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FAMOUS NEGRO MUSIC MAKERS by Langston Hughes

FAMOUS NEGRO MUSIC MAKERS

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Pub Date: Sept. 26th, 1955
Publisher: Dodd, Mead

Some of Langston Hughes' liveliness and depth of feeling as a poet come into these twenty or so sketches of Negro musicians who have enriched our culture. Starting with the Fisk Jubilee Singers, seven of whom were born in slavery, Hughes tells how all suffered post-Civil War hardships while they furthered a significant branch of Negro music. Continuing with a wealth of other names- James A. Bland the minstrel composer, Leadbelly who caught the essence of folk music, Roland Hayes and Marian Anderson- two concert artists, Duke Ellington and more, the accounts indicate both qualities and meanings of the wide varieties of Negro music. A good market for this lies in the interest in jazz and Negro music.