June is not only a celebration of Juneteenth, the day that marks when African Americans were informed of their freedom, but it is also Black Music Month.
On Speaking of: The Unbothered Edition, we visit the Institute for Music Business (IMB) to speak with its founder, Dr. Angela Moss Poole, about where to go for rhythm and soul here in Tallahassee.
We discussed the safe spaces performers had during the Jim Crow segregation era, the connection between Mississippi blues and Tallahassee, and the nuances of performing post-COVID.
Poole: Black artists in Tallahassee during segregation had very few formal spaces available to them. So they made their own. They performed in private homes. They performed on back porches, in church basements, and eventually in juke joints, makeshift clubs.
One of them, this very famous one that just recently closed, is the Bradfordville Blues Club, which like most of them, was in rural areas or behind neighborhood stores. And so, you know, most of them kind of sat in hidden little spaces at the end of a dirt road. And, you know, they drew some of the biggest names, people like B.B. King and Ma Rainey.
But those places weren’t just about music. They were about safety and resistance and community. And for many of us, it was the only place where Black people could gather, dance, and share joy, freedom.
WFSU: In your opinion, how has the legacy of these early safe spaces influenced the music culture in Tallahassee today?
Poole: I feel like that legacy still lives on. I can still feel it in places like Frenchtown. This is, you know, one of the oldest historically Black neighborhoods in the state. You have places like Bishop’s Jazz Society that’s still there. You have the community shows at Railroad Square. And you get to see the resilience of artists that perform at these open mic nights.
You get to see local festivals, and it’s still very much alive. Those early safe spaces taught us that music is not just entertainment. There still are places where it’s a place for healing, it’s a place for empowerment and community building. And I feel like what’s happening in those areas is building on the energy that started with those juke joints and is driving that work that we continue to do to honor tradition and innovation.
So that’s kind of what we’re doing here at IMB. Like, we’re here in the southside. We’re strategically, you know, intentionally located here in the southside, but we’re bringing innovation here. So, we’re saying we’re still tied to the history of those juke joints, the history of that old way. But how do we take it into the future?
WFSU: What do you think the future is for Black music? How do we amplify those voices more as a community or as fans?
Poole: I think we’re going to have to define what Black music is now. You know, I was thinking about — I saw a clip on social media where Prince won Black R&B or Black Album of the Year or something like that…It was in the ’80s, but it was when he did Purple Rain, and at that time the award was called Black Artist of the Year or something like that.
You think about that today. That’s ridiculous to have an award with that name. But that’s how it used to be because Black music meant rhythm and blues, right? Versus, I guess, country or rock or pop.
WFSU: They didn’t have a lot of genres.
Poole: Exactly. And now you have hip-hop, which has evolved over time. You have jazz still doing its thing, kind of evolving, kind of morphing. It’s kind of neo-soul.
WFSU: Alternative R&B
Poole: Yeah, there are so many things. So, we have to say, well, what is Black music?
Even now, we’re doing country, right? We won the best country album this year. Now they had to create a new genre called contemporary country versus traditional country. You’ll see that with the Grammys this year, right? It’s another way to say Black versus non-Black, right?
WFSU: When you look at the history and the foundation, you understand that Black music, Black musicians were at the forefront of it all.
Poole: Of all the music in America.
WFSU: Whether it be jazz.
Poole: Yeah, all music in America.
WFSU: It all stemmed from that banjo.
Poole: Yes, it was — we created, and you saw that in the movie Sinners as well, right? And so, I think we have to define what is Black music, what does it mean, and what does it mean to be a person that says, ‘I do Black music?’
Is it just Black people or is it the music that we created, which is all music that is here in the United States, I guess maybe short of classical — but some of the great classical people were of color too, right? So, once we know, okay, this is what we mean by Black music, then let’s celebrate all of those different genres and subgenres and claim it all.
It’s all ours. Jazz is ours. Rock is ours. Hip-hop is ours. R&B is ours. Gospel is ours.
Click LISTEN above to hear the conversation.
