West Virginia University music history professor Christopher Wilkinson was one of the featured authors at the West Virginia Book Festival, held earlier in October at the Charleston Civic Center, with his book, “Big Band Jazz in Black West Virginia, 1930-1942.”
The coalfields of West Virginia would seem an unlikely market for big band jazz during the Great Depression. That a prosperous African American audience dominated by those involved with the coal industry was there for jazz tours would seem equally improbable.
Wilkinson’s book shows that, contrary to expectations, black Mountaineers flocked to these dances by the hundreds, in many instances traveling considerable distances to hear bands led by Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Andy Kirk, Jimmie Lunceford, and Chick Webb, among numerous others. Indeed, as one musician who toured the state would recall, “All the bands were goin’ to West Virginia.”
“No scholars studied this musical culture until now. This is new research,” Wilkinson said. “To many West Virginians, this may seem utterly unimaginable, given their understanding of the state’s musical traditions, but among African-Americans living in the state, this was once common knowledge.”
The comparative prosperity of the coal miners, thanks to New Deal industrial policies, was what attracted the bands to the state. Wilkinson’s study discusses that prosperity as well as the larger political environment that provided black Mountaineers with a degree of autonomy not experienced further south.
The book also explores connections between local entrepreneurs who staged the dances and the national management of the bands that played those engagements. It also shows that many black West Virginians preferred dancing to a variety of music, including jazz, and that bands now associated almost exclusively with jazz were more than willing to satisfy those audience preferences with arrangements in other styles of dance music.
Wilkinson specializes in the history of African-American music with particular attention to jazz. He is also the author of “Jazz on the Road: Don Albert’s Musical Life” and his journal articles have appeared in American Music, Black Music Research Journal and West Virginia History.
Wilkinson’s book, “Big Band Jazz in Black West Virginia, 1930-1942” is available from the University of Mississippi Press by calling 1-800-737-7788 or online at www.upress.state.ms.us.
Electronic versions of the press’ books are available from Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Baker & Taylor’s Blio, EBSCO/NetLibrary, EBL/Ebooks Corporation, Ebrary, Follett Digital Editions, Google Editions, Ingram Digital and MyLibrary, KNO Reader, Overdrive, and SONY Reader.
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CONTACT: Charlene Lattea, College of Creative Arts
304-293-4359, Charlene.Lattea@mail.wvu.edu
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