Afro-American Music Society 1954
The society was resucitated after along period of inertia for two main reasons; a growing number of requests for its revival and the fact that the gramophone has been coaxed into working with reasonable efficiency and, more important, a certain degree of dependability.
Interest in traditional jazz and Afro-American folk music has, of late years, been growing strongly. An ever increasing number of people have found it satisfying and inspiring music. The jazz of New Orleans depends not solely on the technical ability of the individual but on the ability of the musicians to play as a perfectly integrated group, on their innate powers of counterpoint and harmony.
The programs this term have covered most of the outstanding contributors to the development of jazz: Oliver to Johnson, Moreton to Lyttelton. The work of Louis Armstrong proved by far the most popular if attendance is any guide but even so, numbers have been consistently high.
Future programs will cover the many other forms of American negro folk music and will be designed to appeal both to the collector and to the newcomer to the music.
A. Larkin
(from Gaytonian July 1954)