Against All Odyssey

That African American music has historically been a major factor in the cultural landscape of America is beyond dispute. Steven Lewis has written, "The music of African Americans is one of the most poetic and inescapable examples of the importance of the African American experience to the cultural heritage of all Americans, regardless of race or origin." Evolving from religious chants, field hollers, work songs and cadences of African captives to the multi-billion industry that it is today, this kaleidoscope of music has been the subject of much research and scholastic inquiry. With the exception of a very few, however, very few of the studies and publications have been done from start to finish by the musicians themselves thereby forming an exterior instead of an interior view. The approach of this book is to produce an ethnography in which the subjects of the study (the members and associates of the AFM Musicians Association Local 533 and the Colored Musicians Club of Buffalo, New York) are the primary researchers, writers and publishers of the study. As a result, this publication is intended to be a primary resource and 21st-century social history of African American Classical music i.e., JAZZ as it evolved in the city of Buffalo, New York.