December 18th marked 157 years since 1865, when the 13th Amendment was officially adopted into the American constitution, thus abolishing slavery in all states of the country. Despite the strides made over the last century to dismantle segregation, the legacies of slavery continue to be a painful part of American history.
Movements like Black History Month which elevate the contributions of African Americans challenge and destroy supremacist narratives, supplanting the factual accounts of Black resistance and resilience – traits that force America to examine its failure to live up to its professed ideals of democracy and freedom and inalienable human rights.
African Americans found new ways of being, culture, and identity as we defeated centuries of slavery.
One of the spaces where Africans-Americans preserve culture is music, including referred to as Negro spirituals which historically were a type of religious folk song that the enslaved sang.
Chicago-based jazz vocalist, historian, educator, and urban farmer Bruce A. Henry, speaking on The Conversation with Al McFarlane, said through his study of the evolution of music over the last 400 years, he has also learned many lessons in the history of African American music.
“One of them is when I look at West African music influences in early African American roots performances, the idea of democracy flows through this vernacular music. The idea is that the performance is part of a community. That communities are free to create together.”
Henry says that this shared creativity could be observed in Black ancestoral music, as well as in jazz music and even folk. But in today’s genres, Henry warns, with music evolving culturally and becoming more suited to global and predominately Western tastes, this creative, communal, and democratic aspect of music is diminishing rapidly.
“Music has become the realm of the virtuoso specialists, and we don’t feel free as individuals to participate and create as a community,” he says.
Henry also notes that while many spirituals today are sung, he has, over the years, found that they are often sung without understanding the historical context they were formed in. He adds that if more singers and performers understood the history behind some of these spirituals, they would sing them more meaningfully.
“When I went to Cuba, I had the honor to work with this wonderful choir, one of the best choirs in the world. They were singing Negro spirituals. They sang beautifully and intricately well. And then, I just asked them, ‘Do you know a story of our people? Do you know a story of how these songs were resistant, coded messages, et cetera?’ And they did not know. They had no idea.”
Henry says following their new insight into the songs they were singing, they sang the same songs with more depth and were transformed in their performance.
The Chicago-based jazz vocalist says through his music and the curriculum he developed, which focuses on teaching communities the importance of culture and collaboration, he intends to ensure that more people, old and young alike, learn about the historical significance of spirituals.
He has written hundreds of songs, including ‘Africa Cries’, which he explained was inspired by a dream and had very few lyrics. The lyrics say, “How can we rejoice when she is in pain? Africa will live to rise again. While the world lives on and we deny, how can we be happy while she cries?” He also recently released a Christmas album on CD.
When Henry isn’t writing songs for social change, he is educating others on the evolution of music through his program, which aims to give those interested in the intersections between music and culture an overview of African American music from 1619 to the modern music we hear today.
Finally, when he isn’t educating, he manages a community garden affiliated with a church in Chicago that helps feed hundreds in that community weekly. To purchase his music, book him for a performance or learn more about the historical foundations of music and the links between the music we know today and the music of our African ancestors, be sure to visit his website at https://www.bruceahenry.com/
