Clarke Peters draws on a rare collection of archive recordings to explore a forgotten musical history.

Received wisdom has it that black popular music arrived in Europe with the Empire Windrush in 1948, but Clarke brings us black sounds recorded in Europe from as far back as 1900.

Clarke discovers a huge variety of black music, including very early examples of blues harmonica, scat singing and stride piano. It also includes some of the earliest African music ever recorded, from Senegalese war songs captured at the Paris World Fair in 1900 to the music of a troupe of Congolese pygmies who toured Britain in 1905-07.

Much of the music in this series is drawn from Black Europe, a vast box-set issued by Bear Family Records and documenting the sounds of the era.

With readings by Paterson Joseph.

Presenter: Clarke Peters
Producer: Tom Woolfenden
Executive producer: Maria Williams

(Photo: Clarke Peters. Credit: Jon Calver) Show less