Fife and drum blues is an
American folk music
The term American folk music encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as ''traditional music'', ''traditional folk music'', ''contemporary folk music'', ''vernacular music,'' or ''roots music''. Many traditional songs have been sung ...
form derived from
country blues
Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...
,
martial music
Martial music or military music is a specific genre of music intended for use in military settings performed by professional soldiers called field musicians. Much of the military music has been composed to announce military events as with b ...
tradition, and
African rhythms. It is performed typically with one lead
fife player and a troop of drummers. Unlike a
drum corps, the drum troop is loosely structured. As such, a fife and drum band may have a variable number of
snare
SNARE proteins – " SNAP REceptor" – are a large protein family consisting of at least 24 members in yeasts, more than 60 members in mammalian cells,
and some numbers in plants. The primary role of SNARE proteins is to mediate vesicle f ...
,
tom, and
bass drum players. A large military-style bass drum is preferred. Fife and drum performances are often family affairs held at reunions, summer community picnics, and on holidays.
History
Pre-
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
military fife and drum bands provided a rough framework which black musicians would fill with African and
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
influences to create a new music. Black fife and drum music persists in a stretch of
Southern states stretching from
northwest Georgia
Northwest Georgia is a region of the state of Georgia in the United States. It includes 12 counties (listed in the section below), which at the 2010 census had a combined population of 753,032. Northwest Georgia includes some of the southernmos ...
to an area south of
Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Memp ...
, namely
North Mississippi
North Mississippi is a region in the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of Mississippi, consisting of Alcorn, Itawamba, Lee, Pontotoc, Prentiss, Tippah, Tishomingo, and Union counties. These counties share a unique cultural history that d ...
. The music is infused with Euro-American
military drum tradition and distinctly African
polyrhythms
Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rhyth ...
,
talking drum
The talking drum is an hourglass-shaped drum from West Africa, whose pitch can be regulated to mimic the tone and prosody of human speech. It has two drumheads connected by leather tension cords, which allow the player to change the pitc ...
influence, and
call and response
Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...
patterns. Performers play
blues,
marches
In medieval Europe, a march or mark was, in broad terms, any kind of borderland, as opposed to a national "heartland". More specifically, a march was a border between realms or a neutral buffer zone under joint control of two states in which diff ...
,
minstrel show
The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of racist theatrical entertainment developed in the early 19th century.
Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people spec ...
pieces,
popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fu ...
,
instrumentals
A backing track is an audio recording on audiotape, CD or a digital recording medium or a MIDI recording of synthesized instruments, sometimes of purely rhythmic accompaniment, often of a rhythm section or other accompaniment parts that live mus ...
, and
spirituals
Spirituals (also known as Negro spirituals, African American spirituals, Black spirituals, or spiritual music) is a genre of Christian music that is associated with Black Americans, which merged sub-Saharan African cultural heritage with the ex ...
such as "
When the Saints Go Marching In
"When the Saints Go Marching In", often referred to as simply "The Saints", is a traditional black spiritual. It originated as a Christian hymn and is often played by jazz bands. This song was famously recorded on May 13, 1938, by Louis Armstron ...
", "
When I Lay My Burden Down", "
My Babe
"My Babe" is a Chicago blues song and a blues standard written by Willie Dixon for Little Walter. Released in 1955 on Checker Records, a subsidiary of Chess Records, the song was the only Dixon composition ever to become a number one R&B single ...
" and "
Sitting on Top of the World
"Sitting on Top of the World" (also "Sittin' on Top of the World") is a country blues song written by Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatmon. They were core members of the Mississippi Sheiks, who first recorded it in 1930. Vinson claimed to have c ...
". A "march" becomes more of a swaying dance, sometimes led by a dancer, and singing comes in sporadic shouts, whoops, and moans from the different players. While spirituals are sometimes played, gatherings of drum and fife music are not religious in nature and not held on Sundays or in church.
Alan Lomax first recorded black fife and drum music in 1942. He found a group, including
Sid Hemphill
Sid Hemphill (1876 – 1963) was an American blues multi-instrumentalist and bandleader who played in his own string band mainly in Mississippi. He recorded for Alan Lomax in 1942 and again in 1959.
Born in Panola County, Mississippi, Hemphill ...
, near
Sledge, Mississippi consisting of a
cane
Cane or caning may refer to:
*Walking stick or walking cane, a device used primarily to aid walking
* Assistive cane, a walking stick used as a mobility aid for better balance
*White cane, a mobility or safety device used by many people who are ...
fife, two snare drums, and a bass drum. These same musicians constituted themselves as a
string band
A string band is an old-time music or jazz ensemble made up mainly or solely of string instruments. String bands were popular in the 1920s and 1930s, and are among the forerunners of modern country music and bluegrass. While being active countr ...
, using violin, banjo, guitar, and bass drum, and also incorporated
quills.
Notable performers include
Napoleon Strickland Napoleon Strickland (October 1, 1919 – July 21, 2001), sometimes known as Napolian Strickland, was a fife and drum blues artist, and songwriter, and vocalist specializing in country blues, specifically North Mississippi hill country blues. He ...
,
Othar Turner
Othar "Otha" Turner (June 2, 1907 – February 27, 2003) was one of the last well-known fife players in the vanishing American fife and drum blues tradition. His music was also part of the African-American genre known as Hill country blues.
Ea ...
, Turner's granddaughter
Shardé Thomas, Turner's daughter, Bernice,
Jessie Mae Hemphill
Jessie Mae Hemphill (October 18, 1923 – July 22, 2006) was an American electric guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist specializing in the North Mississippi hill country blues traditions of her family and regional heritage.
Life and career
Hemp ...
, Ed and Lonnie Young, and the Mitchel Brothers from Georgia.
See also
*
Ancient Fife and Drum Corps
*
Excelsior Brigade Fife and Drum Corps
*
Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps
The United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps is one of four premier musical organizations of the United States Army. Members perform using musical instruments and wearing uniforms similar to those used by military musicians of the Co ...
*
Hill country blues
Hill country blues (also known as North Mississippi hill country blues or North Mississippi blues) is a regional style of country blues. It is characterized by a strong emphasis on rhythm and percussion, steady guitar riffs, few chord changes, unco ...
*
Music of Mississippi
Mississippi is best known as the home of the blues which developed among the freed African Americans in the latter half of the 19th century and beginning 20th century. The Delta blues is the style most closely associated with the state, and includ ...
References
Further reading
* Howard W. Odum,
Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negro" American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education 3 (July 1909): 265-365.
* Eileen Southern "The Music of Black Americans: A History"
African-American Music from the Mississippi Hill Country: "They Say Drums was a-Calling" by Bill Steber, 1999.
Lesson plan by Patricia Shehan Campbell*
Further viewing
*''American Patchwork: Songs and Stories of America'', part 3: "The Land Where the Blues Began" (1990). Written, directed, and produced by Alan Lomax; developed by the Association for Cultural Equity at Columbia University and Hunter College. North Carolina Public TV; A Dibb Direction production for Channel Four. (Watch film
The Land Where the Blues Began
*''
Deep Blues
''Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads'' is a British documentary film, released in 1991, and made by music critic and author Robert Palmer and documentary film maker Robert Mugge, in collaboration with David A. Stewart and his brot ...
'' (1991). Directed by
Robert Mugge.
*''Gravel Springs Fife and Drum'' (1971). Filmed by Bill Ferris, recorded by David Evans, and edited by Judy Peiser. (Watch film
Gravel Springs Fife and Drum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fife And Drum Blues
Blues music genres
American styles of music