>>No, I think J. is pointing out that music in black protestant churches
>>is the musical precursor of R & B. Lots of flatted sevenths and flatted
>>thirds, IV-I (plagial) cadences. I agree: without that culture of black
>>gospel music, there's no R & B (or soul or funk or rock!).
>>
>>Miles
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>I'm still not convinced. Gospel is just one stream of what came out
>of musical traditions carried from Africa. The developments of
>gospel and blues were separate in important ways and I'd say there's
>a stronger case for saying no r&b without blues than without gospel.
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It's crazy to vote for THE root of R & B.
You have the stream of gospel, with its roots in religious music (a lot of Bach), and you have the stream of blues, and you have the stream of jazz. . And somewhere down the line...you get R & B.
But when you think of the major figures in R & B: Aretha, Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Sam Cooke, etc.....this is a long list of kids raised on Gospel, raised with music that had to grab you by the fucking gonads and raise you to the sky...., there's just no denying that the "god/soul" element deepend and amplified the expectations and reality of what great R & B music should be. The audience for R & B _was_ a large community of people solidly schooled in singing and raising the spirit, and they set a high bar. And that's part of the reason why they got such amazing music.
Religiosity can be a way of justifying arrogance and cruelty (so can any ideology), but it is also a way of raising the bar, and I am really surprised that so many on this list just don't get that.
Joanna