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Explores the role of jazz celebrities like Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Mary Lou Williams as representatives of African American religion in the twentieth centuryBeginning in the 1920s, the Jazz Age propelled Black swing artists into national celebrity. Many took on the role of race representatives, and were able to leverage their popularity toward achieving social progress for other African Americans. In Lift Every Voice and Swing, Vaughn A. Booker argues that with the emergence of these popular jazz figures, who came from a culture shaped by Black Protestantism, religious authority for African Americans found a place and spokespeople outside of traditional Afro-Protestant institutions and religious life. Popular Black jazz professionals--such as Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Mary Lou Williams--inherited religious authority though they were not official religious leaders. Some of these artists put forward a religious culture in the mid-twentieth century by releasing religious recordings and putting on religious concerts, and their work came to be seen as integral to the Black religious ethos. Booker documents this transformative era in religious expression, in which jazz musicians embodied religious beliefs and practices that echoed and diverged from the predominant African American religious culture. He draws on the heretofore unexamined private religious writings of Duke Ellington and Mary Lou Williams, and showcases the careers of female jazz artists alongside those of men, expanding our understanding of African American religious expression and decentering the Black church as the sole concept for understanding Black Protestant religiosity. Featuring gorgeous prose and insightful research, Lift Every Voice and Swing will change the way we understand the connections between jazz music and faith.

spirituals. --- sex. --- religious race professionals. --- religious movement. --- rehabilitation. --- race representation. --- race histories. --- public intellectuals. --- polytheism. --- monotheism. --- memorialization. --- mainline Protestantism. --- jazz criticism. --- irreverence. --- interracial. --- interfaith. --- integration. --- accountability;Africo-American Presbyterian;Afro-Protestantism;artistry;authenticity;Bel Canto;Bible;Billy Strayhorn;Black Catholicism;black church;black middle class;black press;Bud Powell;Cab Calloway;Catholic;charity;Chick Webb;Christian;Christianity;civil rights;Come Sunday;consumer culture;conversion;creativity;dancing;desegregation;Drusilla Dunjee Houston;Duke Ellington;ecumenism;Ella Fitzgerald;emotionalism;entertainment;Episcopal;Ethiopianism;Geri Allen;God;Harlem;Hazel Scott;Hebrew Bible;hotel stationery. --- Yoruba. --- Wynton Marsalis. --- Star of Zion. --- Southern Christian Leadership Conference. --- Sonia Sanchez. --- Solomon. --- Sacred Concerts. --- Mary Lou Williams. --- Lionel Hampton. --- Jesus. --- Jennifer Holliday. --- James Morris Webb. --- Africo-American Presbyterian. --- Afro-Protestantism. --- Bel Canto. --- Bible. --- Billy Strayhorn. --- Black Catholicism. --- Bud Powell. --- Cab Calloway. --- Catholic. --- Chick Webb. --- Christian. --- Christianity. --- Come Sunday. --- Drusilla Dunjee Houston. --- Duke Ellington. --- Ella Fitzgerald. --- Episcopal. --- Ethiopianism. --- Geri Allen. --- God. --- Harlem. --- Hazel Scott. --- Hebrew Bible. --- accountability. --- artistry. --- authenticity. --- black church. --- black middle class. --- black press. --- charity. --- civil rights. --- consumer culture. --- conversion. --- creativity. --- dancing. --- desegregation. --- ecumenism. --- emotionalism. --- entertainment. --- hotel stationery. --- sexuality.