Geography of Black Music in America

Black folks often write about Black Music in terms of a personality or their latest hit record or concert. Those approaches are entertaining and often enlightening, particularly for readers who have little background knowledge about the artist. But if we also examine important aspects of Black Music in a geographic and chronologic manner, your point of view can take on an exciting new dimension that helps tie old school with new school Black Music! Such a "bird's eye view" of Black Music also has cultural tourism significance to our many visitors.

As our regular visitors know, over the years, SoulOfAmerica.com has been accumulating many pages of Black Music Traditions for cities around the nation. Simultaneously, our partner Soul-Patrol.com founded by Bob Davis, has accumulated a library of musical artist reviews, interviews and audio clips. Although Bob and I are far from satisfied with our mutual project, there's enough here to trigger old school and new school curiosity about the roots of Black Music in ways that are impossible to do in any other medium. Besides ... why wait for another Black Music icon to pass without placing their contribution in a larger context for all to appreciate. As this project gets richer with more editorial, photos, audio clips and forums, we are convinced that it will become a cultural treasure of national significance.

We'll save you the time of criticizing Part I for not having music articles and artist reviews for New York City, Houston, Washington and Boston yet. They're coming. We plead another mea culpa for lacking more background information on artists' musical roots, like James Brown in Georgia, Solomon Burke in Chicago as well as Nelly in St. Louis and Chris Brown in Tappahannock. Virginia. Our biggest mea culpa is the missing background info on Hip-Hop. We planned to but got caught in the Michael Jackson Tribute whirlwind. As we address those content holes, we'll maintain a Geography of Black Music link on our Home page in the Special Categories by City section.

Thomas A. Dorsey memorial at Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago
(just before the fire)

BLACK MUSIC GENESIS - OVERVIEW

   Black music was born in the agony on slave plantations that sparked Negro spirituals and in devilish moments, sparked others to sing the Blues while the moonshine flowed. Hence, no one can assign an accurate birth date or originator for those musical genres in non-commercial times.

    The lineage of commercial Black Music points to five sources: Buddy Bolden (New Orleans) invented Jazz. Scott Joplin (St.Louis) invented Ragtime. W.C. Handy (Memphis) published the first catalog of Blues music. Thomas A. Dorsey (Georgia to Chicago), the Father of Gospel music, got a huge assist from Mahalia Jackson (New Orleans), the Queen of Gospel, popularizing the genre. Continent-trotting bandleader and entertainer Louis Jordan (Arkansas), was the Father of R&B.

    The evolution of R&B was further propelled by an old “Blues Shouter” named Big Joe Turner (Los Angeles), Ruth Brown (Virginia-DC-New York) and Ike Turner (St. Louis), the Artist & Repertoire man who authored the first Rock n’ Roll record, discovered Tina Turner and Jackie Wilson, and introduced Elvis Presley and B.B. King to Sun Records. Early Rock n’ Roll was further shaped by Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Little Richard who remained tied to the music genre, even as its commercial support and artistic growth crossed over to white audiences.

Bo Diddley, "The Originator" from McComb, Mississippi

You could not be a successful Black music artist in the 1950s without the constituent elements of Soul (Gospel, Jazz, Blues and/or R&B) somewhere in your background. So the inventor of Soul music is a hazy subject for debate among music historians. But the conditions for Soul music to sprout artistically were perfectly clear in Memphis, New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York and Los Angeles.

Large talent polls were born in or migrated to those markets including, Ray Charles, James Brown, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Etta James, Solomon Burke, Jackie Wilson, Curtis Mayfield, Jerry Butler, Nina Simone and the Isley Brothers, who all put their stamp on Soul music from during its formative years of 1955-1958. Simultaneously, record companies including, but not limited to Vee Jay, Chess, King and Mercury in Chicago, Stax in Memphis, Motown in Detroit, and Atlantic in New York City added urban sophistication while preserving Black cultural authenticity while expanded Soul Music as a commercially healthy, alternative to the White-influenced evolution of Rock n’ Roll. Partly as an alternative to the evolution of Rock n' Roll, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Otis Redding, Jerry Butler and Motown took Soul Music to another level in the 1960s.

Founded in 1971, Philadelphia International Records gave Soul music a life extension after the near-death experience caused by Disco, up to Hip-Hop’s rise to prominence.

With the recent deaths of Ray Charles, James Brown, Ike Turner, Bo Diddley and Isaac Hayes, the Black Music ecosystem is taking more time to reflect on the towering figures who inspired its artistic growth. Even elder Hip-Hop stars are recognizing the importance of our musical legacy. Age has a way of doing that. See this Black Music article written by Bob Davis in Elmore magazine, then dive into the Geography of Black Music in America articles below.

Atlanta

Baltimore
Baton Rouge
Birmingham

Charleston
Chicago Blues
Chicago Gospel
Chicago Soul
Cleveland

Dallas
Detroit
Durham

Indianapolis

Jackson

Kansas City

Las Vegas
Los Angeles

Memphis Blues
Memphis Rock & Roll
Memphis Soul

Nashville
New Orleans Jazz
New Orleans Blues
New Orleans Gospel
New York Soul Music

Philadelphia

Pittsburgh

St. Louis Ragtime
St. Louis Blues to R&B
St. Louis Josephine to Nelly
San Francisco & Oakland Funk

BLACK CULTURAL TRAVEL MADE EASY