A 'Summer of Soul' Companion Reading List

by Mark Buford

Mahalia Jackson and the Black Gospel Field draws on a trove of previously unexamined archival sources that illuminate Jackson's childhood in New Orleans and her negotiation of parallel careers as a singing Baptist evangelist and a mass media entertainer, documenting the unfolding material and symbolic influence of Jackson and Black gospel music in postwar American society.

by Emily J. Lordi

In the 1960s soul came to signify a cultural belief in Black resilience, which was enacted through musical practices—inventive cover versions, falsetto vocals, ad-libs, and false endings. Through these soul techniques, artists such as Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Isaac Hayes, and Minnie Riperton performed virtuosic survivorship and thus helped to galvanize Black communities in an era of peril and promise. Their soul legacies were later reanimated by such stars as Prince, Solange Knowles, and Flying Lotus. Breaking with prior understandings of soul as a vague masculinist political formation tethered to the Black Power movement, Lordi offers a vision of soul that foregrounds the intricacies of musical craft, the complex personal and social meanings of the music, the dynamic movement of soul across time, and the leading role played by Black women in this musical-intellectual tradition.

edited by Herb Boyd

There is no neighborhood in America as famous, infamous, and inspiring as Harlem. From its humble beginnings as a farming district and country retreat for the rich, Harlem grew to international prominence as the mecca of Black art and culture, then fell from grace, despised as a crime-ridden slum and symbol of urban decay. The Harlem Reader gathers a wealth of vital impressions, stories, and narratives and blends them with original accounts offered by living storytellers, famous and not so famous. Fresh and vivid, this volume perfectly captures the dramatic moments and personalities at the core of Harlem's ever-evolving story.

by Alan Light

A biography of the legendary singer, inspired by the acclaimed Netflix documentary, explores her public persona and her private life, including her love of classical music despite her rejection from that field, her rise in the world of soul, and her civil rights activism.

by Brian D. Goldstein

In charting the growth of gleaming shopping centers and refurbished brownstones in Harlem, Brian Goldstein shows that gentrification was not imposed on an unwitting community by opportunistic developers or outsiders. It grew from the neighborhood’s grassroots, producing a legacy that benefited some longtime residents and threatened others. Brian Goldstein traces Harlem's widely noted "Second Renaissance" to a surprising source: the radical 1960s social movements that resisted city officials and fought to give Harlemites control of their own destiny. 

by Greg Kot

A lesser-known account of the life and achievements of the lead singer of the Staple Singers reveals how her family fused diverse musical genres to transcend racism and oppression through song, discussing such topics as her romantic affairs, her collaborations with fellow artists and her indelible impact on civil rights culture.

by Rickey Vincent

Combining political and musical history, Vincent (U. of California at Berkeley) recounts the story of the Black Panther Party's funk/soul band, the Lumpen, which was active between 1969 and 1971. The story of the band's music and live performances, for the purposes of contextualization as well as at the insistence of the musicians themselves (all of whom were rank and file members of the Party) is told in relation to the most transformative phase of the party as the 1960s came to an end, as well as the broader picture of soul and funk music's development at a time when even Motown acts, once limited to relatively innocuous sentiments of teen romance, were becoming more explicitly political and radical.

by Jeff Kaliss

Kaliss scored the first face-to-face interview with the reclusive superstar in over 20 years, making this book a must-read for any rock 'n' roll fan. From his anthemic early hits ("I Want to Take You Higher," "Family Affair," "Dance to the Music"), through the moody meditations of "There's a Riot Going On" and beyond, Sly & the Family Stone have left an indelible stamp on rock, funk, pop, and hip hop.

by Craig Werner

Werner considers Black music since the 1950s—notably gospel, blues, jazz—and people and styles influenced by it, all within a social context that pays close attention to race. He examines styles such as Motown, folk music, Southern soul, funk, disco, punk, and hip-hop. He discusses a wide range of artists including Mahalia Jackson, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Diana Ross, Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin, John Coltrane, James Brown, John Fogerty, Al Green, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, George Clinton, Bob Marley, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Mary J. Blige, OutKast, Ozomatli, and Lauryn Hill. 

by Mark Ribowsky

Stevie Wonder's achievements as a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer are extraordinary. For the first time, Signed, Sealed, and Delivered takes an in-depth look at Stevie Wonder's life and his evolution from kid-soul pop star into a mature artist whose music helped lay the groundwork for the evolution of hip hop and rap.

by Gladys Knight

A four-time Grammy winner shares her inspirational life story, from her childhood experiences traveling with the likes of Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson, through two failed marriages, encounters with racism, and the faith that held her up through it all.

edited by Richard Kostelanetz

B.B. King is a national treasure. For more than five decades, he has been the consummate blues performer. His unique guitar playing, powerful vocals, and repertoire of songs have taken him from tiny Itta Bena, Mississippi, to worldwide renown. In this comprehensive volume, the best articles, interviews and reviews about B.B. King's life and career have been gathered. Learn how he first made his mark as a disc jockey in Memphis hawking "Pepticon" elixir and taking the moniker of the "Beale Street Blues Boy"; trace his early tours and recordings; see him be swept up in the blues revival; and finally, enjoy his fame as the greatest living exponent of the blues style.

by Stuart Cosgrove

In 1969, among Harlem's Rabelaisian cast of characters are bandleader King Curtis, soul singers Aretha Franklin and Donny Hathaway, and drug peddler Jimmy 'Goldfinger' Terrell. In February a raid on tenements across New York leads to the arrest of 21 Black Panther party members and one of the most controversial trials of the era. In the summer Harlem plays host to Black Woodstock and concerts starring Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder and Nina Simone. The world's most famous guitarist, Jimi Hendrix, a major supporter of the Black Panthers, returns to Harlem in support of their cause. By the end of the year Harlem is gripped by a heroin pandemic and the death of a 12-year-old child sends shockwaves through the USA, leaving Harlem stigmatised as an area ravaged by crime, gangsters and a darkly vengeful drug problem. (Third in Cosgrove's trilogy on soul. See also: Detroil 67: The Year That Changed Soul and Memphis 68: The Tragedy of Southern Soul.)