Work songs, ritual and festive music... the slavery sounds and rhythms have left a considerable mark on American popular music. In a 44-page critical essay Bruno Blum here details recordings inspired by that legacy, alongside performances of music composed in the days of slavery. He shows their influences from the Congo to the Caribbean and from Brazil to the USA. The intensity of these magnificient recordings – from songs of hope to the abolition of slavery, up to the Civil Rights movement and the flowering of free jazz – is a testimony of human resiliency. The titles included here recount the course of a major socio cultural event in our history.
CD 1 - Slavery
01. Lulua Men - Kabondo musambo wa changachange
02. Maboudana & Badolo - Chant d'invitation à la danse
03. Oscar Brown Jr. - Bid 'em in
04. Max Roach & Abbey Lincoln - Driva' man
05. Michel Larue - How come me here
06. The Mighty sparrow - The slave
07. Michel Larue - Before the sun goes down
08. 22 & Group - Early in the mornin'
09. Duke Ellington - Song of the cotton field
10. B.B. & Group - Old Alabama
11. John Davis - Carrie belle
12. Bo Diddley - Working man
13. Libera Bordereau & Ti Yogan - M'pa bwè m'pas mangé
14. Bessie Jones - The buzzard lope
15. John Davis & The Spiritual singers of Georgia - Hard times in ol' Virginia
16. Bo Diddley - Say boss man
17. Jules Sims - Bagai sama que pochery moin
18. King Radio, The Tiger, The Lion - Don't break it I say
19. Ensemble de quadrille guadeloupéen - L'été
20. John Canoe group - John canoe music
21. Mardi Gras Indians - To-wa-bac-a-way, the indian race
22. Eugene List - Bamboula - Danse des nègres, Op. 2
CD 2 - Songs of freedom
01. Zé Espinguela e grupo do Rae Alufa - Macumba de oxóssi
02. Lena Hibbert - La famille lifait ca
03. Red Saunders - Voodoo blues
04. Libera Bordereau - Coté yo, coté yo
05. Mongo Santamaria - Tele mina for chango
06. Marcus Garvey - If death has power
07. The Talbot brothers - Zombie jamboree
08. Michel Larue - This little light of mine
09. John Davis & The Spiritual singers of Georgia - Moses
10. Michel Larue - Better day a-coming
11. Bessie Jones - Turkle dove
12. John Davis & The Spiritual singers of Georgia - Live humble
13. Mahalia Jackson - Summertime , Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
14. The Golden gate jubilee quartet - Massa's in the cold cold ground
15. Louis Armstrong - Shadrack
16. Michel Larue - March on
17. Bessie Jones - See aunt Dinah
18. Michel Larue - Link o'day
19. Ann Grimes - The underground railroad
20. Hermes Nye - Abolitionist hymn
21. Tennessee Ernie Ford - Marching song (of the First Arkansas Negro Regiment)
22. Hermes Nye - Lincoln and liberty
23. Winston & Roy & Count Ossie - Babylon gone
24. Clancy Eccles - Freedom
25. Max Roach & Abbey Lincoln - Freedom day
26. The Paul Bley Quintet & Ornette Coleman - Free
CD 3 - Racial segregation & modern slavery
01. Bo Diddley - The great grandfather
02. Sam Cooke - Chain gang
03. 22 & Group - Prettiest train
04. Oscar Brown Jr. - Work song
05. The Union boys - Jim Crow
06. Paul Robeson - Ol' man river
07. Professor Longhair - Mardi Gras in New Orleans
08. Vera Hall - Another man done gone
09. Robert Pete Williams - Levee camp blues
10. John Lee Hooker - How long must I be your slave
11. Rev. J. M. Gates - Dry bones in the valley
12. Marcus Garvey - Babylon did it
13. Sister O. M. Terrell - Swing low sweet chariot
14. The Ebony three - Go down Moses
15. The Southern sons - Two wings
16. Marcus Garvey - We believe in the God of Ethiopia
17. Count Ossie & The Wareikas - Going home to Zion land
18. The Charioteers - Don't rock the boat
19. The Blind boys of Alabama - Marching up to Zion
20. Lord Invader - I'm going back to Africa
21. John Coltrane - Liberia
22. The Southern sons - We'll anchor bye and bye
23. The Blind boys of Alabama - You got to move
24. John Lee Hooker - Don't turn me from your door (I'm a Pilgrim)
