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Show Birthplace of Musicians Ought to be Southland ( OH O, NDWllyK;. L B&IS-lW5 Vj tP - j$&?J--". fS "" ' s MMm0m . - Mm TAX HENKY 1'MMn-MwMr liutdiirm. A nMPitwt or iwo. l'wttt-tin' lu-Ur-iti-hSnu i-iailitiUina w L ; So Says Tal Henry, Who '. Came From South ' Carolina New York City. Most Ameri can musicians should come from ' the South, and why they do not is a mystery to Tal Henry who took personal precautions in that direction direc-tion by being born in South Carolina. Caro-lina. "I can't understand why there are so many famous Yankee players play-ers of Southern tunes," he protests. pro-tests. "In the North, people like music but frequently not passionately passion-ately enough to take the time either to listen or to play. While in the South, melody is so much a part of our lives that it has actually actu-ally slowed up life for us. A soft Negro lullaby floating up from the kitchen in the morning is as welcome wel-come and natural to us as the same lullaby crooned at night and we are very willing to have it postpone post-pone our breakfast and the day's affairs." Henry doesn't, however, claim unqualified credit for the South in the origin of modern popular music. ' i i "We must admit that this famous fa-mous southern tempo that is the foundation of the popular music of America comes from the African negro," he says. "While we have evolved something that may be called pure American music, the basis of it is the old songs of the southern darkies which they had handed down to them by their forebears fore-bears who were brought over in slave ships from their homeland. "These songs were either lullabies lulla-bies or war calls, and it is amazing how many motifs used today are elaborations of these very simple primitive tunes. "Many songs have even taken negro themes and dialect like 'I'm Gettin' Superstitious About Delicious Deli-cious You' the ever-heard fox trot song which is not distinctly African in music but shows negro influence in lyrics: 'I'm gonna wear a luck charm A rabbits foot or two I wanna four leaf clover so I can wear that too'." Tal Henry can speak with an-, thority as to origins since his band has traveled the country over, and he has had ample opportunity to study the sources of American dance music. |