Laurent Dubois (Author)
The banjo has been called by many names over its history, but they all refer to the same sound―strings humming over skin―that has eased souls and electrified crowds for centuries. The Banjo invites us to hear that sound afresh in a biography of one of America’s iconic folk instruments. Attuned to a rich heritage spanning continents and cultures, Laurent Dubois traces the banjo from humble origins, revealing how it became one of the great stars of American musical life. In the seventeenth century, enslaved people in the Caribbean and North America drew on their memories of varied African musical traditions to construct instruments from carved-out gourds covered with animal skin. Providing a much-needed sense of rootedness, solidarity, and consolation, banjo picking became an essential part of black plantation life. White musicians took up the banjo in the nineteenth century, when it became the foundation of the minstrel show and began to be produced industrially on a large scale. Even as this instrument found its way into rural white communities, however, the banjo remained central to African American musical performance. Twentieth-century musicians incorporated the instrument into styles ranging from ragtime and jazz to Dixieland, bluegrass, reggae, and pop. Versatile and enduring, the banjo combines rhythm and melody into a single unmistakable sound that resonates with strength and purpose. From the earliest days of American history, the banjo’s sound has allowed folk musicians to create community and joy even while protesting oppression and injustice.
...MoreReview Charles L. Hughes (2017) Review of "The Banjo: America’s African Instrument". American Historical Review (pp. 1608-1609).
Thesis
Jamil W. Drake;
(2015)
To Know The Soul Of the People: The Field Study of the "Folk Negro" and The Making of Popular Religion in Modern America, 1924-1945
(/isis/citation/CBB248207346/)
Book
Case Watkins;
(2021)
Palm Oil Diaspora: Afro-Brazilian Landscapes and Economies on Bahia's Dendê Coast
(/isis/citation/CBB552327272/)
Thesis
Trott, Wendy Carmen;
(2003)
An Afrocentric Analysis of the Transition and Transformation of African Medicine (Root Medicine) as Spiritual Practice among Gullah People of Lowcountry South Carolina
(/isis/citation/CBB001562037/)
Article
Pablo F. Gómez;
(2022)
[Un]Muffled Histories: Translating Bodily Practices in the Early Modern Caribbean
(/isis/citation/CBB952747221/)
Article
Marcos José Bernal-Marcos;
Jorge Castro-Tejerina;
José Carlos Loredo-Narciandi;
(2017)
Psychological Keys in the Study of African American Religious Folk Songs in the Early Work of Howard W. Odum (1884–1954)
(/isis/citation/CBB095028498/)
Article
Zhang, Qiong;
(2009)
From “Dragonology” to Meteorology: Aristotelian Natural Philosophy and the Beginning of the Decline of the Dragon in China
(/isis/citation/CBB000932583/)
Article
Wood, Jennifer Linhart;
(2015)
An Organ's Metamorphosis: Thomas Dallam's Sonic Transformations in the Ottoman Empire
(/isis/citation/CBB001553169/)
Article
Avanti, Peter;
(January 2015)
Captivating Technologies: Reflections on the Equal-Tempered Diatonic Keyboard
(/isis/citation/CBB001550724/)
Book
Rath, Richard Cullen;
(2003)
How early America sounded
(/isis/citation/CBB001181335/)
Article
Sappol, Michael;
(2009)
The Odd Case of Charles Knowlton: Anatomical Performance, Medical Narrative, and Identity in Antebellum America
(/isis/citation/CBB000932561/)
Book
Millard, A. J.;
(2004)
The electric guitar: A history of an American icon
(/isis/citation/CBB001180133/)
Chapter
Braun, Hans-Joachim;
(2009)
Pulled out of thin air? The revival of the theremin
(/isis/citation/CBB001181184/)
Article
Katz, Mark;
(1998)
Making America more musical through the phonograph, 1900--1930
(/isis/citation/CBB001181261/)
Book
Glinsky, Albert;
(2000)
Theremin: Ether music and espionage
(/isis/citation/CBB001181240/)
Book
Shetterly, Margot Lee;
(2016)
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
(/isis/citation/CBB747088865/)
Article
Pamela Sankar;
Jonathan Kahn;
(2005)
BiDil: Race Medicine Or Race Marketing?
(/isis/citation/CBB017701425/)
Book
Willie, Jr Pearson;
H. Kenneth Bechtel;
(1989)
Blacks, Science, and American Education
(/isis/citation/CBB102546734/)
Book
Anacostia Neighborhood Museum;
(1970)
Science, Man's Greatest Adventure: An Exhibition Honoring Black Scientists and Their Achievements.
(/isis/citation/CBB301467754/)
Article
John Gruber;
(Fall/Winter 2014)
Delano Travels West
(/isis/citation/CBB828002204/)
Book
Long, Margaret Geneva;
(2012)
Doctoring Freedom: The Politics of African American Medical Care in Slavery and Emancipation
(/isis/citation/CBB001252883/)
Be the first to comment!