Finding Blues Behind A Black Face

A rounded, weary, yet dignified black face flashed on the projector screen behind me. All they could do was giggle and snicker.

That was a few years ago with a teaching job in China.  I was tasked with teaching a class of middle schoolers-  And that week I was running through American music by genre, decade by decade.

But this isn’t a story about teaching in China (that’s a story for another time). What is important was the black man’s face and what I saw behind his face.

The face that I showed that day belonged to the iconic Muddy Waters.  The father of electric-style Chicago Blues. An icon, and a legacy maker. The Blues evolved from field songs and from spirituals, and like many black singers and musicians

I admit I felt a tinge of irritation and disappoint at my students. But they were only young, and lived in a climate far away from the Southern US and the history of its people and music. To my class, it was just a photo of a silly old man, with an antiquated coiffed hair do and dark skin (a trait something rarely seen or desired in mainland China). But for me, the moment became a teaching moment, a moment to reflect.

Before my teen years I was already on a steady diet of music. But I soon found myself entrenched in the Blues genre, for the same reasons many others love it: the rhythm, the progressions, the energy so many classic songs contained.  Along with yearning for more music, it led me to study the history behind the songs and artists. I wanted to know where did the lyrics come from? How did this person live? Even today, I find myself looking for new albums or records or artists and going down the rabbit hole.

What can I see then when I look at Muddy’s face in the photo? The Blues, History, Life. The Mississippi Delta. Rhythm. Song. I see Muddy laughing, crying, and playing. I also see him teaching, sharing, and traveling.

Take a moment to look at a few more  musical faces below.

(Top to bottom: Big Bill Broonzy, Howlin’ Wolf, Koko Taylor, Sister Rosetta Thorpe)

These faces, along with countless others, big and small gave America its music. They made American music.

Since the beginning, black men and women were the center-stones of our American musical genres: jazz, Blues, early Rock n’ Roll. We can’t forget either the later pioneers who gave us R&B, Hip-Hop, and Rap.  Each of these genres also were birthed from the same spiritual place and spread beyond their original communities, becoming nationally loved, then world renowned.  People like Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Sam Cooke, Mavis Staples, Aretha Franklin, BB King (and the other two Kings’: Albert and Freddie), Howlin’ Wolf, Otis Redding… The list is exhaustive!

Here’s to them! Without them our music and our world would not be the same!

February is Black History Month. I encourage you to look up some of these singers and musicians or find documentaries on African American music. Celebrate them by  remembering their music and stories. ***For more info on Muddy Waters, visit muddywatersofficial.com. On the Blues, www.pbs.org/theblues/index.html