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Great article. Recently been ruminating about the influence of West African culture and it's influence on the Western art vis-a-vis music like Jazz and and even
by fiifiappiah 5y ago
Great article. Recently been ruminating about the influence of West African culture and it's influence on the Western art vis-a-vis music like Jazz and and even Caribbean music and how it finds it's way back again on the continent as "foreign" music or art.
- seanhunter 5y agoIt's really big. If you listen to Bembe or High Life music, you realise the whole 6 vs 4 rhythmic thing that is a fundamental crossrythm in Jazz and a big part of the Swing thing as well as being at the root of "Afro-Cuban" music is fundamentally West African. As well as Louis, Dizzy Gillespie, Coltrane, Mingus, Pharaoh Sanders, Sun Ra, Miles and many others explored this African connection a lot. If you're interested in studying this further iirc Gunther Schuller discussed it in "Early Jazz" (one of the first books about Jazz History that actually isn't terrible from a musicological point of view) and Nicholas Cook also discusses it in "Music, Imagination and Culture" (which is an amazing book). Both of those will give you a "Western" perspective of the influence. I don't know a great reference I can recommend from an African point of view unfortunately.
- tombh 5y agoYou might be interested in this r/AskHistorians post https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/r5m4rs/how_long_did_islam_survive_among_slaves_in_the/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/r5m4rs/how_l... It explores the overlap between West African and African-American music.