Lost Delta Found

by Work, John Wesley; Jones, Lewis Wade; Adams, Samuel C., Jr.; Gordon, Robert; Nemerov, Bruce

• ISBN13: 9780826514851
• ISBN10: 0826514855
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-08-05
• Publisher: Vanderbilt Univ Pr

Summary

This remarkable book recovers three invaluable perspectives, long thought to have been lost, on the culture and music of the Mississippi Delta.In 1941 and '42 African American scholars from Fisk University--among them the noted composer and musicologist John W. Work, sociologist Lewis Wade Jones, and graduate student Samuel C. Adams, Jr.--joined folklorist Alan Lomax of the Library of Congress on research trips to Coahoma County, Mississippi. Their mission was to explore the musical habits and history of the black community there and "to document adequately the cultural and social backgrounds for music in the community." Among the fruits of the project were the earliest recordings by the legendary blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters. The hallmark of the study was to have been a joint publication of its findings by Fisk and the Library of Congress. However, the field notes and manuscripts by the Fisk researchers became lost in Washington. Lomax's own book drawing on the project’s findings,The Land Where the Blues Began, did not appear until 1993, and although it won a National Book Critics Circle Award, it was flawed by a number of historical inaccuracies.Recently uncovered by author and filmmaker Robert Gordon, the writings, interviews, notes, and musical transcriptions produced by Work, Jones, and Adams in the Coahoma County study now appear in print for the first time. Their work captures, with compelling immediacy, a place, a people, a way of life, and a set of rich musical traditions as they existed sixty years ago. Until the surfacing of these documents, Lomax's perspective was all that was known of the Coahoma County project and its research. Now, at last, the voices of the other contributors can be heard.Including essays by Bruce Nemerov and Gordon on the careers and contributions of Work, Jones, and Adams,Lost Delta Foundwill become an indispensable historical resource, as marvelously readable as it is enlightening.Illustrated with photos and more than 160 musical transcriptions.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xi
Acknowledgments	xiii
Preface	xv
Introduction	1	(26)
The Manuscripts
Introduction to Delta Manuscripts	27	(2)
``The Mississippi Delta''
Lewis W. Jones
Editors' Introduction	29	(2)
The Delta	31	(4)
The River and the Levee	35	(6)
The Pioneers	41	(14)
John Work's Untitled Manuscript
Editors' Introduction	51	(4)
The Church	55	(2)
The Music of the Church	57	(6)
The Sermon	63	(14)
The Folk-Quartet	77	(2)
Part II Saturday: Gambling in the Delta	78	(1)
Secular Music	79	(7)
The Instruments	86	(6)
Social Songs	92	(3)
Ballads	95	(2)
The Work Songs	97	(2)
Children's Game Songs	99	(28)
Appendix	111	(10)
Bibliography	121	(1)
General Index	122	(2)
Classified Index	124	(3)
John Work's Music Transcriptions	127	(188)
``Changing Negro Life in the Delta''
Samuel C. Adams
Editors' Introduction	223	(2)
Acknowledgments	225	(1)
Introduction	226	(3)
Social Change in the Delta	229	(8)
Negro Religious Life in Transition	237	(9)
Changing Folk Tales and Folk Songs	246	(25)
The Conclusion	271	(4)
Bibliography	273	(2)
Appendixes
Family Schedule and General Musical Questionnaire (Folk Culture Study)	275	(3)
Conflict and Adjustment	278	(4)
Interview with Ola Perkins	282	(2)
Interview with Albert Williams Jr.	284	(3)
Interview with Joe Cal	287	(4)
APPENDIXES
1 A Spark in Natchez	291	(203)
2 A Memorandum about the July Trip to Coahoma County	294	(4)
3 Report on Preliminary Work in Clarksdale, Mississippi	298	(4)
4 Memorandum to Charles S. Johnson from Lewis W. Jones	302	(9)
5 List of Records on Machines in Clarksdale Amusement Places	311	(4)
Afterword	315	(2)
Notes	317	(14)
Index of Transcriptions	331	(4)
General Index	335