Blues and gospel have been the major formative influences on postwar popular music. Some
12,000 titles were recorded for black audiences in America up to 1942, and, in an unprecedented project, Johnny Parth has ensured that all are now available on CD. In the first of eight programmes examining the many assumptions made about early black music, Paul Oliver talks to Howard Rye , compiler of the discography Blues and Gospel Records 1890-1943; to
Robert Macleod , who plans to transcribe the lyrics of all these records; and to Johnny Parth himself.
Producer Derek Drescher. Rptd Friday 12.30am