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The Documentary: The road to rock'n'roll

The road to rock'n'roll

24/07/2021 GMT

BBC World Service - The Documentary, The road to rock'n'roll

How a network of black performance venues in a segregated USA shaped music history

How a network of black performance venues in a segregated USA shaped music history.

In a segregated US, black audiences, entertainers and entrepreneurs established their own network of live performance venues known as the Chitlin’ Circuit. Concentrated primarily in the Deep South, it provided many pioneers of modern music with the platform to hone their craft and perfect their style as they travelled the country.

Virtually every notable African-American performer from the '30s to the '60s graced the circuit. The roster almost reads like a ‘who’s who?’ of black American musicians of this period: Ray Charles, Little Richard, Tina Turner, Sam Cooke, The Jacksons, Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix - the list goes on.

The venues would vary as much as the entertainers who graced them. From famous urban institutions like The Apollo Theater in New York or The Howard Theatre in Washington D.C, to a run-down barn on a country back-road.

It was in these settings, amidst a backdrop of segregation, that the sounds of rhythm and blues and rock’n’roll emerged and evolved, long before they captivated the world.

Fresh from his second Grammy in four years, the “King of the Chitlin’ Circuit” bluesman Bobby Rush is now over 85 years old, and has spent most of his life since the early '50s, touring and performing to black audiences in these same locations.

In this documentary, with his harmonica in hand and the help of Little Richard, Mary Wilson, B.B. King, Lou Rawls and others, Bobby shines a light on a hugely influential network of venues that paved the way for rock’n’roll and shaped music history.

(Photo: The opening gala of the historic Howard Theatre in Washington, DC on April 12, 2012. Credit: Eva Hambach/AFP/Getty Images)

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