Black Stars: African American Musicians. - Review - book review

Black Stars: African American Musicians By Eleanora E. Tate, Jim Haskind Wiley & Sons, Inc., June 2000, $22.95, ISBN 0-471-25356-1

The Black Stars series includes profiles of "African Americans, both legendary and less well-known, who have made significant contributions to the United States over the past 200 years." This particular volume, focusing on musicians, serves as a unique reference for the younger set containing information on artists who created and excelled in all types of music from blues and ragtime, to gospel and hip hop. Tare and Haskins have divided this volume into four parts: the early years, civil war and reconstruction, the new century and modern times. They provide a 19th-century chronology along with notes for each chapter and an extensive bibliography.

The illustrated biographical sketches are well-written and, although brief, contain just enough information for the reader to get a good sense of the artist. Many of the sketches are so detailed as to provide street names and addresses for the artist's birthplace. Some even include a sidebar with a brief biography of a later star of the same genre (e.g. Lauryn Hill after Aretha Franklin), and additional information about the artist, genre or era.

The editors were also thoughtful enough to provide definitions for words used in the discussion that may be unfamiliar to some young readers. Black Stars has them but they're all tucked away at the back of the book. The notes for each chapter would also be more accessible after each chapter rather than at the end of the book. Yet these are small arguments that do little to diminish this admirable effort.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Cox, Matthews & Associates
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group