Mississippi John Hurt and Libba Cotten - history?

Subject: RE: Mississippi John Hurt and Libba Cotten - history?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 23 Sep 08 - 03:20 PM

Phil, interesting question.

I'm not sure how much in the way of personal possessions a slave could carry along with him/her when sold. Of course, some of that migration involved planters moving west to "greener pastures" with their slaves. In such cases, I would imagine that the slaves would be able to bring along more of their own stuff than when they were sold.

I certainly don't think you can assume that slaves did not possess and play instruments. I've always assumed, judging from old artwork, etc., that black Americans had harmonicas and banjos, even while bound in slavery, and probably guitars as well.

I find it hard to accept a theory claiming that the African-American traditions of instrumental music did not begin until after emancipation.

Subject: RE: Mississippi John Hurt and Libba Cotten - history?
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 23 Sep 08 - 09:33 PM

Yes, but what instrument? A fiddle, banjo, and drum were common during that time period, often played by for country dances and often by slaves. However, both modern classical and steel-string guitars weren't developed until the 1850s or so. Their parlor guitar predecessors would seem to be too fragile, quiet, and expensive for rural music. Maybe someone who knows more about music from the period can enlighten us a little more.

Piedmont sounds like two instruments when played on one guitar. I wonder if it might have started off as a way to mimic the sound of melody played on a fiddle or banjo and an alternating rhythm played on some other bass instrument (or maybe a drum).
- Phil

Subject: RE: Mississippi John Hurt and Libba Cotten - histo
From: Janie
Date: 23 Sep 08 - 11:50 PM

I think Piedmont blues is a relatively new style. According to Wikipedia, it derived from the earlier guitar and banjo styles of frailing or framming, ragtime, and parlour guitar styles.

Another article (links below to both Wikipedia and the UNC Ashville article), Piedmont Blues in some ways has more influence from "White" music than does Delta blues, but is also reflects West African roots.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piedmont_blues
http://facstaff.unca.edu/sinclair/piedmontblues/Default.htm

According to Mike Seeger, the guitar was a relatively late comer to the South in terms of being widely played. His album presenting Southern guitar styles starts with about 1850.

Don't forget how the railroad spread musical influences either. The rail line from New York to New Orleans carried blues and jazz musicians up and down through Maryland, DC, Virginia, across the North Carolina Piedmont through Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, Charlotte, then on through Atlanta and Western Georgia on a regular music and performance circuit. All kinds of cross-pollination of music occurred along the way (not to mention a thriving drug trade in cocaine and heroin dating back to the late 20's and early 30's.)

Janie

Subject: RE: Mississippi John Hurt and Libba Cotten - histo
From: Janie
Date: 23 Sep 08 - 11:56 PM

Map of the Crescent Amtrak route from New York to New Orleans. Essentially unchanged since the first train route between these these two great cities was completed. Compare to the region mapped in the unca article linked in the above post.

Subject: RE: Mississippi John Hurt and Libba Cotten - history?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 24 Sep 08 - 10:19 AM

Well, I stand corrected. I hadn't given any thought to how relatively "new" an instrument the present-day guitar is.

Nevertheless, I'm glad I put forth my misguided bit of speculation, if only to have prompted further discussion.

One statement with which I'd like to take issue:

Piedmont sounds like two instruments when played on one guitar.

Yeah, true enough ~ but the same can be said of quite a few other styles/traditions where the thumb plays in a steady rhythm on the bass strings while one, two, or three other fingers play more-or-less independent patterns and/or melody lines on the treble strings. Besides the Delta blues style that emerged in North Mississippi, that approach is seen in country music out of the white Appalachian community ~ e.g., "Travis" picking and Kentucky-style "thumbpicking."

It may well be true that this approach originated in the Piedmont region, since that area was settled by non-natives (Europeans and Africans) earlier than points further west. It's still impossible to know if what we describe today as "Piedmont style" is the original "sounds-like-two-instruments" method, or if it's simply one of several different subgenres all descended from some earlier playing style.

One thing is pretty much for sure: whoever first developed this highly sophisticated approach to guitar playing was absolutely an American folk musician, working/playing far outside the music establishment of conservatories, concert promotion, etc., and probably (though not necesarily) African-American.

I can't provide a citation, but I've read more than once about Andres Segovia's reaction to hearing a recording of this kind of solo guitar playing. (If I remember correctly, he was listening to Mississippi John Hurt himself, although I'm less sure about that part of the story.) The highly talented and deservedly renowned Segovia assumed he was listening to two players, and was dumbfounded when told that the sound was the work of a single player. If this old story is true, or even partly true, it's a good indication that centuries of European-based musical study and tradition had never come up with anything remotely like the folk-guitar fingerpicking that so many of us take for granted today.