Hello lovely readers!
I hope you all had a safe and happy New Year!
My husband and I went to Asheville, NC to celebrate New Year's Eve as we got tickets to go to the Biltmore as a wedding gift. While on the way up to the mountains, I FINALLY broke my reading slump and started reading Sissieretta Jones: The Greatest Singer of Her Race 1868-1933 by Maureen D. Lee. I had never heard of her, but I came across her through someone's post on Bookstagram, I think. Since I was heavy in my book buying last year, I added this to the list and bought it. So let's get into it!
Jones' vocal talents took her to opera houses and theaters around the world and led her to performing for four U.S. presidents and in venues like Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden. She was a successful performer and was once the highest paid Black American performer of her time. Despite facing the rise of Jim Crow, Jones enjoyed a nearly 30-year career and eventually went on to star in her own musical comedy company called "The Black Patti Troubadours."
She died in poverty at the age of 65.
MY THOUGHTS
I'm so conflicted with this book.
The author did well with the information that was available about Jones. She kept no journals, diaries or letters. There were no stories from family or friends about the type of woman she was. Thus, I imagine it was incredibly hard for the author to write a biography with limited info.
This book should've been seen as a musical career retrospective of Jones. The book was extremely repetitive because 95 percent of the book is about all of her performances and her music companies. It was disappointing.
I'm glad Sissieretta Jones is receiving recognition because she's often forgotten (if not known at all) when mentioned in Black history and Black music history. However, I feel like I learned nothing about who she was as a woman.
I hope you all had a safe and happy New Year!
My husband and I went to Asheville, NC to celebrate New Year's Eve as we got tickets to go to the Biltmore as a wedding gift. While on the way up to the mountains, I FINALLY broke my reading slump and started reading Sissieretta Jones: The Greatest Singer of Her Race 1868-1933 by Maureen D. Lee. I had never heard of her, but I came across her through someone's post on Bookstagram, I think. Since I was heavy in my book buying last year, I added this to the list and bought it. So let's get into it!
"To my mind no artist should omit one of these beautiful [Negro Folk] songs from his or her repertoire. Every school, college or university should include one of these songs in their musical program. Let the 'Negro folk song' become universally popular and their sweet dolorous melodies will proclaim to the world that the Negro is a people of sorrows who has made companionship with grief. A people that will yet come through the furnaces of affliction and persecution and become as gold, tried in the fire."
SUMMARY
Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones, better known as "Black Patti" was a distinguished Black American soprano during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Jones' vocal talents took her to opera houses and theaters around the world and led her to performing for four U.S. presidents and in venues like Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden. She was a successful performer and was once the highest paid Black American performer of her time. Despite facing the rise of Jim Crow, Jones enjoyed a nearly 30-year career and eventually went on to star in her own musical comedy company called "The Black Patti Troubadours."
She died in poverty at the age of 65.
MY THOUGHTS
I'm so conflicted with this book.
The author did well with the information that was available about Jones. She kept no journals, diaries or letters. There were no stories from family or friends about the type of woman she was. Thus, I imagine it was incredibly hard for the author to write a biography with limited info.
This book should've been seen as a musical career retrospective of Jones. The book was extremely repetitive because 95 percent of the book is about all of her performances and her music companies. It was disappointing.
I'm glad Sissieretta Jones is receiving recognition because she's often forgotten (if not known at all) when mentioned in Black history and Black music history. However, I feel like I learned nothing about who she was as a woman.
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