Music: Beware of Pretty Chords

Back in 1942, several Negro G.I.s at Fort Dix were bored with the kind of entertainment the Army put on for them and decided to make some of their own. The idea was catchy. Before long, they swelled from a quartet to an octet, then to a chorus of 16. By the time Lieut. Leonard de Paur joined the regiment in Arizona, the 372nd Infantry's Glee Club had 55 members, were singing war songs and Negro spirituals with a fair amount of polish, and the Army finally put them on special duty, to do nothing but sing.

Before war's end, the...

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