Guests stood up, clapped and sang "This Little Light of Mine," and "Work" during Striking Out for the Deep Water, a presentation by English professor Elizabeth Brown-Guillory.
During her presentation, Brown-Guillory discussed how blues music emerged and the exploration of blues and jazz through the short stories of Ann Petry and James Baldwin.
"(Blues) is the vehicle for connecting to the African past," Brown-Guillory said as she read the words of author Zora Neale Hurston. "Blues kept America remembering."
The good, the bad and the ugly pasttimes were recorded and became what we know as the blues and jazz. The rhythms that these two genres produce are the souls of people who have lived in all conditions and who were desperate for change and hope.
Brown-Guillory’s presentation was one of seven in Music Across Boundaries, a day-long Scholarship and Community Conference sponsored by the UH Faculty Senate every two years.
At Thursday’s event, the Senate’s president Joseph A. Kotarba chose to highlight "culture, identity and performance" through music. Kotarba said that anyone can relate to music because "music is an extraordinary, powerful topic."
"(Blues) is the core of American popular music, we understand the great impact African American culture has on music," Kotarba said.
The blues and jazz world produced famous songs such as "Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen," "Unchain my Heart" and "Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child."
After Brown-Guillory’s speech closed with singing, clapping and New Orleans-style conga, Kotarba and a panel of six men led a discussion on the topic of the authenticity of music.
The panel, which was part of a summer research group led by Kotarba, asked the question: What is real in the music industry?
Kotarba said that "true indie rock," is real music. "Ashley Simpson, who is heavily promoted, is not real," he said.
What is real is what the artists produce and the emotions and feelings that they have struggled with. The authentic music performed Thursday was brought to life by singer Gloria Edwards Mills and her husband, pianist Nelson Mills III, as well as with the band Free Radicals.
"I’m real when it comes to my arrangements and recordings," Mills said. "What is real is what you come out with."
Kotarba said that "authenticity is significant among academics," and that music is true to the values of the group.
Composer and producer Brad Sayles said that people listen to different music to find their own voice. At one point in time, he even "struggled to find (his) voice."
Music Across Boundaries also included the presentations American Idols and Canadian Renegades, Mapping the Varieties of Latino Music in Houston, Gershwin and The Harlem Renaissance, Fakin’ It: Is There Authenticity in Commercial Music? Voice, and Authenticity in Music: The Artists’ and Critics’ Voice.
