Center for Black Music Research

Center for Black Music Research
Name	Center for Black Music Research
Established	1983
Location	Chicago, Illinois, United States
Founder	Samuel A. Floyd Jr.
Parent institution	Columbia College Chicago
Focus	African American music, African diaspora music, jazz, blues, gospel, hip hop

Center for Black Music Research is an academic and cultural institution dedicated to the study, preservation, and dissemination of music of the African diaspora, with emphasis on African American musical traditions. Founded in 1983 and housed at Columbia College Chicago, the center has served as a nexus linking scholarship, archival stewardship, and community engagement across disciplines related to African American performance, jazz studies, blues historiography, and diasporic cultural research.

History

The center was established in the early 1980s amid broader scholarly developments such as the institutionalization of ethnomusicology, the expansion of African American studies programs, and renewed archival efforts exemplified by initiatives at institutions like Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Library of Congress, and Smithsonian Institution. Its founder, musicologist Samuel A. Floyd Jr., drew on networks that included scholars from Indiana University Bloomington, Howard University, University of Chicago, and University of Michigan to build a research infrastructure paralleling projects at Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory. The center’s trajectory has intersected with landmark events such as the revival of New Orleans jazz festivals, the global spread of hip hop in the 1980s and 1990s, and collaborations with organizations like National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Mission and Programs

The center’s mission emphasizes documentation, research, pedagogy, and public programming tied to composers, performers, and communities — linking figures such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Muddy Waters, Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, and Nina Simone with contemporary artists like Kendrick Lamar, Lauryn Hill, Beyoncé Knowles, and Kendrick Lamar's collaborators. Programmatic offerings have included symposia, lecture series, artist residencies, and conferences that convene scholars from Yale University, Columbia University, Harvard University, Rutgers University, and University of California, Los Angeles. Partnerships with festivals and venues such as Chicago Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Apollo Theater, and Preservation Hall have amplified outreach while grant relationships with Ford Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Guggenheim Foundation have supported long-term projects.

Collections and Archives

The center maintains a specialized archival repository containing manuscripts, oral histories, audio recordings, photographs, posters, and ephemera tied to artists and organizations across the African diaspora. Holdings document the careers of Count Basie, Chick Webb, Big Joe Turner, Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, Thelonious Monk, Celia Cruz, Ibrahim Ferrer, Ali Farka Touré, Fela Kuti, and ensembles such as The Roots, Weather Report, and Art Ensemble of Chicago. Collections include field recordings similar in scope to those at Alan Lomax Collection, broadcast tapes paralleling archives at WFMT, and manuscript scores comparable to those housed at Library of Congress and New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The repository has been used by researchers from Smith College, Vanderbilt University, University of North Texas, and international scholars from SOAS University of London and Université Paris VIII.

Research and Publications

Research initiatives have produced monographs, edited volumes, and peer-reviewed articles that situate African American music within broader social, political, and transnational frameworks. The center published work related to figures such as W. E. B. Du Bois-era cultural activism, the musical politics surrounding Civil Rights Movement performances, and studies of genres linked to Caribbean and West African diasporic exchange. Publications have examined composers like Scott Joplin, William Grant Still, Florence Price, and performers such as Paul Robeson and Josephine Baker. Collaborative projects have involved journals and presses associated with Oxford University Press, University of Illinois Press, Routledge, Bloomsbury, and scholarly outlets connected to American Musicological Society and Society for American Music.

Education and Outreach

Educational programs span workshops, curriculum development, internships, and public concerts designed for students, educators, and community members. The center’s pedagogical work has been integrated into courses at Columbia College Chicago, with visiting scholars from New York University, Duke University, University of Pennsylvania, and Boston University. Outreach initiatives have included partnerships with Chicago-based institutions such as DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago Cultural Center, Hyde Park Arts Center, and youth programs linked to Urban Gateways and Young Chicago Authors. Workshops often highlight repertoire from traditions associated with Gospel music, Ragtime, Delta blues, Afro-Cuban idioms, and Afrobeat.

Notable Personnel and Affiliates

Key figures connected to the center have included founder Samuel A. Floyd Jr., archivists and scholars who collaborated with institutions such as Columbia College Chicago, Chicago State University, DePaul University, and visiting researchers from University of the West Indies. Affiliates range from prominent musicologists and ethnomusicologists to artists and cultural workers who have partnered on exhibitions and performances, including scholars with ties to Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, and artists who have performed at venues like Symphony Center (Chicago), Thalia Hall, and Chicago Theatre.

Category:Archives in Illinois Category:Music organizations based in the United States