Azizi, the first stirrings of American jazz was in Congo Square in New Orleans where people came to dance, play percussion and party. It would be interesting to me to find out what that music sounded like.

Your blog is terrific and well-needed since not enough research has been done in African-American song and dance and its roots in other countries. I'm sure you have researched
Zora Neale Hurston and her contribution to African-American folklore. Her favorite song
was "John Henry" and it plays like a dance tune. There is an antecedent, "The Circumcision
Ritual from Barbira" which has a similar tune. The movement of John Henry's "shaker" as well as the wielding of the nine pound hammer has been choreographed by modern interpretive dancers.

Tracing back the tunes and dances to other parts of the world is an important task.

As I mentioned to you before, Bessie Jones and Bess Hawes book "Step It Down" is a classic document of Georgia Sea Island music.

Some further research needs to be done on the Menhaden fishing community off the coast of Virginia. It's a small fish that used to be used for industrial purposes and the African-American fishermen had their own songs. It well might be the cultural root of "Micheal Row The Boat Ashore". It needs exploring.

Tony Thomas has done great research on the evolution of the "Black banjo", the actual
players of the instrument that was disseminated throughout the Southern U.S. as a dance instrument.

Black banjo

The African-American song was really never separated from the dance forms. These ring games and dance forms need to be documented and made to be reproduced.

The song "Jump Down, Turn Around, Pick a Bale of Cotton" is a dance tune which I've seen done. It might even be the precursor of "Jump Jim Crow" which was popularized by a white minstrel showman, "Daddy" Rice. Much of the dance music and banjo was taken from actual slave players by white showmen and popularized in the same way the Sam Phillips appropriated rhythm and blues (race records) for Elvis Presley and others on his Sun record label.

You may or may not know that the Broadway "folk opera" Porgy and Bess was written in Folly Beach, N.C. in the summer when the Gershwins and DuBose Heyward spent time researching the "praise houses" in the black community. George was reputed to have joined in with the local singer/dancers.

Keep up the good work. It's well needed.