American Gumbo

Wow! I wrote my master's thesis on Amiri Baraka. I love his book, "Blues People." It is still a treasure chest of information on the history of African American music. I pose to my students this question: imagine American music today if Africans had never come to America. What would you have: classical (which I appreciate), polka, and country music. That's all folks. No rock which is blues based, no R n B, no jazz, no blues, no gospel. It would be country without flavor. We need mo' flav....LOL