Duke Rocks: ‘The Word on Music’ Celebrates Music Scholarship and Performance

Duke University Press books chronicle musical trends and the cultures behind them.

Thursday, September 1, 2005

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Durham, N.C. -- Duke University, recently ranked No. 2 among “schools that rock” by Rolling Stone magazine, will host a symposium-celebration of new music scholarship published by Duke University Press Sept. 8-10 at the John Hope Franklin Center. The event, called “The Word on Music,” will bring together Duke Press authors -- many of whom are performing artists themselves -- and the musicians who have been the subjects of their work.

Things start off with a twang Sept. 8 at Joe & Jo’s Pub in downtown Durham when Larry “Hoppy” Hopkins and Aaron Fox play Texas country music featured in Fox’s Real Country: Music and Language in Working Class Culture (2004). The event is free and begins at 9 p.m.

Several members of Burnt Sugar, including Duke Press author Greg Tate, are featured in Right to Rock: The Black Rock Coalition and the Cultural Politics of Race (2004) by Maureen Mahon, a conference participant.

Listen to samples of music discussed in Duke Press books:

	In Real Country, Aaron A. Fox provides an intimate, in-depth ethnography of the rural working-class Texas town of Lockhart and its music. Listen to one of the musicians profiled in the book, Larry “Hoppy” Hopkins, perform “Pretty Words.”Hopkins will perform on Thursday, Sept. 8, as part of The Word on Music symposium.
	Sound of Africa!, by Louise Meintjes, recounts the production of a “mbaqanga” album in a state-of-the-art recording studio in Johannesburg. Mbaqanga‘s distinctive African style features a bass solo voice and soaring harmonies of a female frontline over electric guitar, bass, keyboard, and drum set. Listen to the song “Ijazi IaseZola” by the group Isigqi Sesimanje profiled in Meintjes’ book.
	Swing Shift, by Sherrie Tucker, tells the story of the “all-girl” big bands of the World War II era. Although all-female jazz and dance bands had existed since the 1920s, now hundreds of such groups, both African American and white, barnstormed ballrooms, theaters and dance halls. Listen to an example of all-girl big band – “Digging Dyke” by The International Sweethearts of Rhythm.