Hi all,
The full title of "Lost Delta Found" is "Lost Delta Found--Rediscovering the Fisk University-Library of Congress Coahoma County Study, 1941--1942". The book, published in 2005 by Vanderbilt University Press and edited by Robert Gordon and Bruce Nemerov, presents the writings of three African American academics, John W. Work III, Lewis Wade Jones and Samuel Adams Jr., who worked with Alan Lomax on a combination musicological/sociological study conducted in Coahoma County in the Mississippi delta in the period described in the title. The Library of Congress was enlisted in the study, in the person of Alan Lomax, to help underwrite the costs involved in conducting the study. The study was very ambitious, for it undertook to assess how changes in transportation and farm equipment, along with increased access to urban areas (Clarksdale, Mississippi for the most part) were bringing changes in every aspect of life for the rural African American farmworkers in that area, e.g. attitudes about and observance of religion, attitudes about education, music and the making of music, etc.
The book covers a tremendous amount of territory and has to have been a very ambitious undertaking for its editors, partially because Alan Lomax, whether intentionally or not, suppressed the writings of Work, Jones and Adams, and moreover, usurped control of the project to the extent he was able as soon as he became involved in the project, and also changed the scope of the study. It took a great deal of detective work even to find a copy of the combined piece that Lewis Jones and John Work wrote. Lomax seemed particularly to want to get Work out of the picture. It's not possible to say exactly why at this juncture, but I suspect it was because Work was a real musician, whereas Lomax was more of a music fan with theories.
It takes a good deal of exposition in the book just to set up the idea of the study, its concept in its early stages and how it changed as Lomax became involved, how the work of the three academics, and Jones and Work in particular, came to be lost. The book contains so much more, though. Lewis Jones' introductory essay, "The Mississippi Delta" provides a solid background for the idea of the study from a sociological viewpoint, while venturing into music to some extent as well. John Work's contribution, presented as "Untitled Manuscript", follows, and it is formidable, with chapters on The Church, The Music of the Church, The Sermon (including an 11-page musical transcription of a recorded sermon, from beginning to end!), The Folk Quartet, Saturday: Gambling in the Delta, Secular Music, The Instruments, Social Songs, Ballads, The Work Songs, and Children's Game Songs, followed by discussion and bios of some of the musicians who were recorded during the study. This section is followed by transcriptions of the melodies of 158 of the songs that were recorded during the study. It's beautiful to see these transcriptions, which have been reproduced in Work's own hand. They operate much like lead sheets in a Jazz Fakebook, except that they have no chordal indications. It's interesting to read through the tunes, both unfamiliar ones and ones that you might have heard before, by Son House, Muddy Waters and Honeyboy Edwards, that were recorded as part of the study. The transcriptions, which certainly represent an enormous of amount of time and industry are followed by Samuel Adams Jr.'s Masters thesis, entitled "Changing Negro Life In The Delta". Like Jones' piece, it starts out focusing on sociological matters, but ends up addressing changes in the music as well. Adams' piece is followed by appendices including interviews with a number of delta residents.
A number of additional appendices follow, covering other aspects of the study. One fascinating one shows what records were on the jukeboxes in local cafes/jukes at the time the study was conducted. The only record that was on every jukebox at that time was Walter Davis' "Come Back Baby". There is another appendix which tells of the circumstances around a horrendous fire in a dance hall in Natchez in which over 200 people died that originally gave John Work the idea of conducting a study in that area.
I would not say that "Lost Delta Found" is an easy read, but I think it's an important one. It's cautionary, in the sense that it makes you realize how important it is to let all of the work involved in such a study be accessible to interested parties, and not have elements of the study squelched. It's also fascinating to read the sociological pieces of the scholars, and to see their perspectives on the changing life in the Delta. Finally, it's rewarding to work through some of what John Work contributed to the study, and sight-singing through his transcriptions is fun and good practice.
Congratulations and thanks to Robert Gordon and Bruce Nemerov for bringing the work of Jones, Work and Adams to light and for putting it all together in "Lost Delta Found".
All best,
Johnm
The full title of "Lost Delta Found" is "Lost Delta Found--Rediscovering the Fisk University-Library of Congress Coahoma County Study, 1941--1942". The book, published in 2005 by Vanderbilt University Press and edited by Robert Gordon and Bruce Nemerov, presents the writings of three African American academics, John W. Work III, Lewis Wade Jones and Samuel Adams Jr., who worked with Alan Lomax on a combination musicological/sociological study conducted in Coahoma County in the Mississippi delta in the period described in the title. The Library of Congress was enlisted in the study, in the person of Alan Lomax, to help underwrite the costs involved in conducting the study. The study was very ambitious, for it undertook to assess how changes in transportation and farm equipment, along with increased access to urban areas (Clarksdale, Mississippi for the most part) were bringing changes in every aspect of life for the rural African American farmworkers in that area, e.g. attitudes about and observance of religion, attitudes about education, music and the making of music, etc.
The book covers a tremendous amount of territory and has to have been a very ambitious undertaking for its editors, partially because Alan Lomax, whether intentionally or not, suppressed the writings of Work, Jones and Adams, and moreover, usurped control of the project to the extent he was able as soon as he became involved in the project, and also changed the scope of the study. It took a great deal of detective work even to find a copy of the combined piece that Lewis Jones and John Work wrote. Lomax seemed particularly to want to get Work out of the picture. It's not possible to say exactly why at this juncture, but I suspect it was because Work was a real musician, whereas Lomax was more of a music fan with theories.
It takes a good deal of exposition in the book just to set up the idea of the study, its concept in its early stages and how it changed as Lomax became involved, how the work of the three academics, and Jones and Work in particular, came to be lost. The book contains so much more, though. Lewis Jones' introductory essay, "The Mississippi Delta" provides a solid background for the idea of the study from a sociological viewpoint, while venturing into music to some extent as well. John Work's contribution, presented as "Untitled Manuscript", follows, and it is formidable, with chapters on The Church, The Music of the Church, The Sermon (including an 11-page musical transcription of a recorded sermon, from beginning to end!), The Folk Quartet, Saturday: Gambling in the Delta, Secular Music, The Instruments, Social Songs, Ballads, The Work Songs, and Children's Game Songs, followed by discussion and bios of some of the musicians who were recorded during the study. This section is followed by transcriptions of the melodies of 158 of the songs that were recorded during the study. It's beautiful to see these transcriptions, which have been reproduced in Work's own hand. They operate much like lead sheets in a Jazz Fakebook, except that they have no chordal indications. It's interesting to read through the tunes, both unfamiliar ones and ones that you might have heard before, by Son House, Muddy Waters and Honeyboy Edwards, that were recorded as part of the study. The transcriptions, which certainly represent an enormous of amount of time and industry are followed by Samuel Adams Jr.'s Masters thesis, entitled "Changing Negro Life In The Delta". Like Jones' piece, it starts out focusing on sociological matters, but ends up addressing changes in the music as well. Adams' piece is followed by appendices including interviews with a number of delta residents.
A number of additional appendices follow, covering other aspects of the study. One fascinating one shows what records were on the jukeboxes in local cafes/jukes at the time the study was conducted. The only record that was on every jukebox at that time was Walter Davis' "Come Back Baby". There is another appendix which tells of the circumstances around a horrendous fire in a dance hall in Natchez in which over 200 people died that originally gave John Work the idea of conducting a study in that area.
I would not say that "Lost Delta Found" is an easy read, but I think it's an important one. It's cautionary, in the sense that it makes you realize how important it is to let all of the work involved in such a study be accessible to interested parties, and not have elements of the study squelched. It's also fascinating to read the sociological pieces of the scholars, and to see their perspectives on the changing life in the Delta. Finally, it's rewarding to work through some of what John Work contributed to the study, and sight-singing through his transcriptions is fun and good practice.
Congratulations and thanks to Robert Gordon and Bruce Nemerov for bringing the work of Jones, Work and Adams to light and for putting it all together in "Lost Delta Found".
All best,
Johnm