American music, both
those generally regarded as "B la ck”
musics — gospel, blues, jezz — and
those more often played by whites
rock, country-western and blue
grass. Yet, historically, these contri
butions have largely been taken for
granted, as the curators o f Am eri
can civilization have continued to
look to Europe as the source and in
spiration for our musical culture.
There are accounts o f slave« per
forming at while social gatherings
from as early as the 17th Century.
I he slaves played instruments fam il
iar tc the European ear, such as vio
lins (interestingly, the violin has
been traced to African origins by
certain musicologists, who believe it
was introduced to Europe in a primi
tive form by way o f the Roman Em
pire), but they brought to them the
African concepts o f collective parti
cipation, improvisation, micro-tonal
scales and heightened rhythm. It is
not known how whites reacted to
these alien elements infiltrating their
music, but it's safe to say they con
tinued to dance.
Unfortunately, most o f the paths
tracing the creative interplay be
tween African-derived and Euro
pean-derived music prior to the 20th
( entury have long been forgotten.
It seems the people in charge o f tak
ing down and making up our history
weren't too concerned with what
went on in the slave quarters after
d4rk, not when (here were wars to
he won and a continent to be con
quered For at least the last 85 years,
however, a clear pattern has been
visible, today's Black music will be
tomorrow's white music, and whites
will make more money on it.
et's start with ragtime. In 1899.
(Scott Joplin published "The
Mapleleaf R ag." which propelled
ragtime music into national prom i
nence The following year, a white
composer named Joseph Lamb
learned to emulate Joplin's style
well enough to publish his own rag
time piano roll with the dubious title
"Coontow n Frolics." Lamb's tune,
naturally, became the rage o f fun-
lovmg white society. Joplin, although
he went on to compose 504 piano
pieces, two operas and a ragtime
ballet, was deserted by his white
publisher in 1909, and died forgot
ten in a mental hospital in 1917.
1 hat same year, a group o f white
musicians from New Orleans billed
Kl t t \ K I ) l \ G t \ K H K I \
IIAIR DESIGN
Financial aid avallabla
10% disc o u n t on tu itio n
throu gh D sc a n ib a r 83
Will help yuu become a «censed
professional with lu« courses in
hair design cosmetology, and
manicuring
1 Inlt.’txultf
£ v . u J g ¿..<¿2r.fr,
U te
■* conveniently located m North
Poittynd 4 7 90 N Lombard
(503) 285-9271
mu
D u k a E llin gto n , th e In c o m p a r
able co m p o aar and big band
lead er, w a s k n o w n aa " T h e
D u k a ." w h ile Banny Q o o d m an .
ualng a Black arra n g er an d Black
m usicians, b e c a m e "T h e King o f
S w in g .”
playing for years in the style "b o r
rowed" by the Original Dixieland
Jazz Band, went widely overlooked
O f all the early Black jazz pioneer*,
only Louis Armstrong survived to
break down at least some of the bar
riers separating Black musicians
from the white public, and he did so
at considerable cost to hi* original,
brilliant jazz trumpet style.
In the late '20s, a white band
leader. Paul W hiteman, took some
o f the concepts o f New Orleans
jazz, sweetened them with string sec
tions and visual novelties, and be
came known among whites a* "the
King o f Jazz.” In the late '30s,
Benny Goodman hired Black band
leader Fletcher Henderson a* his a r
ranger, introduced Black musicians
Teddy Wilson, Lionel Hampton and
Charlie Christian to his group, and
was labeled "the King o f Swing."
Goodman was. and is, a fine
clarinetist. But how did he become
"the King" while Duke Ellington,
arguably the greatest serious com
poser this nation has known and un
questionably an incomparable jazz
bandleader, was only "th e D uke,”
and Fletcher Henderson, who ten
years before had developed many of
the ideas popularized by Goodman,
was just plain Fletcher to most
Goodman fans?
By the mid-'40s, integrated jazz
groups were becoming more com
mon. But often as not. Black musi
cians continued to carry the creative
load while white musicians received
a disproportionate share o f the cash
and credit. For a revealing glimpse
at the racial attitudes of the white
jazz audience, theoretically among
the more enlightened segment of the
American public in the '40s, take a
look at the old popularity polls pub
lished by downbeat and Metronome,
the leading jazz magazines o f the
time. The innovators Charlie Parker
and Dizzy Gillespie do appear, but
they are invariably surrounded by
white players o f lesser caliber; i.e.,
saxophonist Charlie Ventura and
various member* o f the Kenton
band.
As (he big band era faded in the
late '40s, scaled-down urban Black
groups began mixing elements o f
swing, blues and T in Pan Alley pop
into a new style called rhythm and
blues Sometimes, the rhythmic ef
fect o f this music was described as
"rock 'n ' ro ll." By the mid-'50s,
Black
singer-songwriters
Fat*
Domino, Chuck Berry and Richard
Penniman (aka Little Richard) had
come up with the distinctive fusion
o f blue*, rhythm and blues and
country-western forms that serves as
the foundation o f modern rock
music. Yet it wasn't until Sam
Phillips o f Sun Record* in Memphis
discovered in Elvis Presley what he
had been looking for — " a white
boy who can sing Black" — that
rock and roll gained mass appeal
among white teenagers.
Presley's vocal talent was real
enough, but his taste* were easily
molded by those around him. Sever
al o f his late *50* hits were penned
by a Black man named Otis Black-
well. Listening to Blackwell's demos
and comparing them to Presley's
million-selling versions, one come*
away with the unmistakable impres
sion (hat Presley was instructed to
sound as much like Blackwell as
possible. His talent was that he
could do it so well. (Blackwell is still
alive, incidentally. He has one rec
ord in print, a collection o f his song*
including " A ll Shook U p ,” " D o n 't
Be Cruel” and "O reat Balls o f
F ir e ” )
Since Presley, rock and roll ha*
come to be considered a music pri
marily of, by and for whites, while
most popular Black artists are mar
keted a* soul, funk or "d isco ."
White rockers have never hesitated
to borrow from older Black sources,
however, sometimes even while pa-
ternalistically putting down more
contemporary form* of Black music.
In the m id-'60s, a generation of
British bands led by (he Beatles and
the Rolling Slones reintroduced
American teenagers to the song* of
Chuck Berry and Little Richard.
Later in the decade, British guitar
ists Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck were
at the forefront o f a "blues revival”
that led to a brief flourishing o f ex
panded interest by white* in authen
tic bluesmen such as M uddy Water*
and Albert King. In the early '70s,
Bruce Springsteen won critical plau
dits as "the future o f rock and ro ll”
In te rea t In th e m uaic o f a u
th e n tic b luaam an M u d d y W aters
w a a spurred by th a p o p u la rity ot
w h ite
"blues re viva lis ts " Eric
C lap to n and J e ff Back.
with a stage show modeled largely
after (hat o f James Brown, an ob
servation not intended to slight
Springsteen's genuine talents as a
songwriter and performer.
During the mid-'70s, white dee
jays and critics (supported, one sus
pects. by major record labels)
stirred up a backlash against
"disco" musk among the rock audi
ence. In Portland, two formerly
popular deejays met in a stadium
and burned "disco” records, which
apparently meant any new album
with a Black face on the cover other
than Jimi Hendrix or Stevie W on
der. True, much o f the music cate
gorized as "disco" is bland, shallow
and over-produced. So is most
mainstream rock and roll.
Given the historical pattern of the
last 85 years, it is not surprising that
the latest trend in rock is fu n k . h.
host of white, pseudo-funk bands,
most o f them British, have been
doing well on the pop charts with an
approach that borrows slightly-dated
Black American funk rhythm* and
sweetens them with string sections
and visual novelties. Sound fam il
iar? Meanwhile, o f course, all but a
few Black American funk bands are
denied airplay on pop and 'rock
radio stations, and Michael Jack-
son, one o f the exceptions, couldn't
get his video shown on the Music
Television network, better known a*
M T V , until CBS Records President
W alter Yetnikoff threatened to
yank all o f hi* white artists from
M T V 's rotation. The fact that Jack-
son had the number one single and
the number one album in the
country at the time was apparently
not enough to sway M T V from its
apartheid approach to program
ming.
4 p .m .-B p .m . In th a a fte rn o o n
o, now that we’ve got the fact*
S
straight, what’s a socially-aware
musk lover to do? Certainly it's long
past time for this country to start
giving credit where credit is due to
the Black originators o f our music,
but one must always beware o f over
simplifications. The interplay be
tween white and Black music has
historically been a two-way street,
remember. In recent decades, white
jazz musician* Bill Evans, Stan
Getz, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul,
John McLaughlin and others have
broadened the art form to legiti
mately encompass their perspective
as whites, just a* Bix Beiderbecke
did in a much more isolated way
fifty years ago. Rock and roll has
also taken on its own validity, like it
or not, as a music played by young
whites based on Black roots. Just as
it was possible for some to enjoy the
music o f swing-era dance bands
such as Glenn M iller and Tommy
and Jimmy Dorsey, though they
should not have been confused with
the real jazz o f Count Basie and
Duke Ellington, it may be possible
for some to enjoy the music of the
better white. New Wave funk
bands, though they should not be
confused with real funk, which is
Black music.
Sadly, the distinction is lost on
much o f the white public, who con
tinue to ignore great Black artist*
while making white emulators rich.
It reminds me o f a scene from the
movie "T h e Je rk ." Steve M artin , as
a white raised by a Black family,
can't seem to clap on the same beat
as everyone else when the family
gets together to sing the blues. Then
he hears some lame big band music
on the radio and discovers his iden
tity as a white man. That's why they
called him a jerk.
damln I 1 ldt:p
1313 N.E. Frem ont 281-7898
Oanci
elcome
Inn
26th & Alberta
287-0513
Thur»
Live Music
Sat., Oct. 1st 9:30-1:30 p.m
"The Staple
Brothers"
Sept 29th • S h o w tim « 6 9 p m
$1.00 cover
♦1.00 cover
Ladies only
Welcome Inn
7:30 p .m .-9:00 p.m.
Drinks 2 for 1
7:30 p .m .-8 p.m .
’’O
'
26th & Alberta
287 0613
Visions
The Fantasy Affair Band
Fri. & Sat., Sept. 23 & 24, 1983
9:30 P*m. to 2:00 a .m .
J.R .'s Southern C o m fo rt
15th and Killingsworth St.
284 3269
The Portland Observer
supports
KBOO PLEDGE WEEK
Sat., Oct. 1 through Fri., Oct. 7
9 0 .7 F M
COMMUNITY RADIO
NON-COMMERCIAL •
231-8032
* LISTENER SUPPORTED
AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER
Why? Because KBOO provides...
Why? Because KBOO provides. . .
ACCESS FOR M IN O R IT IE S
who are largely dieenfrencbieed from the mein
stream media through regular programs such as Indian World. Environments East
W est, Bread and Roees end La Voz de La Communided.
ACCESS FOR THE PERSECUTED
covering the Black United Front 7-Up
boycott and running a four-part serie« on prison issues.
e
ACCESS TO IN FO R M A TIO N
placing a priority on covering unpopular end
minority causes across the political spectrum, and seeking out controversial per
spectives on important issues
ACCESS TO A W IDE DIVERSITY IN CULTURAL AND M USIC A L
PROGRAMMING
with programs such as Soul Haven, Gospel Unlimited. Blue's
in All end Jazz end More.
, '
KBOO, a nonprofit, com m unity controlled radio station depends
on listener support.
The Portland Observer, in support of KBOO, will provide a FREE six-
month subscription for each $25 pledge to the KBOO Foundation
which is send in w ith this coupon.
Send your $25 pledge
and this coupon to:
Evan th o u g h ha had th a n u m
ber one single and n u m b e r one
alb u m In th a co u n try . M ich ae l
Ja ck ao n c o u ld n 't g a t hla video
sh o w n on M T V u n til C B S th rea t
an ad to pull all o f th alr videos by
w h ite artists.
9° A
XX»
KBOO
20 SE 9th
Portland OR 97214
Name
P h on e.
Address_____
City end State
KBOO is an Equal Opportunity Employer
Zip
Pood • Pool
a* the Original Dixieland Jazz Band
arrived in New York to produce
what are commonly considered to
be the first jazz recordings. While
the group's contributions to the art
form have long since been discredit
ed, for a lime they collected a small
fortune in record royalties and per
formance fees. Meanwhile, truly
original dixieland musician* (they
didn't call it dixieland, by the way)
such a* King O liver, who had been
"G od ble** the child that'« got hi«
o w n .. . "
B i l l* Holiday