51³ÉÈËÁÔÆæ

Course Description

Summary

Bands of today have a deep American ancestry. Minstrel bands in blackface snapped their banjos to the backbeat, clicked bones in swing-time and ran gags that begat shtick. Regional pride was embedded in every town's homeboy brass band, decked out in gold braid uniforms, mustaches, and the latest European harmony, these outdoor musical armies broadcast more than tunes - sex, fashion, and Civil War politics for starters. After the war, the newborn Black show biz offered bands of jubilee singers and Black blackface minstrels, tight-knit troupes who grew into barbershop "quartets", answered by singing Country family-bands. But that's just the beginning... Music literacy and some exposure to harmonic theory strongly encouraged.