Blues mamas and Broadway belters : black women, voice, and the musical stage
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Blues Mamas and Broadway Belters examines racialized embodied singing techniques and their transmission, dwelling with the ways that black women singers theorized the voice in US musical theater performances from 1900 to 1970. Approaching voice from a performance studies perspective, Masi Asare sketches biographies of singers such as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt, and others, focusing on the different types of training each performer received. Asare draws on her own experience as a composer, lyricist, playwright, and voice teacher to engage readers in a comprehensive singing lesson and practice of listening, offering analysis of vocal performances, critical theorization of voice pedagogy, and a series of creative voice exercises. As a black feminist voice study, Blues Mamas and Broadway Belters serves as a project to write black women and racially marginalized groups into the history of Broadway and musical theater"--,Provided by publisher.