KING STUDIOS TRAVELING SUITCASE

KING STUDIOSTRAVELING SUITCASE #1PART 2 & 3: AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSICIANS TRAVELING IN THE JIM CROW SOUTH

1With the generous assistance of:

Good Rockin Tonight Wynonie Harris (1954) Elvis Presley (1954)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5G6p7WpLSkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyfFOmUULK0Elviss 2nd single from Sun3King Records was started by entrepreneur Syd Nathan in 1943. Until 1968, King produced an variety of music including country, rhythm and blues, and black and white gospel music.

King Records included several labels for different genres. In the early years, Federal and DeLuxe featured African American rhythm and blues artists, while King Records featured country music. Bethlehem Records produced jazz. (Country music had earlier been called hillbilly, but most Appalachians disliked that term. Music by black artists was sometimes called race music, also an unpopular term among African Americans. The term implies that white people are the norm and do not need racial classification.)4Syd Nathan challenged local race relations by hiring a diverse workforce. Rigid segregation of races was typical of both North and South, and made the integration of King Records unusual for its time.

KING RECORDS SHIPPING DEPARTMENTFormer King drummer Philip Paul recalls that black and white musicians collaborated in the studio, but, he says, he could not leave the building and buy a cup of coffee in Evanston. 5King fostered collaborations among musicians in these genres that led King to make key contributions to emerging popular styles, especially rock and roll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t08ejaQqWjYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkjRDaoF39wHillbilly Boogie, 1946Please, Please 19566Good Rockin' TonightiTunes 10.2.2.14, QuickTime 7.6.9King CoversWynonie Harris