Interview with Big Bill Broonzy about the language and origins of the blues, Southern black identity, and blues musicianship

Audio file

Date recorded: May 13, 1952
Contributor(s): Performer: Lomax, Alan; Performer: Broonzy, William Lee Conley (Big Bill); Recordist: Lomax, Alan
Subject(s):
Genre: interview/commentary
Culture: African American, Southern U.S.
Instruments: voice
Setting: Bill Broonzy's hotel room
Location: Paris, Ville-de-Paris, Ile-de-France, France
Physical form: Reel to Reel
Tape number: T1008
Track Number: 1
Archive ID: T1008R01
Note: Alan Lomax and Bill Broonzy discuss the economic conditions that produced the blues, the language of American blacks as expressed in the blues, "emotional access" to the blues, and their musical integrity. "The American Negro do not speak correct English… and I'm one of them – from them farms, levee camps, extra gangs, and things."
Transcript:
Belongs to: Paris 5/52
About the session: Blues singer and guitarist Big Bill Broonzy (1893–1958) was a major figure in Chicago in the 1930s and '40s and brought his music to European audiences in the early 1950s. Alan Lomax, who held Broonzy in high esteem, had spent time with him in Chicago and recorded him at the Decca studios in New York in 1946 (see the Blues In the Mississippi Night Interview collection). In 1952 he and Big Bill met again in Paris, where Alan was on a research trip to the Musee L'Homme, and recorded two hours of songs and conversation on Black pride, American racism, and the blues as commercial popular music.
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