Freedom Music

Jen Wilson

Description

Zen and the Art of Thelonious Monk in On My Life: Women’s Writing from Wales, ed. By Leigh Verrill-Rhys, Honno, 1989

The Devil’s Music, Swansea Clerics and the Women’s Institute: Women’s Jazz Between the Wars, in PLANET, The Welsh Internationalist, ed. John Barnie, 1999

Jessie Donaldson The Swansea Abolitionist, in Minerva Volume X11, the Journal of the Royal Institution of South Wales, ed. Jenny Sabine 2004

Redefining the Sixties Myth, in Changing Times: Welsh women writing on the 1950s and 1960s, ed. Dierdre Beddoe, Honno 2003

Wales and Negro Minstrelsy: a socio-cultural interchange 1830-1910 in PLANET The Welsh Internationalist, ed. John Barnie 2006

Jazzing the Hwyl – Women in Wales and the African American Legacy 1874-1935, in Women in Jazz/Donne in Jazz, ed.by Fondazione Adkins Chiti: Donne in Music, Editore Colombo, International Music Council, Ministero per I Beni e le Attivita Culturali, Universita degli Studi "Roma Tre" 2008

Looking for Bessie Smith, in PLANET, The Welsh Internationalist, ed. By Helle Michelsen, 2009

This book reclaims for Wales the history and culture of a music that eventually emerged as jazz in the 1920s, its tendrils and roots extending back to slave songs and abolition campaign songs, and Swansea’s long-forgotten connection with Cincinnati, Ohio. The main themes of the book are to illustrate and emphasise the strong links between emerging African American music in the USA and the development of jazz in mainstream popular culture in Wales; the emancipation and contribution of Welsh women to the music and its social-cultural heritage; and an historical appraisal as the music journeyed towards the Second World War and into living memory. The jazz story is set amid the politics, socio-cultural and feminist history of the time from whence the music emerged – which begs the question ‘When Was Jazz?’ (to echo Gwyn A. Williams in 1985, who asked ‘When Was Wales?’). If jazz is described as ‘the music of protest and rebellion’, then there was certainly plenty going on during the jazz age in Wales.

Dedication
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Illustrations
Introduction
The Life, Times and Music of Abolitionist Jessie Donaldson (1799–1889)
Doing the Plantation Walkaround Skedaddle
The Fisk Jubilee Singers in Wales, Freed Slaves and their Songs
Ragtime and the Cake Walk: On Stage and in the Workhouse
The First World War: Ragtime Trenches and Suffragettes
Cafe Society: The Jazz Age
Cutting a Rug to the Second World War: Jews and ‘Negro Morals’
Fair Treatment for the ‘Fair Sex’?
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Musique
• Histoire de la musique
• Histoire
• Great Britain
• History
• Wales
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: University of Wales Press
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781786834089
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

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 F REEDOM M USIC  WALES, EMANCIPATION & JAZZ 1850–1950

JEN WILSON

F r e e d o m M u s i c

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Freedom Music Wales, Emancipation and Jazz 1850–1950

Jen Wilson

University of Wales Press 2019

© Jen Wilson, 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to The University of Wales Press, University Registry, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3NS www.uwp.co.uk

British Library CataloguinginPublication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN eISBN

9781786834072 9781786834089

The right of Jen Wilson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The publisher acknowledges the financial support of the Welsh Books Council.

Typeset by Eira Fenn Gaunt, Pentyrch

Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Melksham

For Haulwen my mother who played piano, Bill my father who played ukulele and brother John who played drums.

Without the following two people this book would not have been written: Dr Ursula Masson (1945–2008) who kickstarted my discovery of education, and my husband Mike, a wellread man. Thank you for the support and encouragement. Sons Rhydderch, Meredydd and Owain still talk to me, and grandson Marty.

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Dedication Foreword Preface Acknowledgements Illustrations

Introduction

Contents

1 The Life, Times and Music of Swansea Abolitionist Jessie  Donaldson (1799–1889) 2 Doing the Plantation Walkaround Skedaddle 3 The Fisk Jubilee Singers in Wales, Freed Slaves and  their Songs 4 Ragtime and the Cake Walk: On Stage and in the  Workhouse 5 The First World War: Ragtime Trenches and Suffragettes 6 Café Society: The Jazz Age 7 Cutting a Rug to the Second World War: Jews and ‘Negro  Morals’ 8 Fair Treatment for the ‘Fair Sex’?

Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

v ix xiii xvii xxiii

1

13 51

83

111 129 153

183 223

253 259 295 305

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Foreword

Deirdre Beddoe, Emeritus Professor of Women’s History at the University of South Wales I am delighted to be invited to provide a short foreword toFreedom Music. I cannot claim to be an expert on jazz or indeed on any type of music. My expertise lies in the history of women in Wales and this book makes an important contribution to both women’s history and to the history of popular culture in Wales. It demolishes the popular conception that all Welsh music was chapel based and dominated by male voice choirs. And it also shows the importance of women performers in the development of jazz and in other areas of popular musical entertainment.Freedom Music brings to our attention for the first time the part played by Welsh women both in the USA and in Wales in the antislavery movement. This book makes a key contribution not only to the history of music but to the history of Wales. Clearly American music, be it jazz or Negro minstrel performances, was a diversion and a delight to the Welsh urban working class. To me personally, it explains my father’s delight in performing the Charleston well into his later years!

Sir Deian Hopkin, Former ViceChancellor of London South Bank University and retired President of the National Library of Wales In recent years, there has been increased interest in the history of jazz in Wales as a new generation of accomplished and innovative Welsh musicians, both women and men, make their mark in Britain and inter nationally. While we await a comprehensive account of jazz from Harry Parry and Dill Jones to the present day, we now have an enthralling and original account of the role of women in the early days of jazz in Wales. Jen Wilson, herself an accomplished jazz pianist and performer,