MUS2114: Black Music and Music Education

The Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music is a comprehensive reference source covering all aspects of both African American and white gospel from history and performers to recording techniques and styles, as well as the influence of gospel on different musical genres and cultural trends. Now available in paperback, this work is a valuable reference for both scholars and the general reader. Organized alphabetically to facilitate searching, this encyclopedia also contains many reference tools to aid the user such as bibliographic and references at the end of entries, a thorough and analytical index, and black-and-white illustrations. Entries include: biographical profiles of numerous performers, such as Andrae Crouch, and influential figures in the development of gospel music, such as Isaac Watts important events in the history of gospel such as the Azusa Street Revival broadcasting outlets, such as radio station WLAC AM, and record companies, such as Canaan Records, that were prominent in gospel's history publications, such as The Singing News, significant songbooks, such as Gospel Pearls, and noteworthy publishing companies, such as Lillenas, all of which helped popularize some of the best-known gospel songs topics ranging from instruments frequently used by gospel performers to types of performing groups, such as gospel quartets and gospel choirs, to the unique qualities of gospel as it is composed and performed in different regions around the United States, to the globalization of gospel.

The Black Arts Movement (BAM) encompassed a group of artists, musicians, novelists, and playwrights whose work combined innovative approaches to literature, film, music, visual arts, and theatre. With a heightened consciousness of black agency and autonomy-along with the radical politics of the civil rights movement, the Black Muslims, and the Black Panthers-these figures represented a collective effort to defy the status quo of American life and culture. Between the late 1950s and the end of the 1970s, the movement produced some of America's most original and controversial artists and intellectuals. In Encyclopedia of the Blacks Arts Movement, Verner D. Mitchell and Cynthia Davis have collected essays on the key figures of the movement, including Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Larry Neal, Sun Ra, Sonia Sanchez, Ntozake Shange, and Archie Shepp. Additional entries focus on Black Theatre magazine, the Negro Ensemble Company, lesser known individuals-including Kathleen Collins, Tom Dent, Bill Gunn, June Jordan, and Barbara Ann Teer-and groups, such as AfriCOBRA and the New York Umbra Poetry Workshop. The Black Arts Movement represented the most prolific expression of African American literature since the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Featuring essays by contemporary scholars and rare photographs of BAM artists, Encyclopedia of the Blacks Arts Movement is an essential reference for students and scholars of twentieth-century American literature and African American cultural studies.

This comprehensive guide is a must-have for the multitude of fans of this best-selling genre of popular music. Uncloudy Days is a treasure chest of substantial profiles on the influential names in gospel music history such as Thomas Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, the Hawkins family, Clara Ward, James Cleveland, and the Winans. It also uncovers the history of one hit wonders and others who are not as familiar to gospel music fans. Everyone has a story to share and this book tells more than 500 of them, many based on personal interviews, including the trials and tribulations endured by so many gospel artists. The author offers entertaining and informative reviews that lead readers to the best recordings by their favorite artists and help them find new music to explore. A glossary of terms and numerous charts showing the best-selling gospel recordings and videos of all time round out this entertaining and indispensable resource for current fans and new converts alike.