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Roots of Rap

1922-1973

By Bruno Blum

A voice rapping in rhythm can be heard in so many traditions, practices and recordings. Is it “rap” for all that?

What are the true origins of hip hop culture, which is always fixed in dancing? What are the roots of rap, a music style sweeping American and the whole world’s popular music since the 1980s? This anthology gives leads to try and answer this question about what has grown into a major, lasting, popular music trend. As this started in the 1970s, Jamaican DJs, who truly founded modern rap, ought to be included.

---------- DISC 1

QUADRILLE

This modest selection is shunting us towards the genuine roots of rap and its forerunners. Rap’s sources go back to dance teachers, who created French contredanse (derived from the “country dance”, a British style), mazurka and quadrille choreographies in Louis XIV’s court, as early as the 18^th century. Four couples faced each other and danced a series of five required figures: L’Eté, Pantalon, la Poule, la Pastourelle and the Finale.

Those instructor artists told the figures orally as aristocrats carried them out through the dance. In the Americas, European settlers took those trendy music and dances along with them and dance teachers morphed into callers (commandeurs in French) in the olden days of creole quadrille. Many of the callers were initially slaves performing what had to be European-styled entertainment demanded by their masters, and they directed these French dances rapping on the beat. The tradition stuck and it contributed to shaping American and Caribbean music and dances. Guadeloupean caller Sosso Pé en Kin can be heard here on a recording from 1939, “1. 2. 3. La Vande”. Haitian bandleader Nemours Jean-Baptiste, who created the lasting contredanse-derived konpa direk style in the 1950s, also creolised this style in an exquisite way as his caller commanded “prenez vos dames Messieurs, et fixez la dame aux yeux Messieurs” (Gentlemen take your lady, and Gentlemen fix your eyes on her”) (introduction to “Contredanse n. 4”)^[1].

This tradition can also be found in White America, throughout the Southern and Appalachean Eastern USA, where it’s called square dance (flat foot dance) : Heard herein are the Kessinger Brothers and Jess Hillard & His Aces (West Virginia). According to caller, banjo player of the Green Grass Cloggers, flat foot dance teacher and musicologist Phil Jamison, it was Black people who first started the caller tradition in American old time music^[2].

In Martinique, quadrille is called haute taille. It still existed in traditional, folk form in the French Caribbean, the Appalachian Eastern US and Reunion Island in 2025. In Jamaica, it remained popular for over two centuries until it was supplanted, at first by blues and jazz, and then ska and reggae records.

The quadrille tradition plumetted around the end of the 1960s after a few rare recordings such as Chin’s Calypso Sextet: “Quadrille Figures 1 & 2” circa 1955 (no caller) and the McBeth Orchestra (with caller Arthur Masters at the microphone).

While quadrille fell into disuse, Jamaican callers carried on hosting events and entertaining the dancehall crowds, this time using a mike. They played hip American records in sound systems dances; 1950s dancers favoured U.S. “shuffle” blues at first, then Jamaican shuffle, as heard here with DJ King Stitt’s “live jive” (he used a tape echo on his voice). They kept doing this in the 1960s, over ska and reggae records. This use of microphones by DJs had started as early as 1950^[3], in Jamaican dancehalls, but this vocal trend didn’t reach a wide audience until early records in this style, including King Stitt’s “Fire Corner” and a duet between U-Roy and Peter Tosh “Righteous Ruler” (1969), started selling. It is through this innnovation that Jamaica DJs invented modern rap, where the rapper talks in rhythm over an instrumental music track, adressing a crowd of dancers. Jamaican DJs exported their expertise in dances hosting, and rapping DJs in New York City’s Bronx, where Jamaican DJ Kool Herc and rapper Coke La Rock at the mike, were the forerunners of true vintage American rap, as early as 1973. The Last Poets, who were there before that, were rather poets delivering their militant lyrics over drums, and not in dancehalls. So they came close to be the first true rappers, but it was yet another Jamaican, DJ Dillinger, who scored the first proper international rap hit record in 1976: “Cocaine in my Brain” was performed over a very popular U.S. funk rhythm (People’s Choice’s “Do It Any Way You Wanna”) that was modified and re-recorded by Jamaican music giants Sly & Robbie at Dillinger’s request. But let’s go back to the roots of rap.

SPIRITUALS & GOSPEL

Nevertheless, apart from callers who shaped the basic style of modern rap, more elements added grist to the mill of this fundamentally oral music. So let us have a look at some of the origins that fed the roots of rap, and later its different branches. By nature, rap’s origin lays in the art of speaking. Speeches were cut on 78 RPM records early on. They carried ideas and voices as early as the 1910s, as can be heard here with the influential, Black nationalist Jamaican politician, Marcus Garvey.

“Babylon Did It” and “Ethiopia Shall Stretch Forth Her Hands Unto God” are both taken from the fire and fury of a public utterance, hammered out around 1920-1922, in which he preaches and chants racial self-determination.

These recordings left a deep mark on the anticolonial Rastafari movement in his country, Jamaica. They can be looked at as being the roots, the basic anchor of militant Jamaican DJ rappers of the 1960s-90s such as U-Roy, Big Youth, I-Roy, Dillinger, U-Brown, Buju Banton, Bounty Killa, Capleton and hundreds of others^[4].

A Catholic, Garvey quoted the Bible in a similar way to Protestant preachings, such as “Dry Bones in the Valley” by Reverend Gates in Atlanta (1926) and “Did Not Our Hearts Burn” (Luke 24:32 sermon) by Reverend Franklin (Aretha’s father) in 1962. Christian denominations (Methodist, Pente­costal, Apostolic, Adventist, Baptist, etc.) were essential in constructing the Caribbean and African-American cultures which, as a result of racial segregation, developed in Black-only churches. Vocal expressions of the Bible also delivered “jubilee” vocal groups’ recordings like the Golden Gate Quartet’s, where the prosodic link with modern rap is striking^[5].

The roots of these spirituals are to be found in animist, Afro-Caribbean trances, where singing and “rap” alternate, following the inspiration carried by the spirits (hear the beginning of the “rap” part at 0:25 on Disc 1, Track 1, by a Jamaican Pukkumina congregation) ^[6]. Also derived from animist spirituals were slave work songs; some convicts served life sentences of forced labour in what were once plantations in the Southern USA. In 1947, not much had changed since the abolition of slavery 82 years before (“Early in the Mornin’”).

According to a Bible precept, Sephardic Jews (Spaniards, Portuguese and North Africans) first had their slaves converted to Judaism then freed them six years later:

When you do set either one free, do not feel aggrieved; for in the six years you have been given double the service of a hired worker. Moreover, your God The Eternal will bless you in all you do.

- Deuteronomy 15:18

The descendents of these Sephardic Jews, which include New York City Black Jews, as well as the famous mixed-race stride and boogie­ woogie jazz pianist Willie “The Lion” Smith (whose father was a White Jew), were mainly settled in the Bronx and Brooklyn, where American rap first took root and thrived. They mixed with White Jews, who followed very ancient traditions of Torah readings in Hebrew. These readings are very rythmic, as heard here on “Schacharit for Week Days” (morning prayers), which preceded the derashat (sermon, explanation). They are performed following the custom of rocking the body back and forth, the shoklen movement. The scansion in Allen Ginsberg’s radical poem “Death to Van Gogh’s Ear”, which is “dedicated to the United States in the year of 1959”, does perhaps have roots in this atavistic rhythm – but certainly has a very different theme.

---------- DISC 2

RADIO DJS

Rap also plunges its roots into some radio hosts’ vocal styles, most notably that of the legendary poet, Jocko Henderson, who was one of the first African-American persons contributing to a radio show at the mike in America, the Rocket Ship Show. His partner, the famous Alan Freed of the Moondog Show, (who opened his appearances talking over an avant-garde Moondog tune^[7]) broadcast Black rock ‘n roll as well as White rock ‘n roll from the early 1950s onward^[8]. Six years after the execution of the Rosenbergs, Freed’s career was shattered in 1959, after a payola scandal that carried a lingering antisemitic and racist stench. Alan Freed coined the term “rock ‘n roll” and remains inextricably bound up in the history of rock on American radio; Like Jocko, he reached a huge audience and influenced DJs all over America, and even Jamaica.

TALKING BLUES

I’m a gonna take a just-a one step more
Cause I feel like bombin’ a church
Now now that you know that the preacher is lyin’
So who’s gonna stay at home
When when the freedom fighters are fighting?

Talkin’ blues (talkin’ blues), talkin’ blues (talkin’ blues)

- Bob Marley, Talkin’ Blues, 1974

The true rap forerunners’ recordings are found in the talking blues tradition, where verses are spoken in a very rythmic way. They can be found just about anywhere, from Leadbelly’s “Rock Island Line” to Johnny Cash records.

You’ll find them in the Caribbean (“The American Woman And West Indian Man Part 2”), in Mississippi blues (Bukka White’s “Special Stream Line” and John Lee Hooker’s “House Rent Boogie”) and all the way to French Aquitaine with Ouvrard’s huge 1934 novelty hit “Je ne suis pas
bien portant”. Just as appealing are Tex Williams’ compelling “Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! That Cigarette” and “Suspicion”. Williams became very popular in the late 1940s with hilarious, well-written western swing songs. Ramblin’ Jimmy Dolan’s proto-rockabilly “Hot Rod Race” in 1950 is in the same spirit.

In “Marie Laveau”, trumpet player Oscar “Papa” Célestin recounts the legend of the New Orleans’s voodoo queen. In this 1954 talking blues he inscribed jazz back into the West African storyteller, griot tradition. Gene Coy’s “Killer Diller” (1948), a Black talking blues shuffle was an early Jamaican sound system favourite, which strengthened the Caribbean quadrille caller connection with talking blues, a forerunner of the upcoming DJ style^[9]. Boogaloo & the Gallant Crew released a couple of excellent sides, “Cops and Robbers” (soon to be recorded by Bo Diddley and the Rolling Stones) and “Clothes Lines” (famously plagiarised by The Coasters on their “Shoppin’ For Clothes” masterpiece^[10]). We make a note here that rap already had some prestigious precursors. Bo Diddley himself wrote “Signifying Blues” in the Black neighbourhoods dirty dozens spirit; protagonists made fun of each other in a game called signifying, slowly raising their voices in challenging dialogues. This was a foretaste of hip hop’s “boasting” and sparring matches, which can also be found in some Jamaican DJ records as well as Trinidad-and-Tobago’s calypso^[11]. Bo Diddley is also heard here on “Ride on Josephine”, where he switches back and forth from “rap” to chant.

Now, the funny “Stranded in the Jungle” is a rare mention of Africa in rhythm and blues^[12]. The Cadets and the New York Dolls later recorded this R&B classic by the obscure Jayhawks from California.

JAZZ

Besides talking blues, the jazz world also used spoken word in rhythm. Here are a few examples: Jazz giant Duke Ellington became a narrator in a TV show (A Drum Is a Woman) for which he created the characters Carribee Joe and Madame Zajj, a vamp. He describes them here in “Zajj’s Dream”, a fiction story staged in New York City and Congo Square in New Orleans. However, as for Jack Kerouac here, these experiences were quite close to poetry reading, which was typical of the literate, intellectual spirit of the 1950s beat generation^[13]. Consequently, they ought to be considered distinct from a will to host and entertain a dancehall audience, which by all means is a condition to be fully affiliated to “hip hop” culture. We can therefore admit that they were part of the “roots” but are not truly forerunners of it.

However, Oscar Brown and Abbey Lincoln, with Max Roach, harshly alluded to slavery and George Russell with Jon Hendricks (“Manhattan”) delivered written vocal contributions that can be looked at as close to the scat style (improvised singing in onomatopoeias, often without lyrics, as if improvising on an instrument). Actual scat can be found here with The Golden Gate Quartet (at the end of “Preacher and the Bear”), a group which performed spirituals and gospel in a jazz style.

So, in doing this, they got closer to the original free dancing spirit of jazz, which was often played in dancehalls such as the Savoy Ballroom, where dances such as the lindy hop^[14] (acrobatic rock ‘n roll) – a true forerunner of hip hop culture – were thriving and growing.

Born in Lomé (Togo), Alfred Sanvi Panou is a poet, activist and film maker from Benin. His Je suis un sauvage backed by the Art Ensemble of Chicago was a forerunner of afro activism in France and at the same time a French-speaking nod to New York rap precursors The Last Poets. C’est Normal by Brigitte Fontaine & Areski was typical of the hippie years delirium when spoken stories over rhythms were somewhat a trend (Big Youth “Hip Ki Do”, Pierre Vassiliu “Le Film” or Serge Gainsbourg “Pamela Popo”, all from 1973).

Bruno Blum, August 2025.
© 2026 Frémeaux & Associés

With thanks to Chris Carter for proofreading.

^[1]. Read the booklet and listen to Haiti - Meringue & Konpa 1952-1962 with notes by Bruno Blum in this series.

^[2]. Phil Jamison, Hoedowns, Reels, and Frolics: Roots and Branches of Southern Appalachian Dance (University of Illinois Press, 2015)

^[3]. Steve Barrow & Peter Dalton, The Reggae Rough Guide (Rough Guides, Penguin Books, second edition: 2001).

^[4]. More Marcus Garvey vocal recordings can be found in the Africa in America - Rock Jazz & Calypso 1920-1962 and Slavery in America - Redemption Songs 1914-1972 (Frémeaux-Musée du Quai Branly) sets, both with Bruno Blum notes, in this series.

^[5]. Read Bruno Blum’s booklet and listen to The Indispensable Doo Wop – Vocal Groups 1934-1962 and Golden Gate Quartet – Gospel 1937-1941, both in this series.

^[6]. Read Bruno Blum’s booklet and listen to Jamaica Folk Trance Possession – Roots of Rastafari 1939-1961 in this series.

^[7]. Read Bruno Blum’s booklet and listen to Moondog in Avant-Garde 1888-1970 - Musique Expérimentale, Génies, Visionnaires, Révolutionnaires, incompris et innovateurs excentriques, in this series. Hear Moondog also on Roots of Pop in this series.

^[8]. Hear also Race Records, Black rock ‘n roll forbidden on U.S. Radio in this series.

^[9]. In 1961, Clue J & The Blues Blasters recorded this composition in Jamaica under the name “Milk Lane Hop”. Read Bruno Blum’s booklet and listen to Jamaica-USA Roots of Ska – Rhythm and Blues Shuffle 1942-1962 in this series.

^[10]. The Coasters’ “Shoppin’ For Clothes” is included on The Indispensable Doo Wop – Vocal Groups 1934-1962 in this series.

^[11]. A different version of Signifying Blues is included in the Bo Diddley 1955-1960 (Volume 1) set in this series, with notes by Bruno Blum.

^[12]. Read Bruno Blum’s booklet and listen to Africa in America – Rock, Jazz & Calypso 1920-1962 in this series.

^[13]. Read Bruno Blum’s booklet and listen to Beat Generation – Hep Cats, Hipsters & Beatniks 1936-1962, which was co-published by the Paris Museum of Modern Art Centre Pompidou, in this series.

^[14]. Read the booklet by Jacques Morgantini and listen to The Savoy Ballroom – House Bands 1931-1955 in this series.

Roots of Rap

1922-1973

DISC 1 – ETHNOLOGIC ROOTS OF HIP HOP

--------- SPIRITUALS

1. PUKKUMINA 3 CYMBALS - Pukkumina congregation

(traditional, unknown)

Unknown musicians. Field recordings produced and recorded by Edward Seaga in Kingston, Jamaica 1953-1956. Folk Music of Jamaica, Ethnic Folkways Library FE4453, USA 1956.

2. EARLY IN THE MORNIN’ - 22 and group

(traditional, unknown)

“22,” “Little Red,” “Tangle Eye,” “Hard Hair”-v, double cutting axes. Recorded by Alan Lomax, Mississippi State Penitentiary (aka Parchman Farm), 590 Parchman 40 Rd, Parchman, Mississippi 38738, 1947 or 1948. Tradition TLP-1020, USA.

3. DRY BONES IN THE VALLEY - Reverend James M. Gates

(J.M. Gates)

James M. Gates-v; Congregation. Atlanta, Georgia, December 1, 1926. Victor 35810, April, 1927, USA.

4. PREACHER AND THE BEAR - Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet

(traditional, unknown)

 Willie Johnson-bar. v; William Langford-tenor v; Henry Owens-2^nd tenor v; Orlandus Wilson-bass v. Charlotte, North Carolina, August 4, 1937. Bluebird B-7205-A, 1937.

5. NOAH - Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet

(traditional, unknown)

Willie Johnson-bar. v; William Langford-tenor v; Henry Owens-2^nd tenor v; Orlandus Wilson-bass v. Rock Hill, South Carolina, February 2, 1939. Bluebird B-8160-B, 1939.

6. DID NOT OUR HEARTS BURN WHILE HE TALKED BY THE WAYSIDE (excerpt)

(Clarence LaVaughn Franklin)

Reverend Clarence LaVaughn Franklin-v ; Congregation. New Bethel Baptist Church Detroit, Michigan. Battle 6110, USA, 1962

7. SCHACHARIT FOR WEEK DAYS (morning prayer)

(Bible reading)

 Anonymous Rabbi-v. Massachussets, circa 1961.

--------- SPOKEN WORD

8. DEATH TO VAN GOGH’S EAR - Allen Ginsberg

(Allen Ginsberg )

New York City, 1959.

9. BABYLON DID IT - Marcus Garvey

(Marcus Garvey)

United States, possibly New York City, circa 1920.

10. ETHIOPIA SHALL STRETCH FORTH HER HANDS UNTO GOD - Marcus Garvey

(Marcus Garvey)

United States, possibly New York City, circa 1920.

--------- FOLK

11. JAMAICA ALPHABET - Louise Bennett

(traditional, unknown)

Louise Bennett-v; unknown-g. Kingston, Jamaica, circa 1957. Children’s Jamaican Songs and Games, Folkways FC 7250, USA, 1957.

--------- QUADRILLE, CALLERS, COMMANDEURS

12. QUADRILLE FIGURES 1 & 2 - Chin’s Calypso Sextet

(traditional, unknown)

Alerth Bedasse-g. Aaron Carr or Peck-rumba box; unknown-vln; Cheston Williams-bj; Everard Williams-perc; Produced by Ivan Chin. Kingston, Jamaica, 1955. Decca or Pye Records, circa 1955.

13. TURKEY IN THE STRAW - Kessinger Brothers

(Ernest Legg)

“Fiddle and guitar with dance calls” Ernest Legg-v; Clark Kessinger-fdl; Luke Wilber Kessinger as Luches Kessinger-g. Ashland, Kentucky. Brunswick 235, 1928.

14. CACKLING HEN - Jess Hillard & His Aces

(Jess Hillard)

Jess Hillard-v, g; possibly Jess Johnston-fdl; possibly Nelson Hillard- mandolin. Richmond, Indiana, September 11, 1931. Champion S-16333, 1931.

15. 1. 2. 3. A LA VANDE - Sosso Pé-En-Kin et l’Orchestre du Bal Bill Amour

(Solange Pé-En-Kin)

Solange Pé-En-Kin as Sosso Pé-En-Kin-v; Michel Berté-cl; possibly Anany-perc; g. Paris, France, February 1939. Polydor 514-312, 1939.

16. CONTRE DANSE N. 2 - Nemours Jean-Baptiste

(traditional, unknown)

Julien Paul-lead v; possibly André Dorismond-v; vocal chorus; Nemours Jean-Baptiste- arr., leader, ts ; possibly Wébert Cicault as Wébert Sicot -as; tp; tb; Richard Duroseau-acc; b ; congas; hand drums; graj scrape percussion. Produced by Joe Anson & Fritz G. Anson. Possibly recorded by Ricardo Widmaïer, Radio HH3W studio, Port-au-Prince circa 1955. Haïti Meringues aux Calebasses, Anson 823.

17. CONTRE DANSE N. 4 - Nemours Jean-Baptiste

(Nemours Jean-Baptiste)

Julien Paul-v; Nemours Jean-Baptiste-arr., leader, ts; Richard Duroseau-acc; b, graj scrape percussion, congas. Produced by Joe Anson, recorded by Fritz G. Anson, Port-au-Prince circa 1958.

18. QUADRILLE 1ST & 2ND FIGURES - Arthur Masters W/The McBeth Orchestra

(Arthur Masters)

Arthur Masters-v; McBeth-bj; Ruben White-tp; Melburn Reynolds-ts; Cleveland Reynolds-b; Edga Murry-g; Neville Johnson-d. Kingston, Jamaica, circa 1961.

19. FOUR CORNERS - King Stitt W/Clue J & The Blues Blasters

(Winston George Sparks aka King Stitt, Clement Dodd, Rolando Alphonso)

Winston George Sparks as King Stitt-v; Rolando Alphonso-ts; Jerome Haynes as Jah Jerry-g; Aubrey Adams-org; Cluett Johnson-b; Arkland Parks as Drumbago-d. Produced by Clement “Coxson” Dodd, Federal Studio, Kingston, Jamaica, 1962. Studio One, circa 1962.

20. L’ÉTÉ - Ensemble de Quadrille Guadeloupéen
21. PANTALON - Ensemble de Quadrille Guadeloupéen

(traditional, unknown)

Ambroise Gouala-v; Élie Cologer-v; Donnadié Monpierre-b; g, perc. Produced by Raymond Célini. Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, 1972.

DISC 2 – FORERUNNERS OF RAP

1. JE NE SUIS PAS BIEN PORTANT - Ouvrard

(Georges Konyn aka Géo Koger, Vincent Baptiste Scotto, Gaston Ouvrard)

Gaston Ouvrard-v; Orchestre Ultraphone, Maurice André, dir. Ultraphone U, AP725, 1933.

--------- RADIO DJ

2. ROCKET SHIP SHOW - Jocko Henderson

(Douglas Henderson aka Jocko Henderson)

Douglas Henderson aka Jocko Henderson-v; Alan Freed-v. WADO Radio, a Black station in New York City, 1953. Recorded by Roger Steffens.

3. THE MOONDOG SHOW - Alan Freed

(Aldon Freed aka Alan Freed)

Aldon Freed as Alan Freed-v.

Cleveland, Ohio, WJW Radio, April 6, 1954.

Please note: background music by Moondog.

--------- TALKING BLUES

4. THE AMERICAN WOMAN AND WEST INDIAN MAN PT. 2 - Sam Manning & Anna Freeman

(Porter Grainger)

Sam Manning, Anna Freeman-v; Porter Grainger-p. Brunswick 7028.

New York City, March 19, 1928. Brunswick 7028, 1928.

5. SPECIAL STREAM LINE - Bukka White

(Booker T. Washington White aka Bukka White)

Booker T. Washington White as Bukka White-v, slide g; washboard. Vocalion 05526, 1940.

6. SMOKE! SMOKE! SMOKE! THAT CIGARETTE - Tex Williams and His Western Caravan

(Merle Travis, Sollie Paul Williams aka Tex Williams)

Tex Williams with Jack Marshall’s Music

Sollie Paul Williams as Tex Williams-v; Johnny Weis el. g; Eugene

Rogers as Smokey Rogers-ac. g; Earl Murphey as Joaquin Murphey-pedal steel g; Manny Klein-tp; Paul Featherstone as Spike Featherstone-harmonica; Larry DePaul as Pedro DePaul-accordion; Andrew Soldi as Cactus Soldi, Harry Sims, Rex Call, fiddles; Ossie Godson-p; Deuce Spriggens-b, v; Milton Berry as Muddy Berry-d. Produced by Leland James Gillette as Lee Gillette. Radio Recorders, Los Angeles, March 27, 1947. Capitol 40001, May, 1947.

7. SUSPICION - Tex Williams and His Western Caravan

(Lester Williams Polsfuss aka Les Paul, Foster Carling)

Same as above. Capitol 2897, 1948.

8. KILLER DILLER - Gene Coy & His Killer Dillers

(Eugene Coy aka Gene Coy)

Eugene Coy as Gene Coy-v; tp, ts; Ann Coy-p; Sonny Jay-b; d. New York, June 30, 1948. Regent 129-A, USA, 1948.

Please note : in 1961 Clue J & The Blues Blasters recorded this composition in Jamaica for producer Clement “Coxson” Dodd who renamed it “Milk Lane Hop”.

9. HOT ROD RACE - Ramblin’ Jimmy Dolan

(George Wilson)

Jim Dolan as Ramblin’ Jimmie Dolan-v, g; Cameron Hill-g; Eddie Kirk-g; Noel Boggs-steel; Cliffie Stone-b; Tex Atchison-fid. Produced by Ted Nelson. Capitol Recording Studio, 5515 Melrose Ave., Hollywood, California. November 9, 1950.

10. MARIE LAVEAU - Papa Célestin with Celestin’s Original Tuxedo Orchestra

(Robert L. Gurley)

Oscar Célestin as Oscar “Papa” Célestin-v, tp; Edward Pierson aka Red-tb; Adolphe Alexander-as; Joseph Thomas-cl; Albert French-bjo; Jeannette Kimball-p; Sidney Brown-b; Louis Barbarin-d. New Orleans, Louisiana, April 24, 1954. Regal Records 1201.

11. COPS AND ROBBERS - Boogaloo & His Gallant Crew

(Kent Levaughn Harris)

Kent Levaughn Harris as Boogaloo-v. Musicians unknown. Crest 1030. Hollywood, 1956.

12. CLOTHES LINE - Boogaloo & His Gallant Crew

Same as above.

13. STRANDED IN THE JUNGLE - The Jayhawks

(James Johnson, Al Curry, Ernestine Smith)

James Johnson as Jimmy Johnson-lead v; Dave Govan-bar. v; Carver Bunkum-bass v; unknown musicians, possibly including Carlton Fisher as Carl Fisher, René Beard, Cleo White. Flash Records. Los Angeles, May 1956.

14. JOHN L’S HOUSE RENT BOOGIE - John Lee Hooker

(John Lee Hooker)

John Lee Hooker-v, g. Hollywood, 1951. Modern 20-814, May 1951.

15. SIGNIFYING BLUES - Bo Diddley

(Ellas Otha Bates McDaniel aka Bo Diddley)

Bo Diddley-v, g; Jerome Green-v, maracas; Otis Spann-p; Bobby Baskerville-b; Clifton James-d. Bo’s Home Studio, Washington DC, January, 1960. Checker 965, 1960.

--------- JAZZ

16. ZAJJ’S DREAM - Duke Ellington

(Edward Kennedy Ellington aka Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn)

Edward Kennedy Ellington as Duke Ellington-narrator; Margaret Tynes, Joya Sherill, Ozzie Bailey-v; Edward Kennedy Ellington as Duke Ellington-p; Paul Gonsalves-lead ts; Russel Procope-lead cl; Clark Terry, Willie Cook, Cat Anderson-tp; Ray Nance-tp, vln; Quentin Jackson-Britt Woodman-lead tb; John Sanders-tb; Jimmy Hamilton-ts, cl; Johnny Hodges, Rick Henderson-as; Harry Carney-bar, cl, b-cl; Jimmy Woode-b; Sam Woodyard, Terry Snyder-d; Candido Camero-bongos.

New York City, September 17-28, October 22, 23 or December 6, 1956. A Drum Is a Woman, Columbia, CL 951, 1957.

17. READINGS FROM “ON THE ROAD” AND “VISIONS OF CODY” - Jack Kerouac with Steve Allen

(Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac aka Jack Kerouac, Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen aka Steve Allen)

Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac as Jack Kerouac-v; Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen as Steve Allen-p. The Steve Allen Plymouth Show, NBC Color City Studios, Burbank, California. Broadcast on NBC TV, November 16, 1959.

18. MANHATTAN - George Russell feat. Jon Hendricks

(Lorenz Hart, Richard Charles Rodgers) George Russell & His Orchestra: Jon Hendricks-v; Art Farmer, Doc Severinsen, Ernie Royal-tp; Bob Brookmeyer, Jimmy Cleveland-tb; Hal McKusick-as; John Coltrane-ts; Sol Schlinger-bar s; Milt Hinton-b; Charlie Persip-d. George Allan Russell-arr., dir. New York, September 12, 1958.

19. DRIVA’ MAN - Max Roach

(Maxwell Lemuel Roach, Oscar Brown, Jr.)

Abbey Lincoln-v; Booker Little-tp; Julian Priester-tb; Coleman Hawkins-ts; Walter Benton, ts; James Schenck-b; Maxwell Lemuel Roach as Max Roach-d. Produced/supervised by Nat Hentoff, recorded by Bob D’Orleans. Nela Penthouse Sound Studio, New York, August 31, 1960. We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite, Candid CJM 8002, USA.

20. BID ‘EM IN - Oscar Brown

(Oscar Brown Jr.)

Oscar Brown Jr.-v, possibly perc. June 20/October 23, 1960.

21. JE SUIS UN SAUVAGE - Alfred Sanvi Panou et The Art Ensemble of Chicago.

(Alfred Sanvi Panou aka Alfred Panou)

Alfred Sanvi Panou as Alfred Panou -v; The Art Ensemble of Chicago: Lester Bowie-tp; Roscoe Mitchell-sax, poss. perc; Joseph Jarman-cl, poss. perc; Malachi Favors Maghostut-b, poss. perc; Claude Delcloo-perc. Daniel Valancien-engineer. Produced by Pierre Barouh, Jean Georkarakos, Jean-Luc Young. Studio Saravah, Paris, France, June, 1969. Saravah SH 40014, October 14, 1969. (sous licence Saravah).

22. C’EST NORMAL - Brigitte Fontaine & Areski

(Brigitte Fontaine, Areski Belkacem)

Brigitte Fontaine-v; Areski Belkacem-v, perc; Jean Querlier-fl; unknown perc. Studio Saravah, Paris, France, 1973. Produced by Pierre Barouh. Saravah SH 10 041, 1973. (sous licence Saravah).