Thursday, March 5, 2015

Dominique-René de Lerma: The Legacy of LaBrew

Arthur LaBrew
(Dominique-René de Lerma)

Arthur LaBrew
(Slipped Disc)

[Lara Downes writes of Slipped Disc post from Chi-chi Nwanoku:
Want to make sure you saw this...
http://slippedisc.com/2015/03/father-of-afro-american-musicology-has-passed/]

THE LEGACY OF LaBREW

Dominique-René de Lerma

[This preliminary sketch is subject to corrections and additions, based on reader response]

He was born in Detroit on  18 January 1930 to Ernest L. LaBrew, Sr. (1897-) and Alberta LaBrew (1907-), the youngest of five children (Ernest L. Jr., 1929-1997; Charlotte (Oscar) Osborne, b. 1932; Irvin, b. 1936; Mary Elise, b. 1939).  There might have been yet another child, Colleen Bradley, born after the 1940 census.
Ernest Jr., a member of Peace Baptist Church, was a graduate of the Detroit public schools.  From about 1958 to 1978, he served in the military (possibly as saxophonist) with two tours of duty in Vietnam, retiring with the rank of Master Sergeant.   He subsequently was engaged by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as a federal investigator.  He studied at Oklahoma City University for a three-year period, probably as a saxophonist (he was a professional saxophonist and private teacher).  His first wife was Geraldine LaBrew.  On 30 June 1973 he married Evelyn Perry, becoming father of Lawrence, Milton Ali, Linda Hudgley, Renée Love, and Elmer Perry, all of whom survived him.  He died in Oklahoma City on 20 August 1997.
In 1948, Arthur attended the annual meeting of the National Association of Negro Musicians, then being held in Columbus OH.  Details regarding this meeting are lacking in Doris Evans McGinty's A documentary history of the National Association of Negro Musicians[1] (Chicago: Center for Black Music Research, 2004), although it was noted that pianist Lorenza Jordan Cole, soprano Mattie Robbins Willis (mother of soprano Charlotte Willis Graham) == or  Mattie Azalia Willis? , and tenor John Aglin were winners at the Artist Night Concert.  Winners of the NANM student competition for 1948 were Julia Perry in the vocal category (second place went to Barbara Evans), with pianists Jessie Whitted and  LaBrew sharing first place.  Journalist Nora Douglass Holt took notice of LaBrew and had news of his success published in the Amsterdam news, along with his photograph.
Arthur was a graduate in piano (B.M.) from the Oberlin Conservatory in 1952.  He moved to New York where he entered the Manhattan School of Music in 1950, studying choral conducting with Hugh Ross, but most importantly, falling under the spell of Gustav Reese, graduating with his M.M. degree in musicology in 1952.  His 1955 thesis was The St. Matthew Passion of Metre Jan, a two-volume study (the first volume being 54 pages, the second being a 180-page transcription of one of the earliest works on this subject).  In the process, he developed his respect for consulting primary sources, but he also was drawn to readings on Egyptian history.  During this period he roomed with composers Noel da Costa (1929-2002) and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004), developing a life-long friendship particularly with Perkinson. 
LaBrew made a point of attending the many performances by Black musicians in churches, in private gatherings, and at Town Hall and Carnegie Hall.
An exceptional impetus came from his study with Reese, an adjunct faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music, who held classes in his home.  At one session, perhaps responding to a question LaBrew posed, Reese mentioned that Black music in Europe and the Americas had been neglected and was worth scholarly attention. Thus stimulated, LaBrew became aware that Alfred Einstein made reference to madrigals that used supposed “negro” dialect, that Paul Nettl had written “Traces of the Negroid in the ‘Mauresque’ of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,” and that such terms as negro, negriya, gallego, guineo, congo, calenda, appeared his readings in renaissance and baroque sources of Spanish speaking countries. 
Then he came across “The first appearance of the Negroes in history” by Dr. Hermann Junker, providing yet another stimulus: now to look at ancient Egypt.  Junker cited Walter Wreszinski’s Atlas zur altägyptischen Kulturgeschichte (likely the 1923 Leipzig publication) picturing seven Blacks, two of whom had trumpet-like instruments. This was the time, Wreszinski concluded, that about 1500 BC, Egypt's New Kingdom initiated direct contact with the Black population that resided south of the fourth cataract, as well as those in Somalialand (not addressed, however, was the much earlier migration to Egypt when the Sahara had begun to dry up).  
UNESCO’s 23-volume World Art Series, published by the New York Graphic Society in 1964, then gave graphic evidence of the Black presence outside of Africa.  He located a 1912 issue of  African times and Oriental review, which on page 935 stated " In assigning places in history to athletes, actors and musical performers, we must not mistake transient popularity for permanent fame.  An athlete, actor and musical virtuoso is only applauded while he is in the limelight; when he retires he is soon forgotten and interest centers in a new star. . . That is the fate of a musical entertainer . . . I do not know whether getting applause as an entertainer is in reality breaking down race prejudice and crossing the color line . . . Even in slavery days the darkey who could play monkey, who could sing and dance or pick the banjo and play the fiddle, was popular with his master. While musical and artistic performers do break down the barrier between the races, we cannot exactly call them -- picturesque and entertaining as they are -- great figures in history, dynamic forces in human progress."
Then there was the comment of Harry Lawrence Freeman in "The Negro in the higher altitudes of music in this country and throughout the world"(source missing): "The Negro occupies a unique position in the realms of musical art. I employ the term 'unique' rather than 'important' inasmuch as he has not as yet revealed to the world at large his true musical value. While the divine gifts of native talent, inherent taste and a certain adaptability in musical parlance have finally been conceded unto the Negro, his capacity for artistic achievement and logical development is still a matter of doubt and uncertainty. Yet as babbling brooks, murmuring streams, roaring torrents and tumultuous cascades, each plastic and concrete in its own diminutive and individual form, are bone and tissue (metaphorically) of each and every great and noble river, and the latter in turn offering fealty and allegiance unalterable to the vast and mighty seas and oceans, then also is the Negro’s capacity for the highest musical achievement fully assured, inasmuch as he has succeeded to the fullest extent in meeting the demands of the past decade for such smaller art forms in vogue through the only universal means of exposition at hand -- the legitimate Negro theatrical and musical comedy organizations. It remained, therefore, for our own blood-brother, the recently lamented Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, of London, England, to bequeath, among other excellent works, a series of compositions for piano-forte.  These works, endowed with masterly treatment, are based upon the sorrow songs of our own Southland. Though diminutive in form, they are eloquent in suggestiveness and promise of what the future holds along the lines of symphonic and operatic development. Among other works that Mr. Coleridge-Taylor has bequeathed to posterity and the world at large, is the famous Hiawatha trilogy, an Indian cantata in three parts, The Blind Girl, The Atonement and Endymion, also in cantata form, followed, interspersed by numerous smaller compositions for violin, voice, piano-forte and grand orchestra.  Under this head might also be included certain successful song forms and ensembles as well as obligato choruses. Probably the first original works of larger mold and with a decided tendency toward the classic or operatic appeared in the late Ernest Hogan 'Rufus Rastus' musical comedy company -- seasons 1906-1908 inclusive.  As the following works are original products of the writer of this article, they are enshrined herein merely as a matter of musical sequence."
In 1936 Maud Cuney-Hare (1874-1936) tackled the difficult periods with proven documentation and she, like her predecessors, wisely limited herself to known published materials or to information which she had personally witnessed. Co-incidentally, both Hare and Trotter (1844-1892), independent researchers, were without the ultimate in scholastic credentials, while Edward D. Seeber (presumably Antislavery opinion in France during the second half of the eighteenth century. New York: Greenwood Press, 1969) provides additional information, based on the literature.
A problem with non-Black writers in the 20th century, LaBrew asserted, was their concern only with the major figures of the past, thus giving no notice to those of lesser rank.  LaBrew resolved to illuminate these, thereby bringing Blacks into the picture others had painted, seeking a more comprehensive historical flow.  
He attended the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood in the summers of 1953 (when Hugh Ross led the chorus in Roméo et Juiliette of Berlioz) for and 1956, the Mozartjahr.  He was honored with an award from the Pro Mozart Society of Detroit which allowed him to secure additional study in Salzburg at the Mozarteum.  For a period, he toured as pianist with the flutist Irvin E. Gilman (b.1927), probably when Gilman, also a graduate of Oberlin and the Manhattan School of Music, was assistant principal flutist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, prior to his 1969 move to the Albany Symphony Orchestra.  For much of his Detroit residency, LaBrew maintained a piano studio, teaching not only young pianists, but those whose professions were enhanced by piano study (he is credited by Ellis Washington for a year's instruction that resulted in Washington's acceptance as a scholarship law student at the Harvard Graduate School in 1988).
In 1969 he chaired a committee from Wayne State University to explore 300 years of Detroit's music past.
He began academic appointments in the 1970s, conducting the chorus at Detroit's Music Settlement School, teaching at the Wayne County Community College, the District of Columbia Teachers' College (1969-1971), and at Louisiana's Southern University.  He also served as curator of the E. Azalia Hackley Memorial Collection within the Detroit Public Library.  All this time he explored the areas' libraries and archives, not rarely following a lead that took him far from purely music sources to gather valuable data of unanticipated significance to a much larger picture.  These ventures -- including publication of the results -- seem to have been self-financed until 2013 when he was recipient of an award of $25,000 becoming a Kresge Artist Fellow in the Literary and Visual Arts.  The Michigan Music Research Center, site for his research, was located at 220 Bagley Street, Suite 840.  
He represented the United States at a 1989 meeting in Caracas of the Organization of American States.
In his decision to be his own publisher, he faced the disadvantage of having to care for editing, production, storage, marketing, shipping, editing, and billing on his own, but he was liberated from the delaying process of having to argue the importance of his work to a committee, of modeling his work to meet external guidelines, of falling back on the evaluations of outside readers, and being subject to production schedules.  Most important, he was free to write exactly what he wished.  In his treatment of the subjects, rather than follow a line of progressive narration, he traced each subject's bibliographical history, resulting in either a verification of the facts, or the source that was to blame for the error, and he was merciless in his condemnation of faulty research. The most extended instance of this was his 78-page review of errata, published in the second issue of  his Afro-American music review, in which he specifies errors appearing in the Biographical dictionary of African and Afro-American musician by Harvard professor Eileen Southern which was issued by Greenwood Press in 1982, it is still being regularly consulted as the most authoritative source in its area.   Had he lived to complete his own multi-volume International dictionary of music & musicians (the first volume appeared in 2013), Dr. Southern's work would have been retired. 
It was a source of irritation when he was not credited when his findings appeared to be the discoveries of others, of which we all fall victim.
Virtually from the start, he was befriended by classic figures in the history, perhaps starting with his grandmother, Colleen Lamar.  Born in Biloxi, she graduated from Southern University in 1906.  She had known Camille Nickerson (1888-1982) and was a classmate of Charles John Castaing, Sr., who had married into the family of Basil Barès (1845-1902).   
The significance of his labors was recognized rather early on by Robert M. Stevenson (1916-2012), long-time senior professor at the University of California-Los Angeles and undisputed pioneer-authority on music of Iberia and the Americas. 
In addition to his having won the 1948 piano competition of the National Association of Negro Musicians -- an organization for which he has served as both pianist and historian -- he won the competitions held by the National Guild of  Piano Teachers in 1947, 1948, and 1954, the Beltran Award, and the Carlotta Dreyfus Award in 1953 as the outstanding student at the Manhattan School of Music.
He was consultant for the travelling exhibit, Played with success, mounted by the Smithsonian Institution. Coleman A. Young presented him with a bicentennial certificate in 1976, in which year he was designated an honorary colonel by Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards for his work as consultant to Southern University's production of Porgy and Bess, launching the career of soprano Brenda Wimberly.  Mayor Moon Landrieu named him an honorary citizen of New Orleans in 1977.  Further honors have been bestowed by the Société of the Culturally Concerned in Detroit (2001) and the Fred Hart Williams Genealogical Society (2004).
He died following a second heart attack at Harper Hospital, 9:30 AM on 19 February 2015.   When asked about his projected legacy, he repeated what Melville Charlton (1880-1973) had answered to a similar question posed by LaBrew: "I just hope history leaves me a small footprint in the sands of time."  Chi-chi Mwanoku, on her visit to the United States in 2015, had missed meeting LaBrew when serving on the February Sphinx Competition jury and in search of additional data on 18th-century Black Britons in music.  He had been scheduled to host a fund-raising gala for Wayne State University's  Charles H. Wright Museum of African-American History on 1 March, held at the Detroit Opera House, endangered by the city's recent financial problems.
He appeared in the 1995 nine-minute documentary, Body & soul, written and produced by Beth Tannenhaus Winsten, with music by Dean Solden.
The identification of his survivors and heirs is presently undetermined.


WORKS [unless noted, all titles printed in Detroit by the author; the journal, Afro-American music review bears the imprint of the Michigan Music Research Center.  Few of these titles have been available for personal examination; inconsistencies and conflicting references are then yet to be resolved].
"150 years with the Lambert family of New Orleans" in Afro-American music review, v1n2 (1982/I-VI). 
"A brief history of Afro-American music journals" in  Afro-American music review;  The Caribbean and Latin American influences of Black musicians abroad and in the United States, v1n1 (1981/VII-XII) p5-8.
"A composite: The Brindis de Salas family" in Afro-American music review;  The Caribbean and Latin American influences of Black musicians abroad and in the United States, v1n1 (1981/VII-XII)  p21-66.
"A grand concert" in Black musicians of the American colonial period, 1700-1800; A preliminary index of names, with supplement. 1977, 1995, p205-206.
"About the author" in Selected works of Francis Johnson; Bicentennial edition, A study in military and terpsichorean history.  1977, p129-132 [out of print].
"Additional notes on Blind Tom and his music" in  Afro-American music review;  The Caribbean and Latin American influences of Black musicians abroad and in the United States, v1n1 (1981/VII-XII) p104-139.
"An ode" in Black musicians of the American colonial period, 1700-1800; A preliminary index of names, with supplement. 1977, 1995, p203-204.
"Banneker Institute, ca. 1853-1860" in Afro-American music review, v6n1 (1996/I-VI). 
"Bibliography" in Black musicians of the American colonial period, 1700-1800; A preliminary index of names, with supplement. 1977, 1995, p223-224.
"Biographical notices to the Harmon Foundation Awards, 1826-1930" in Afro-American music review, v2n1 (1982/I-VI), p202-223.
"Black musicians found in United States censuses and other records, 1800-1900" in Afro-American music review, v5n1 (1993/VII-XII), +400p.  [in progress].
"Black musicians of the Colonial Period and their successor, Supplement I"  in Afro-American music review, v2n1 (1982/I-VI), p57-116.
"Black musicians of the Colonial Period and their successors, 1652-1829, supplement 1" in Black musicians of the American Colonial Period, 1700-1800; A preliminary index of names, with supplement. 1977, 1995, p75-86.
"Black opera, myth or reality?" in Afro-American music review, Tribute: James Monroe Trotter, v3n1 (1985/VII-XII),   p70-96.
"Blacks in military units" in Black musicians of the American colonial period, 1700-1800; A preliminary index of names, with supplement. 1977, 1995,  p70-74.
"Chronological listing" in Black musicians of the American colonial period, 1700-1800; A preliminary index of names, with supplement. 1977, 1995, p91-192.
"Credo for a new century" in Afro-American music review, v6n1 (1996/I-VI).
"David Hurd, organist extraordinaire" in Afro-American music review, v6n1 (1996/I-VI). 
"Doña [sic] Maria Martinez" in Afro-American music review;  The Caribbean and Latin American influences of Black musicians abroad and in the United States, v1n1 (1981/VII-XII)  p95-103.
"Edmond Dédé (dit Chartenton), 1827-1901" in Afro-American music review, v1n2 (1982/I-VI). p75-98.
"Eighteenth century antecedents" in Black musicians of the American colonial period, 1700-1800; A preliminary index of names, with supplement. 1977, 1995, p16-17.
"Eugene Arcade Dédé, 1867-after 1912" in Afro-American music review, v1n2 (1982/I-VI). 
"Evidence of structure; religion and Blacks" in Black musicians of the American colonial period, 1700-1800; A preliminary index of names, with supplement. 1977, 1995, p59-69.
"Fifty years of programs given in memory of E. Azalia Hackley Collection, 1943-1994" in Afro-American music review, v6n1 (1996/I-VI). 
"Final summary" in Black musicians of the American colonial period, 1700-1800; A preliminary index of names, with supplement. 1977, 1995, p70-74.
"General commentary" in Black musicians of the American colonial period, 1700-1800; A preliminary index of names, with supplement. 1977, 1995, p13-15.
"George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower, 1778-1860" in Afro-American music review;  The Caribbean and Latin American influences of Black musicians abroad and in the United States, v1n1 (1981/VII-XII)  p130-173.
"Hymnology among America's early Black communities, ca. 1855" in Afro-American music review, Tribute: James Monroe Trotter, v3n1 (1985/VII-XII), p26-59.
"Index"  in Black musicians of the American colonial period, 1700-1800; A preliminary index of names, with supplement. 1977, 1995, p225-229.
"Index" in Afro-American music review, Tribute: James Monroe Trotter, v3n1 (1985/VII-XII),  p141-145.
"International dictionary of musicians of color (Index), antiquity to 1800" in Afro-American music review, v4n1 (1987/VII-XII), p5-80
"Jacob Craig, fiddler" in Black musicians of the American colonial period, 1700-1800; A preliminary index of names, with supplement. 1977, 1995, p217-218.
"Julian, Nicasio & Manuel Jiménez" in Afro-American music review;  The Caribbean and Latin American influences of Black musicians abroad and in the United States, v1n1 (1981/VII-XII)  p67-94.
"List of Black violinists and fiddlers in America, 1678-1800" in Afro-American music review, v4n2 (1987/I-VI), 97p.
"Musician extraordinaire, Henri Salvador of Paris, France, 1917-" in Afro-American music review, v1n2 (1982/I-VI). 
"Necrology: Joseph Hayes, Leroy Boyd, John D. Carter, Dorris Berry" in Afro-American music review, v6n1 (1996/I-VI).
"Nineteenth century Afro-American singing convention in Abbeville, South Carolina"  in Afro-American music review, Tribute: James Monroe Trotter, v3n1 (1985/VII-XII),
"Notes toward a history of music in Louisville, Kentucky" in Afro-American music review, Tribute: James Monroe Trotter, v3n1 (1985/VII-XII), p1-10.
 "Part I, A-L; musicians in the United States Colored regiments -- Civil War" in Afro-American music review, v2n1 (1982/I-VI), p149-192.
"Perspectives in Black music studies; a review of Eileen Southern's Dictionary of Afro-American and African musicians" in  Afro-American music review, v2n2 (1985/VII-XII).  [Offprint available].
"Philadelphia Spirituelles of 1872" in Afro-American music review, Tribute: James Monroe Trotter, v3n1 (1985/VII-XII),  p97-140.
"Pompey and Phyllis" in Black musicians of the American colonial period, 1700-1800; A preliminary index of names, with supplement. 1977, 1995, p21-216.
"Preface" in Black musicians of the American colonial period, 1700-1800; A preliminary index of names, with supplement. 1977, 1995, p7-12.
"Roland Hayes in Detroit during the 20s" in Afro-American music review, v6n1 (1996/I-VI).
"Run-away White musicians in colonial America, 1729-1801" in Afro-American music review, v2n1 (1982/I-VI), p123-139.
"So-called Negro governors" in Afro-American music review, v2n1 (1982/I-VI). p117-122.
"Sources for United States"  in Afro-American music review, v4n1 (1987/VII-XII) p93-94.
"Special features: An unknown source for the hidden Afro-American musician's history, William Pleasant(s)" in Afro-American music review, v2n1 (1982/I-VI), p193-201.
"Special features: The writings of Don Lee White" in Afro-American music review, v1n2 (1982/I-VI). 
"Symbols in text" in Black musicians of the American colonial period, 1700-1800; A preliminary index of names, with supplement. 1977, 1995, p219-220.
"The Bantu composers of South Africa (index)" in Afro-American music review, v4n1 (1987/VII-XII), p81-91.
"The Carolina Singers" in Afro-American music review, Tribute: James Monroe Trotter, v3n1 (1985/VII-XII).
"The Gillams of Detroit, Michigan"  in Afro-American music review, Tribute: James Monroe Trotter, v3n1 (1985/VII-XII), p58-69.
"The legend of Sy Gilliatt, 17??-1819" in Afro-American music review, v2n1 (1982/I-VI), p140-148.
  "The music of Jacob Sawyer, facsimile edition of spirituals and minstrel music," in Afro-American music review, v3n2 (1986/I-VI).
"Tribute: Melvin Charlton, 188-1973, Edgar Rogie Clark, 1913-1978, and Edward Hammond Boatner, 1897-1973" in Afro-American music review, v1n2 (1982/I-VI). 
"Tribute: R. Nathaniel Dett, 1882-1943", in Afro-American music review, v2n1 (1982/I-VI) p5-56.
"Tributes: Elizabeth T. Greenfield, the Black Swan" in Afro-American music review;  The Caribbean and Latin American influences of Black musicians abroad and in the United States, v1n1 (1981/VII-XII) p9-20.
"Trotter vindicated? An occasional paper on America's first Black music historian" in Afro-American music review, v5n2 (1994/I-VI), p5-131
"Two new sources containing the Star spangled banner" in Black musicians of the American colonial period, 1700-1800; A preliminary index of names, with supplement. 1977, 1995, p207-212.
"Two new works of Samuel Snaër, 1832-1968" in Afro-American music review, v1n2 (1982/I-VI). 
"William Appo, 1808-1880" in Afro-American music review, v6n1 (1996/I-VI).
An occasional report: A dream deferred; On the life of Elizabeth T. Greenfield.  2011.  17p. 
Before and After Ragtime (Detroit, Michigan, lecture, 35p. 1978
Black composers of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania before the Civil War.  Philadelphia: Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1974.
Black music and musical taste in New York City 1800-1850. 113p. 1983. (Studies In nineteenth century Afro-American music, Series 1, no. 2).
Black music in a slave state; Nineteenth century New Orleans before Storyville. 550p. 1988-1994. (Studies In nineteenth century Afro-American music, Series 1, no. 7).  
Black music in a slave state; Nineteenth-century New Orleans before Storyville.  Detroit: Arthur R. LaBrew, 2000.  550p.
Black music in the Northwest Territory -- Detroit, Michigan from 1835-1900 (in preparation) (Studies In nineteenth century Afro-American music, Series 1, no.4).
Black musicians and family relationships found in United States nineteenth-century census and other records, 1800-1900. 1994.  222p. 1995, 515p.
Black musicians of and in the New World; The exodus to Europe.  Washington: American Musicological Society, Latin American session, 1974.  63p.
Black musicians of the Colonial Period, 1700-1800; A preliminary index of names compiled from various sources.  1977.   ix, 209p. (Studies in 18th century Afro-American music).
Black Musicians of the Colonial Period. 181p. 1976, 1977, 1981
Boston: Music in an abolitionist state from 1800-1890 (approx. 250p. 1984. (Studies In nineteenth century Afro-American music, Series 1, no.6).
Captain Francis Johnson, 1782-1844, great American bandsman; Life and works in two volumes; 200th birthday edition.  550p.   2006. (Studies in nineteenth-century Afro-American music, Series I, no. 5).
Cartoons, blues, Black minstrelsy, bands, operatic and concert troupes, Black opera (in final preparation, 2005, 700p.). (Studies In nineteenth century Afro-American music, Series 1, no. 9).
Commemorative issue; Fifty years of progress, given in memory of the E. Azalia Hackley Collection, 1945-1994
Concert tribute to Detroit's Black prima donnas.  1989/VIII-IX.  13p.  Program of 8/VIII/1989 and DVD issued separately.
Documentary: Negro music and musicians, Detroit, Michigan.  1969.
Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield; The Black Swan.  1984, 1969.  Vol. 2, 93-266p. Alternate title: The Black swan; Elizabeth T. Greenfield, songstress, biographical study.  Convention issue 2005.
Fifty years of programs given in memory of the E. Azalia Hackley Collection, 1943-1944.  1999.  See also: Afro-American music review, v6n1.
Francis Johnson (1792-1844); A study in 19th-century military and terpsichorean music history.  41p. 1974. [Out of print].
Francis Johnson as a musical ambassador, his music repertoire.  1988.
Free at last; Legal aspects concerning the career of Blind Tom Bethune, 1849-1908. 1976.  68p. New ed. in progress.  (Studies In nineteenth century Afro-American music, Series 1, no. 10).
History of the National Association of Negro musicians, Inc. 1996.
International dictionary of musicians of color.  [in progress]
Marie Selika, America’s first great Black coloratura soprano (in preparation). (Studies In nineteenth century Afro-American music, Series 1, no.8).
Musicians of color in England, Latin America, and America.  1996.
p11-15.
Scenes and episodes; The musical life of Coleridge Taylor Perkinson, 1932-2004, a musician of Afro-American heritage; Addenda for a new century.  2012.
Selected works of Francis Johnson; Bicentennial edition, A study in military and terpsichorean history.  1977;  p1-128 [out of print].
The Afro-American music legacy in Michigan. 191p. 1987, Supported by the Michigan and Detroit Councils for the Arts for the Sesquicentennial celebration of the State of Michigan. 1987. (Studies in twentieth-century Afro-American music, series 2).
The Afro-American music legacy in Michigan; A preliminary index of names compiled from various sources.  1977.
The Afro-American musical legacy in Michigan; A sesquicentennial tribute.  1987. 119p. (Studies in 20th century Afro-American music, series 2).
The Black Swan, Elizabeth T. Greenfield, songstress; A biographical study.  1969.
The collected works of Francis Johnson.  2007.  2nd ed.  Vol. 1, 600p., vol. 2, facsimile of complete oeuvre.  500p.
The Detroit history that nobody knew, or bothered to research, 1800-1900.  2007 (300th year celebration, the Black community; Music and the fine and secular arts).  Part 1, 2001, [p1-587?]; Part 2. p589-1163.
The image of Blacks as seen in music literature; A world perspective (in progress).  (Studies In nineteenth century Afro-American music, Series 1, no. 1).
The published music of America's first Black harpist, Joseph L. Gordon, Philadelphia musician, 1805/15-1867.  2007.  37p.  (Studies in 20th century Afro-American music, series 2).
The underground musical traditions of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1800-1900.  1983. 347p. 2003. 372p. (Studies In nineteenth century Afro-American music, Series 1, no. 3).
They too shall pass – Biographies of older Detroit musicians, deceased or in advanced age.  1990.  150p. (Studies in twentieth-century Afro-American music, series 2).
Vignettes of Black musicians in Detroit and its surrounding area 1900-1988. 1988. 251p. (Studies in twentieth-century Afro-American music, series 2).
Who's raggin' ragtime.  1985.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
"ArtForum.com: Arthur R. LaBrew receives $25,000 Kresge Foundation Award for 2013 for creative nonfiction" at htt://africlassical.blogspot.com/2013/07/artforumcom-arthur-r-labrew-receives.htlm.  3p.  Consulted 26/II/2015.
"Creole; The history and legacy of Louisiana's free people" at ===
"Doers of the world" at ===
"Dominique-René de Lerma: A patriarch of musicology turns 83" at ==
"Dominique-René de Lerma: Arthur R. LaBrew, a native of Detroit, died February 19, 2015 after many years of researching musicians of African descent" at http://africlassica.blogspot.com/2015/02/dominique-rene-de-lerms-arthur-r-labrew.html.  2p.  Consulted 24/II/2015.
"Fellow Detroiters; A talented roster of Detroit-area winners" in Detroit metro times (2013/VI/26)  at http://metrotimes.com/detroit/fellow-detroiters/Content?oid=2145955&mode=2145955&mode=print.
"Harry P. Guy and the ragtime era of Detroit" by Arthur LaBrew and Nancy Bostick, in The rag-time ephemeralist at http://home.earthlink.net/ephemeraliast/guyo1.html.
"Kresge announce artist fellows, creating big opportunity for winners" in Detroit free press (2013/VI/27) at http://www.freep.com/article/20130626/ENT05/306260027/ 
"The political activities of Detroit clubwomen" at ==
"The progressive revolution" at http://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl.
Oberlin Alumni Association.  "Arthur R. LaBrew '52|Kresge Arts in Detroit" at http://oberlin=alumni.tumblr.com/post/5409866799/artthur-r-labrew-52-kresge-arts-detroit.
Washington, Ellis.  "Professor Arthur Labrew and the myth of the American dream" at http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/washington/150217.  5p.  Consulted 23/II/2015.


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Dominique-René de Lerma
http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com



[1] Based partly on LaBrew's sketch of NANM history to 1970.

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