Words And Songs Of Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, And Nina Simone: Sound Motion, Blues Spirit, And African Memory (studies In African American History And Culture)
by Melanie E. Bratcher /
2007 / English / PDF
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This book explores the relationship between three African
American women's dance-art-music sensibilities within the context
of a Pan African aesthetic. Its purpose is three-fold: to show
commonalities between Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Nina
Simone's lives and original compositions; to codify, examine and
evaluate their selected song performances in accordance with the
Pan African aesthetic "Nzuri theory/model;" and to illuminate the
vast sources of transformational values that aesthetic analysis
of African American song performance can foster.
This book explores the relationship between three African
American women's dance-art-music sensibilities within the context
of a Pan African aesthetic. Its purpose is three-fold: to show
commonalities between Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Nina
Simone's lives and original compositions; to codify, examine and
evaluate their selected song performances in accordance with the
Pan African aesthetic "Nzuri theory/model;" and to illuminate the
vast sources of transformational values that aesthetic analysis
of African American song performance can foster.
Following concordant procedures and principles of Afrocentricity,
the study focuses on Smith, Holiday and Simone's performances as
part of a whole African artistic and cultural value system. The
goal of the Afrocentric methodological structure is to locate
relevant African dynamics in songs and to promote knowledge for
cultural transformation and continuity. Its use in this study
provides meta-criteria for analyzing African American music,
which the author has used to uniquely argue connections between
African cultural memory and African-derived cultural expression.
Following concordant procedures and principles of Afrocentricity,
the study focuses on Smith, Holiday and Simone's performances as
part of a whole African artistic and cultural value system. The
goal of the Afrocentric methodological structure is to locate
relevant African dynamics in songs and to promote knowledge for
cultural transformation and continuity. Its use in this study
provides meta-criteria for analyzing African American music,
which the author has used to uniquely argue connections between
African cultural memory and African-derived cultural expression.