There is no single kind of music that led to the creation of Jazz. Instead, the genre evolved, and continues to evolve, from diverse musical avenues. In his liner notes to the final volume of Folkways' first Jazz series, Frederic Ramsey Jr.. writes, "[this album] includes fourteen notable performances arranged so as to touch lightly but firmly on as many highlights of Jazz development; it is a sort of a reprise... of all that has gone into the preceding ten volumes."

As it did with blues and jazz, the early recording industry missed the beginnings of ragtime. Luckily, the burgeoning player piano industry produced ragtime tunes on paper rolls, and these rolls augment the recordings we have. This collection presents ragtime played on piano rolls as well as on instruments like the banjo, which were suitable for early recording processes.

At one point during it's heyday between 1900 and 1930, American factories produced player pianos six times faster than the country's population increased! This masterpiece of engineering performed a wide repertoire of classical and popular music, and the Piano Roll presents a range of tunes typically played by the standard home model.

In a profession dominated by men, a few women pianists found employment playing and arranging music for piano rolls from 1890 until the 1920s. The women represented on this album were exceptional-not just as members of a barely-visible minority, but as virtuoso performers, arrangers, and vaudevillians.

Legendary contralto Marian Anderson repeatedly broke the race barrier in classical art music, most notably when she performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 after being refused a concert spot at Constitution Hall. But she also loved her cat. This is Snoopycat's story, written by Frida Sarsen-Bucky and narrated and sung by Anderson.

This is the extraordinary life of W.E.B. Dubois in his own words. The autobiographical account begins at age seventeen as DuBois left Massachusetts to attend Fisk University in 1885, and ends in the 1940s as DuBois describes his struggles with the NAACP. Each experience that DuBois shares is marked by his perception of the racial environment that encompassed it and he portrays how his identity and reactions were affected. A full transcription of DuBois' inspirational account, complete with photographs, is included in the liner notes.

A controversial (though influential) figure in African American history, Booker T. Washington's image is sanctified here as poet and author, Roy L. Hill, combines forces with Washington's daughter, Portia Washington-Pittman. Pittman reflects on her father's life and attempts to counteract the negative perceptions about her father with her own thoughtful understanding of Washington's disposition. The compilation includes a recording of a speech delivered by Booker T. Washington at the opening of the Atlanta Cotton States in 1895.

Originally released in 1959, The Country Blues features a range of styles and a collection of recordings not included in other Folkways compilations. This selection-mostly recorded between 1927 and 1931-includes such gems as a test pressing of Robert Johnson's "Preaching Blues" and local releases from the 1920s.

This recording of Gil Noble's WABC-TV program, "Like It is" features an exclusive interview with Angela Davis done by her lawyer, Margaret Burnham, while she was jailed in NY and awaiting trial on the case of the Soledad Brothers in 1971. The interview was arranged by the leading black newspaper at the time, Mohammed Speaks, and the questions were drawn from a poll conducted on what the average Harlem resident would ask Davis if given the chance. To these questions Davis is unapologetic and unwavering in her beliefs a "... There is nothing, absolutely nothing which could deter me from continuing to fight with all my energies for the freedom of my people."

Moses Asch purchased the "race records" heard on this album in 1941 for 15 cents each. Demonstrating some of the musical styles characteristic of the American South that proved influential in shaping what is now called Jazz, the selections range from folk songs to urban blues to boogie-woogie piano; artists include Dock Reese, Lead Belly, Scrapper Blackwell, Bessie Tucker and Champion Jack Dupree.

This is volume 2 of a projected 3-volume set of Lead Belly's performances recorded by Moses Asch during the 1940s. The original masters now reside in the Folkways Archive at the Smithsonian Institution. Completely remastered from the best sources in our collections, this recording contains the highest sound quality possible. The liner notes contain extensive annotation and reflections on Lead Belly's music as you've never heard it before. Compiled and annotated by Jeff Place. "The soul expressed is full-fledged and sublime." -New England Folk Almanac.

Jericho-Jim Crow by Langston Hughes is a musical production that focuses on themes from the civil rights movement and features music significant to the same period. Performers include former cast members of the original Broadway production of Porgy and Bess as well as gospel singers who made a living touring and performing around the US. Together, the cast of Jericho-Jim Crow gives a powerful performance of passionate acting and stirring gospel singing.

Son of an impoverished violinist, Englishman Billy Mayerl grew up playing piano for silent movies and became one of the most famous novelty rag performers in the world. This album presents sixteen of his complex yet playful compositions, including several pieces from his celebrated piano suites.

The Blues is life and life is the Blues. It covers from the first cry of a newborn to the last gasp of a dying man. It's the very existence." And Victoria Spivey took the blues business very seriously, from her many recording contracts to her performance schedule. These thirteen original compositions were written specifically for this recording, and range from a "No Friends Blues" or a "Slick Chick Blues" to a "Humble Blues" and even "A Sausage Blues.

Narrated by Langston Hughes, The Story of Jazz is a concise history of jazz beginning with Drums of the Yoruba, from Nigeria, and continuing to the post-WWII era of be-bop with Dizzy Gillespie's "Oopapada." Hughes delineates the various subcategories of this ever-evolving genre which includes the rag, New Orleans jazz, blues, Kansas City jazz and boogie-woogie piano, swing, be-bop, and progressive jazz. Well-chosen examples accompany each exploration of style.