Skip to main content

Hot Chocolate


I've been listening to the new album by the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Such a wonderful mix of very traditional folk and skiffle band music with some blues arrangements and some more contemporary things.
One of the pieces is called a traditional "Negro Jig." That's just what it is, a traditional jog that was played by African American musicians. I've been explaining to some of my friends that dating back to the "peculiar institution" (slavery) there is a long heritage of Black jug bands and fiddle tunes. Given that the banjo (banjar) came over from west Africa, and the fiddle was part of the English Irish tradition, it's easy to see how this very American original music developed. It's important to note, also, that when African Americans held as slaves were skilled musicians that meant they had some special opportunities to make money being rented out by their owners for dances, parties, and various celebrations and holidays. Trouble was they rarely kept all the money they earned, if any at all.
When I see these talented young African Americans that call themselves the Carolina Chocolate Drops I see their history. I love that they have embraced this music because it keeps it alive. It also completes some long lost broken cycle. This time they keep the money for their talent and the pleasure they bring to all fortunate enough to hear them.
I was reading a review of their album recently that mentioned how dicey it is to record black string band music because the original is still available. Seems to me that just seeing this trip perform can do wonders for our acoustic-challenged music culture.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

To a Tee

 I'm a sucker for a good t-shirt.  They are the foundational garment of my life.  My day starts with selecting a t-shirt and it ends with sleeping in one.  Once thought of as under garments, t-shirts are now original art and no doubt, a billion dollar business.   You can get a t-shirt with anybody's picture displayed.  You can commemorate an event, a birthday, a death, even a specular play in any sport.  Family reunions usually have a commemorative t-shirt.  Also, any organization that solicits your support in the form of a donation is likely to offer you a t-shirt. Where once I only had the basic white t-shirt, my drawers are filled with all manner of colorful choices.  Some recognize major events in my life, some, spectacular performances or plays I have witnessed, and some unforgettable places I have been.   I say I'm a sucker for a good t-shirt because I have taken the bait on what I perceived as a must-have only to be disappointed. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Body Language

I'm sitting there in a hospital gown, waiting for my doctor to complete my yearly physical.  This is when I look at everything on the walls, read the medical posters, the instructions on any equipment in the room, look in every corner and behind every chair.  I study the paper on the examination table, laugh out loud at the picture of a smiling child holding a bouquet of broccoli, and the note the placement of the computer in the room. Finally, wondering if the gown I'm wearing is on correctly, I focus on myself.  At this point in my life I'm fairly comfortable in a doctor's office.  But it always seems to take so long when waiting for the doc to enter.  So I fidget.  Then I begin a tour of myself.  Scars are tattoos.  I look at the one on my knee and see myself at 12.  Whittling a piece of wood with my Boy Scout jack knife.  The blade slips and I cut a crescent slash through my jeans and into my flesh for life.  50 years later ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sex, Religion, and Politics

Watching TV to keep up with the news is like going to a party.  Sex, religion and politics, in any order.  Those are the topics of choice.  We hear about "twerking," and are confronted with all manner of exhibitionism in local news.  Should women be wearing yoga pants in non-yoga areas.  The office, the workplace, school, church...and that's just the teachers! Religion encroaches in all the right places.  Christian Mingle, the online dating service pops up on the screen during the grisliest of crime shows, the politician's speeches and the sit-coms so full of sexual innuendo that every second of canned laughter barely hides the grins, the gasps, the outcries, or the mindless guffaws. So what's the message?  Are we a society and culture in decline or just rapidly changing?  Probably both.  I recall a student once coming to school with a most offensive tee shirt.  Offensive in that the cartoon image on the front made it impossible for hi...
Post a Comment
Read more