The passing of Chuck Brown, the “god father of go-go” music, a style indigenous to Washington, D.C., on May 16 reminds us of the variety and richness of African American music forms, and June is Black Music Month, which provides an opportunity to celebrate this cornucopia of sound.
According to his official website, Brown, a guitarist and singer, gave birth to “go-go” around the late 1970s, drawing from and incorporating funk, jazz, R&B and other forms. Born in 1936 in Gaston, N.C., he lived in Maryland and was still performing at the time of his death at age 75.
You can read more about “go-go” music in the first book ever published on the topic, The Beat!: Go-Go Music from Washington, D.C. by Kip Lornell and Charles C. Stephenson, Jr., for the University of Mississippi Press, 2009, available on DiverseBooks.net, $22.50.
http://diversebooks.net/the-beat-go-go-music-from-washington-d-c.html
Diversebooks.net has listings for more than 200 books about music, primarily on African American forms: spirituals, work songs, blues, jazz, gospel, rock ‘n roll and rhythm & blues. Among the offerings are these.
