Situation Report

WITH spirituals, the blues, jazz and all its offshoots, blacks created the basis for American popular music. The list of famous black performers reads like a musical honor roll: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Ray Charles make hardly a beginning. Despite the success of Motown, the black-owned Detroit record company (the Supremes, the Temptations), black musicians have yet to win a proportionate share of credit or cash. Symptomatic statistics: from 1960 to 1970, of the twelve popular soloists or groups receiving ten or more gold records (signifying sales of $1 million or one million records), only two, the Supremes and Aretha Franklin, were black.

In classical music there have been recent gains. But only six blacks occupy seats in the nation's top eleven orchestras. This is the result less of current than of cumulative discrimination. For years, blacks were barred from orchestras. The average black parent lacked--and still lacks--the money, time and inclination to drive his children through the years of training that a classical career demands. As a result, though the American Federation of Musicians is 10% black, there are now no more than 150 conservatory-trained black orchestral players in the U.S.

In opera, the scene is improving slightly. Three decades ago, Soprano Dorothy Maynor could and did prepare opera after opera without ever being invited to sing. One of the century's finest contraltos, Marian Anderson, did not break into opera until 1955, when she was 52. Beyond Tenor George Shirley there are hardly any black male opera singers. But of the top eight American-born female operatic singers, four--Leontyne Price, Shirley Verrett, Martina Arroyo and Grace Bumbry--are black.

The black contribution to modern dance has been enormous. Performers include Katherine Dunham, the Alvin Ailey company, and many black stars like Clive Thompson, Mary Hinkson, Matt Turney and Carmen de Lavallade. But in classical ballet, there is still sharp prejudice.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.