Overview

In Blues Mamas and Broadway Belters, songwriter, scholar, and dramatist Masi Asare explores the singing practice of black women singers in US musical theatre between 1900 and 1970. Asare shows how a vanguard of black women singers including Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Pearl Bailey, Juanita Hall, Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt, Diahann Carroll, and Leslie Uggams created a lineage of highly trained and effective voice teachers whose sound and vocal techniques continue to be heard today. Challenging pervasive narratives that these and other black women possessed “untrained” voices, Asare theorizes singing as a form of sonic citational practice—how the sound of the teacher’s voice lives on in the student’s singing. From vaudeville-blues shouters, black torch singers, and character actresses to nightclub vocalists and Broadway glamour girls, Asare locates black women of the musical stage in the context of historical voice pedagogy. She invites readers not only to study these singers, but to study with them—taking seriously what they and their contemporaries have taught about the voice. Ultimately, Asare speaks to the need to feel and hear the racial history in contemporary musical theatre.

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9781478026730

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Reviews

"“In this revisionist history of the Broadway musical, Masi Asare finds that black women’s influence and agentic power are foundational to this uniquely American musical and vocal form. She counters the assumption that paying attention to only major Broadway productions would produce: that all black women sound the same. Moreover, Asare powerfully explains the absolutely central role of the black female voice in American culture and self-image. Helping us hear the creativity of black women singers, voice teachers, and listeners, this book shines.” -- Nina Sun Eidsheim “Listen closely. Masi Asare revolutionizes how we regard and interrogate the intimacies of singing practices in American theatre culture. She recuperates the oft-overlooked and undertheorized contributions of black women vocalists—as performers, pedagogues, and students of their own craft—in the making of that culture while, likewise, calling for more nuanced ways of theorizing long genealogies of influence, the tensions of interracial appropriation, and the captivating resonances Asare traces between a range of landmark artists’ repertoires. A brilliant meditation on intersectional singing traditions in modern American culture, Blues Mamas and Broadway Belters is the kind of ‘singing lesson’ designed to last.” -- Daphne Brooks ""A deep dive offering a valuable perspective to readers interested in the history of Black women vocalists."" -- Kathleen McCallister * Library Journal *"

“In this revisionist history of the Broadway musical, Masi Asare finds that Black women’s influence and agentic power are foundational to this uniquely American musical and vocal form. She counters the assumption that paying attention to only major Broadway productions would produce: that all Black women sound the same. Moreover, Asare powerfully explains the absolutely central role of the Black female voice in American culture and self-image. Helping us hear the creativity of Black women singers, voice teachers, and listeners, this book shines.” -- Nina Sun Eidsheim “Listen closely. Masi Asare’s Blues Mamas and Broadway Belters revolutionizes how we regard and interrogate the intimacies of singing practices in American theatre culture. It recuperates the oft-overlooked and under-theorized contributions of Black women vocalists—as performers, pedagogues, and students of their own craft—in the making of that culture while, likewise, calling for more nuanced ways of theorizing long genealogies of influence, the tensions of interracial appropriation and the captivating resonances Asare traces between a range of landmark artists’ repertoires. A brilliant meditation on intersectional singing traditions in modern American culture, Blues Mamas and Broadway Belters is the kind of ‘singing lesson’ designed to last.” -- Daphne Brooks

“In this revisionist history of the Broadway musical, Masi Asare finds that Black women’s influence and agentic power are foundational to this uniquely American musical and vocal form. She counters the assumption that paying attention to only major Broadway productions would produce: that all Black women sound the same. Moreover, Asare powerfully explains the absolutely central role of the Black female voice in American culture and self-image. Helping us hear the creativity of Black women singers, voice teachers, and listeners, this book shines.” -- Nina Sun Eidsheim, author of * The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music *

Author Information

Masi Asare is Assistant Professor of Theatre at Northwestern University and a Tony Award–nominated Broadway songwriter and dramatist.

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