Thursday, March 3, 2011

John Malveaux: “African Americans should proclaim 'blacks in all music'”

[John Malveaux]

John Malveaux draws our attention to this Letter To The Editor:

Long Beach, California
Letters To The Editor

“Blacks in all music
“Many African Americans take great pride in Black Music Month. I recall, without full details, when the concept and first Black Music convention/symposium was spearheaded by CBS Records and major African American music executives.

“One of the invited speakers at an early convention/symposium was African American Robert 'Bumps' Blackwell. During the years of race music and segregated radio 'Bumps' produced the first record to cross from black radio to reach No. 1 on pop or mainstream radio. Sam Cooke was the artist and the record was 'You Send Me.' 'Bumps' is credited with discovering, producing and managing Little Richard and contributed to the development of Roy Harris's 10th Symphony.

“To the great surprise of the organizers and attendees of the Black Music Month convention, 'Bumps' argued against the concept. 'Bumps' believed that if African Americans argued for and supported the concept of Black Music Month, we African Americans were being bamboozled and justifying or permitting whites to take all the credit in classical or so-called European music. 'Bumps' postured that African Americans should proclaim 'blacks in all music'.”
John Malveaux
Long Beach

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