A new musical rhythm was given to the people : rhythm and representation in black Manhattan -- Do all we could to get what we felt belonged to us by the laws of nature : selling real Negro melodies and marketing authentic black rhythms -- Appreciate the noble and the beautiful within us : ragging uplift with rhythmic transgressions -- The piano man was it! The man in charge : black nightclubs and ragtime identities in New York's Tenderloin -- To promote greater efficiency among its members : ragtime in Times Square and the Clef Club Inc -- Rhythm is something that is born in the Negro : black musical value and the consolidation of "Negro music" -- A new type of Negro musician : social dance and black musical value in prewar America
Summary
This work explores how African American performers, at the height of Jim Crow, transformed their racial difference into the mass-market commodity known as 'black music'. David Gilbert shows how they used the rhythmic sounds of ragtime, blues, and jazz to construct new representations of black identity, challenging preconceived ideas about race, culture, and modernity
