Welcome to African American Music Reference

African American Music Reference will contain 50,000 pages that offers the first comprehensive coverage of blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other forms of black American musical expression. This release includes 4,229 essays and images from 108 sources, over 31,157 pages. You can also access African American Music Reference through the Music Online interface. More »

featured

Black Diva of the Thirties: The Life of Ruby Elzy by David E. Weaver

Brother Ray: Ray Charles’ Own Story by Ray Charles & David Ritz

Jazz Style in Kansas City and the Southwest by Ross Russell

Third Coast: Outkast, Timbaland, and How Hip-Hop Became a Southern Thing by Roni Sarig