U. S. Negroes are generally credited with two great contributions to U. S. folk music: 1) spirituals, 2) the musical dialect of jazz. Why these two contributions should be so different has long puzzled high & lowbrows. One obvious reason: spirituals are sacred and solemn, hence naturally slower and tamer than jazz.
Another: while jazz comes to the jitterbug hot off the griddle, spirituals are dished out to concertgoers like musical cold meat. By the time they reach the concert hall most spirituals have been written down on paper, dressed up like...
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