Black Music Association

Black Music Association
Name	Black Music Association
Formation	1968
Type	Nonprofit advocacy organization
Headquarters	New York City
Region served	United States
Leader title	Founders
Leader name	Dr. Nathan Davis; Shirley Graham Du Bois

Black Music Association

The Black Music Association was a United States-based advocacy and scholarly organization established to promote, document, and preserve musical traditions associated with African diasporic communities. It engaged with performers, scholars, producers, archivists, and institutions to influence public policy, pedagogical practice, and cultural recognition across venues such as Carnegie Hall, Apollo Theater, Lincoln Center, Smithsonian Institution, and Brooklyn Academy of Music. The association interfaced with governmental and nonprofit actors including National Endowment for the Arts, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Kennedy Center, and New York State Council on the Arts.

History

Founded in the late 1960s amid the civil rights era and the Black Arts Movement, the association emerged alongside organizations such as Congress of Racial Equality, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Black Panther Party, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and cultural initiatives influenced by figures like W. E. B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Amiri Baraka, and Stokely Carmichael. Early activities included advocacy for archival projects at the Library of Congress, fieldwork modeled after the Fisk Jubilee Singers collecting traditions, and partnerships with academic departments at Howard University, Temple University, Columbia University, Rutgers University, and University of California, Los Angeles. The group collaborated with record labels such as Atlantic Records, Motown Records, Blue Note Records, Chess Records, and Stax Records to preserve master recordings and negotiate artist rights. Its timeline intersected with landmark events like the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and cultural festivals connected to Newport Jazz Festival and Monterey Pop Festival.

Mission and Activities

The association's mission combined cultural preservation, scholarly research, and advocacy for rights of composers, performers, and industry workers. It advanced projects in partnership with institutions such as Smithsonian Folkways, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Museum of Modern Art, and The Juilliard School. Activities included promoting curricula at Berklee College of Music, organizing symposia with scholars from Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Duke University, and University of Chicago, and influencing policy debates involving Copyright Act of 1976 stakeholders and committees convened by the United States Copyright Office and Federal Communications Commission. The association worked with unions and guilds including American Federation of Musicians and Screen Actors Guild on labor and licensing issues.

Membership and Organization

Membership drew musicians, ethnomusicologists, producers, and cultural workers including connections to artists and figures such as Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, and Charlie Parker. Scholars and administrators affiliated with the group connected to departments and centers like Center for Black Music Research, Institute of Jazz Studies, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Rosenwald Fund, and foundations such as Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation. Organizational structure included boards linked to municipal and state cultural agencies like New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and university presses including Oxford University Press and University of California Press for publication initiatives.

Programs and Events

The association sponsored conferences, lecture series, archival exhibitions, and festivals in collaboration with venues and festivals such as Apollo Theater, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Newport Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, and international partners including British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Tate Modern, and Museum of African Art. It mounted oral history projects modeled after efforts at Smithsonian Institution and field recording programs drawing on techniques used by Alan Lomax and collaborators tied to Vera Hall and Woody Guthrie archives. Educational outreach included summer institutes at Juilliard School and workshops with conservatories such as Curtis Institute of Music and New England Conservatory.

Influence and Legacy

The association influenced curricula, archival policy, and the canonization of repertoires across institutions like Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress, National Archives, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and university music departments at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and University of Michigan School of Music. Its advocacy contributed to increased recognition of genres including blues, jazz, gospel music, soul music, R&B, hip hop, and Afro-Cuban jazz within museum exhibitions, academic programs, and national awards such as the Pulitzer Prize in Music and Grammy Awards. Alumni and affiliates went on to shape archives at Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and scholarship in venues like Journal of the American Musicological Society and publishers such as Routledge and Cambridge University Press.

Criticism and Controversies

The association faced critiques regarding representation, governance, and relationships with commercial entities. Debates involved tensions with record companies like Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group over access to masters and royalty structures. Internal disputes mirrored broader fissures seen in cultural organizations related to debates involving Black Arts Movement leadership, intellectual property conflicts addressed by United States Copyright Office, and questions about partnerships with institutions such as Smithsonian Institution and National Endowment for the Arts. Allegations of gatekeeping and disputes over curatorial authority prompted reforms and alternative movements including community archives and independent labels such as Sub Pop and Def Jam Recordings.

Category:Music organizations Category:African American music