Mississipp​i - The Birthplace Of American Music. Yes!

reply to post by DaphneApollo

I would say "ALL" music comes from God.

To a religious person, of course, all things come from God. Still, most things also have a point of origin in space and time, whence we can trace their development. That is all I am trying to do.

Why don't you post some examples of the music spoken about in your post. Some African music that shows a connection to all your points.

A piece of American music will serve better.


Dock Boggs was an Appalachian banjo player who was deeply influenced in his youth by a black guitarist named Go Lightning. Boggs himself was white. He recorded 'Pretty Polly' in 1927. The song is an ancient English murder ballad, also known by the titles 'The Gosport Tragedy' or 'The Cruel Ship's Carpenter'; Boggs retains the tradional lyrics, but sings and plays in a manner strongly reminiscent of West African griot music. The vocal pitching and phrasing, especially, show the influence.

This recording beautifully exemplifies the marriage between the two streams of African music that merged in America.

Originally posted by tanda7
reply to post by DaphneApollo

 

Mickey Gillie's from Natchez?! Didn't know that. Always assumed he was from TX because of his bar and all.

I'm amazed how many famous musicians were born in this state. MS is roughly 47,000 square miles. I challenge anyone to show us any comparable sized area, anywhere, that has produced more.

By the way The Marshal Drew Band got the attention of everyone in the house. Big applause.

edit on 16-8-2012 by tanda7 because: (no reason given)

I just realized England is roughly 50,000 square miles. I retract the challenge.

edit on 17-8-2012 by tanda7 because: didn't think it through

Sorry, I had to crash. Got so sleepy. I'm glad yawl' liked the Marshal Drew Band. Thanks.

Even if alot of artists come from Chicago, some states on the Eastern half of the country, they probably still come from MS somewhere in their line.

I must give a shout out to our Band of Choctaw Indians in Philladelphia, MS (North MS toward Starkville and home of Mississippi State University)

Choctaw Powwow: Dancing

Originally posted by Astyanax
reply to post by DaphneApollo

 

I would say "ALL" music comes from God.

To a religious person, of course, all things come from God. Still, most things also have a point of origin in space and time, whence we can trace their development. That is all I am trying to do.

Why don't you post some examples of the music spoken about in your post. Some African music that shows a connection to all your points.

A piece of American music will serve better.

Dock Boggs was an Appalachian banjo player who was deeply influenced in his youth by a black guitarist named Go Lightning. Boggs himself was white. He recorded 'Pretty Polly' in 1927. The song is an ancient English murder ballad, also known by the titles 'The Gosport Tragedy' or 'The Cruel Ship's Carpenter'; Boggs retains the tradional lyrics, but sings and plays in a manner strongly reminiscent of West African griot music. The vocal pitching and phrasing, especially, show the influence.

This recording beautifully exemplifies the marriage between the two streams of African music that merged in America.

This video within the first few seconds reminded me of the music played in the movie "Brother Where Art Thou"

O Brother, Where Art Thou? - Ten Million Slaves Music Video (Don't know who sings this, vid says actual recording of prisoners in 1959)


Oh Brother where art thou - Man of constant sorrow

Eddie Boyd - Five Long Years (Clarksdale, MS)



Eric Clapton covering same song

reply to post by DaphneApollo

The song 'Ten Million Slaves' is by someone called Otis Taylor. It's a very recent recording – you can tell by the singing style and the production, not to mention the distorted electric guitar that kicks things off (or is it a banjo played through a fuzzbox?) The version of 'Man of Constant Sorrow' is also new – Wikipedia says this version was recorded by Dan Tyminski, Harley Allen, and Pat Enright, whoever they may be, for the film you mentioned. The acoustic guitar is very rock-influenced and is recorded in a very hi-tech, intimate way – you couldn't get that sound before multitrack and modern studio techniques made it possible to mic things up close and mix them later. The song itself is very old – first documented in 1913, probably older than that – but 100% American.

The similarity you hear to Boggs is probably the part played on the banjo – it's pretty close to what we now call bluegrass picking, which is what you hear on 'Ten Million Slaves'. The singing on 'Man of Constant Sorrow' also sounds as if its from the hillbilly (no slur intended) tradition.

But the real similarities to African music lie elsewhere, in Boggs' vocal style and the phrasing.

Now listen to this and tell me what it reminds you of.

reply to post by Astyanax

Now listen to this and tell me what it reminds you of.

Personally this video reminds me of Afro-Carribean music.

reply to post by WhisperingWinds

Nice. Isn't that a Muddy Waters original, though? The Rolling Stones took their name from it!

Originally posted by Astyanax
reply to post by WhisperingWinds

 

Nice. Isn't that a Muddy Waters original, though? The Rolling Stones took their name from it!

Indeed it is.



Seems to be a favorite among blues artists.. and all versions seem to have their own particular flavor unique to the artist.

Originally posted by Astyanax
reply to post by tanda7

 

Can we conclude that all music has it's roots in Africa?

Music is a human universal. All cultures and peoples have music. Because of this, biologists and anthropologists have long suspected that music serves an adaptive function of some kind – that human beings need it to survive and reproduce – and that the origins of music are older than those of language. We could sing before we could talk.

We must suppose that the rhythms and cadences of oratory are derived from previously developed musical powers. We can thus understand how it is that music, dancing, song, and poetry are such very ancient arts. We may go even further than this, and, as remarked in a former chapter, believe that musical sounds afforded one of the bases for the development of language.


– Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, Chapter 19

Modern research has strongly borne out Darwin's intuition – as you may read, if you like, in Steven Mithen's book, The Singing Neanderthals. This review of Mithen's book by the University of Washington anthropologist Ellen Dissanayake, gives an incidental survey of modern work on the subject.

Science tells us humankind originated in Africa, spreading out from that continent to colonize the rest of the world. If we could sing before we could talk, then music, too, must have emerged, originally, in Africa. Naturally, this does not mean all musical sounds, scales, rhythms, etc., were invented there; the music of Mississippi is not the music of Mali; the sound of Nashville is not the sound of the Nuba.

It is easy for me to imagine prehistoric man imitating the sounds heard in nature and enjoying the musical qualities produced when harmonizing multiple sounds. I can picture early man being fascinated by the sound of a stick hitting a hollow log, and the changing pitch achieved by striking that log in different places. I wouldn't be surprised if percussion was the first non-vocal music. During long winter nights, assuming security was not an issue, I imagine a chorus of percussion instruments providing hours of entertainment. They might even believe the "music" could have even contributed to their security by warding off danger. It would certainly have been comforting psychologically.

Originally posted by Astyanax
reply to post by WhisperingWinds

 

Nice. Isn't that a Muddy Waters original, though? The Rolling Stones took their name from it!

I once heard that Pink Floyd took their name from blues musicians but don't know if that is true.
This song certainly demonstrates their love for the genre.

It seems to me that British rock bands helped bring delta blues to the masses. This song was recorded by a few different American artist (Howling Wolf, Etta James, Willie Dixon) but I bet most people heard it for the first time because of this version.

I've been trying to link this guitar master with MS but have been unable to. However he is considered one of the more influential guitarist of his time. I'm sure most if not all of our MS blues artist who came after him listened and watched with envy.

Apparently he was inspired by this fellow Texan;

According to Mashed Potatoes Johnson, "If you want to be a real blues man, you have to sell your soul to the devil"

This may be a very common scene at the MS "Crossroads"

Lester Davenport - Stop Beggin' Me (Tchula, MS)



Mad dog lester Davenport - So long

reply to post by tanda7

According to Mashed Potatoes Johnson, "If you want to be a real blues man, you have to sell your soul to the devil" This may be a very common scene at the MS "Crossroads"

How sad that any musician would go to that extreme just to excel in music .Guess it gives them something to sing the blues about ..

That genre isn't the only one that has musicians selling their souls to the dark side though. I think its prevalent and getting more so , in many of the genres of today music, especially commercialized stuff .

I wish it wasn't so..

Born near Aberdeen MS, Bukka White

Interesting article on wiki
en.wikipedia.org...

How sad that any musician would go to that extreme just to excel in music .Guess it gives them something to sing the blues about ..

I don't really believe this is something that actually occurs. I think the notion was popularized by the rumor about Robert Johnson having done so. But I agree, nothing would be worth that sort of sacrifice. My posting this clip was just an attempt at humor and seemed to be somewhat relevant.

I guess I still have not mastered the quote function. The above is a reply to WW's post.

reply to post by tanda7

I don't really believe this is something that actually occurs.

I have a feeling it occurs much more than we realize, perhaps not at the crossroads ,though I'm sure it happens there on occasion.

You may have been joking, but I think you may have touched on something that is actually very real , especially in other genres of music.

but...back to happy thoughts, or at least the appreciation of the southern influence in certain music genres.