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Lomax : collecteurs de folk songs
En 1933, John et Alan Lomax se lancent dans une campagne d'enregistrement de folk songs dans le sud des Etats-Unis. Au cours d'un véritable périple initiatique, le père et son fils accomplissent un travail immense pour la préservation du patrimoine folklorique américain.
118 pages, Comic
First published May 6, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 13, 2020
"To this day, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen openly claim to be spiritual sons of Alan Lomax".
-Sebastian Danchin, Historian of Southern culture
John Lomax, born two years after the Civil War, was raised in Texas cotton country. To finance his Harvard college education, he sold his horse. "A professor with innovative ideas showed him that America's troubadour ballads of the dawning 20th century were as eloquent as Homeric verses, medieval lays or Shakespeare's sonnets". In 1910, he published his first anthology of cowboy songs.
In the year 1933, accompanied by this eighteen year old son Alan, he embarked upon a musical journey to record ballads and folk songs for the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Their goal was "to preserve our folk heritage in recordings...before it vanished forever". Their expedition would take them to plantations, churches and prisons.
In explanation to a farmer, "This is a recording device. You sing into the horn, and it records your voice on this cylinder here". John says, "my job is to help you write your own history". The farmer sings the following:
"Po Farmer, Po Farmer
Dey Git All De Farmer
Make His Clothes is Full of Patches
His Hat is Full of Holes,
Stooping Down Pickin' Cotton
F'om off de Bottom Boll...
His Po' Li'l Wife an' Chillum
Sit at Home in Rags.
Po' Farmer, Work All Week.
Don't Make Enough. It's Hard. It's Hard."
Visiting the Louisana State Penitentiary, John and Alan Lomax were introduced to a murderer, Leadbelly! He had written over five hundred songs and played every instrument. The Lomax recordings were authentic...the songs of chain gangs...of loggers.... of churchgoers. A railroad track supervisor invited John and Alan to visit the rails when his work day began at 3 AM. There was a set of songs to be sung for laying track, different ones for splitting rails.
I had high expectations of absolutely loving this graphic novel, "Lomax: Collectors of Folk Songs" by Frantz Duchazeau. Imagine my disappointment finding a disclaimer stating that due to the time period of the novel (1933), the reader might find the book offensive. It was highly offensive, deflating my enjoyment, despite my love for the musical recordings preserved by both Alan and John Lomax.
Thank you Europe Comics and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
-Sebastian Danchin, Historian of Southern culture
John Lomax, born two years after the Civil War, was raised in Texas cotton country. To finance his Harvard college education, he sold his horse. "A professor with innovative ideas showed him that America's troubadour ballads of the dawning 20th century were as eloquent as Homeric verses, medieval lays or Shakespeare's sonnets". In 1910, he published his first anthology of cowboy songs.
In the year 1933, accompanied by this eighteen year old son Alan, he embarked upon a musical journey to record ballads and folk songs for the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Their goal was "to preserve our folk heritage in recordings...before it vanished forever". Their expedition would take them to plantations, churches and prisons.
In explanation to a farmer, "This is a recording device. You sing into the horn, and it records your voice on this cylinder here". John says, "my job is to help you write your own history". The farmer sings the following:
"Po Farmer, Po Farmer
Dey Git All De Farmer
Make His Clothes is Full of Patches
His Hat is Full of Holes,
Stooping Down Pickin' Cotton
F'om off de Bottom Boll...
His Po' Li'l Wife an' Chillum
Sit at Home in Rags.
Po' Farmer, Work All Week.
Don't Make Enough. It's Hard. It's Hard."
Visiting the Louisana State Penitentiary, John and Alan Lomax were introduced to a murderer, Leadbelly! He had written over five hundred songs and played every instrument. The Lomax recordings were authentic...the songs of chain gangs...of loggers.... of churchgoers. A railroad track supervisor invited John and Alan to visit the rails when his work day began at 3 AM. There was a set of songs to be sung for laying track, different ones for splitting rails.
I had high expectations of absolutely loving this graphic novel, "Lomax: Collectors of Folk Songs" by Frantz Duchazeau. Imagine my disappointment finding a disclaimer stating that due to the time period of the novel (1933), the reader might find the book offensive. It was highly offensive, deflating my enjoyment, despite my love for the musical recordings preserved by both Alan and John Lomax.
Thank you Europe Comics and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
October 21, 2020
A dramatization of the field work of John and Alan Lomax in 1933 to record traditional, folk, and blues music for the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress. The two White men drive through Texas and Mississippi with a car full of sound equipment trying to find Black people willing to speak with them. The effort is made difficult due to mistrust, especially when racist local sheriffs and plantation owners intervene. (Trigger warning: N-word usage)
There are cameos by Guitar Slim, Lead Belly, and Son House, as well as a four-page adaptation of the song "Stagolee" (or "Stagger Lee").
An interesting if low-key sketch that makes me want to learn more about the subject.
There are cameos by Guitar Slim, Lead Belly, and Son House, as well as a four-page adaptation of the song "Stagolee" (or "Stagger Lee").
An interesting if low-key sketch that makes me want to learn more about the subject.
August 12, 2020
I love what the Lomaxes did. I loved that they collected music of the down trodden, the cowboys and the chain gangs, and the workers in the fields. So, I was quite happy to get to review this book, of the travels of Alan and his father in the 1930s, as they collected the disappearing folk tradition of work songs.
All the southern people are played for caricatures. The southern sheriffs, the owners of the land where the Black people worked, the other white people in authority.
But, what is it with the French and the way they draw black-face onto, well Black people. I know it is a style, but there are caricatures that are really not in good taste, and perhaps this is not the case in France, but in the US, at least, it is on the offensive side, no matter how good the story itself is.
So, while I would love to promote, and ask you to read this book, if you are offended by the way that Duchazeau draws Black people, it is best to avoid this book.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
All the southern people are played for caricatures. The southern sheriffs, the owners of the land where the Black people worked, the other white people in authority.
But, what is it with the French and the way they draw black-face onto, well Black people. I know it is a style, but there are caricatures that are really not in good taste, and perhaps this is not the case in France, but in the US, at least, it is on the offensive side, no matter how good the story itself is.
So, while I would love to promote, and ask you to read this book, if you are offended by the way that Duchazeau draws Black people, it is best to avoid this book.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
Read
June 29, 2019Southern United States, 1930s, the true story of two legends of ethnomusicology: John and Alan Lomax, a father and his 18-year-old son, visit plantations, jook joints, and prisons in order to record blues and folk songs. Their project is exemplary of the attitude of so much of folklore and social studies of the time, namely what has been called ‘salvage anthropology’, which was focused on recording what were felt as the last traces of a disappearing world in the process of being erased by progress and modernity. In this sense, John and Alan’s work can certainly be connected to Franz Boas’ cultural anthropology and to the work by African-American folklorist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston who sometimes collaborated with Alan Lomax.
The graphic novel recounts the Lomaxes’ 1933 expedition which was sponsored by the Library of Congress and took them to the Mississippi region, to rural areas as well as to urban centres such as New Orleans. Duchazeau skillfully represents the impact of two researchers visiting segregated communities and the intertwining of art, social science, and politics characterising their fieldwork. Collecting folk songs is not a naïve or easy task in places where black people are not free to spend their time as they please. At the same time, the author is able to represent the complex position of the ethnomusicologists at work mediating between the racist interferences of local authorities and the difficult task of earning the trust of the African-American workers who know the songs the researchers want to collect.
At the graphic level, one particularly successful choice is the visual rendition of some of the songs through mute sequences after briefly introducing their content in the previous pages. The strictly visual representation of music and sound is indeed one of the most accomplished features of this book. Finally, some of the illustrations may remind the reader of the silhouette work of Kara Walker conveying mostly through dark shapes the black body’s overexposed invisibility in the history of the United States.
[Since this is my first review here, a disclaimer: I don’t assign stars because I believe books are not hotels and can’t be possibly ranked according to a scale. I tried in the past, but it simply didn’t work for me. However, the attempt was useful since it made me realise that I believe books are more to be met like friends... Each one has their own particular merits and faults and wants to be understood in their own right. I don’t rank my friends, I can be more comfortable with some than others, at a particular time of my life or for years, and that’s how I usually feel towards books too.]
The graphic novel recounts the Lomaxes’ 1933 expedition which was sponsored by the Library of Congress and took them to the Mississippi region, to rural areas as well as to urban centres such as New Orleans. Duchazeau skillfully represents the impact of two researchers visiting segregated communities and the intertwining of art, social science, and politics characterising their fieldwork. Collecting folk songs is not a naïve or easy task in places where black people are not free to spend their time as they please. At the same time, the author is able to represent the complex position of the ethnomusicologists at work mediating between the racist interferences of local authorities and the difficult task of earning the trust of the African-American workers who know the songs the researchers want to collect.
At the graphic level, one particularly successful choice is the visual rendition of some of the songs through mute sequences after briefly introducing their content in the previous pages. The strictly visual representation of music and sound is indeed one of the most accomplished features of this book. Finally, some of the illustrations may remind the reader of the silhouette work of Kara Walker conveying mostly through dark shapes the black body’s overexposed invisibility in the history of the United States.
[Since this is my first review here, a disclaimer: I don’t assign stars because I believe books are not hotels and can’t be possibly ranked according to a scale. I tried in the past, but it simply didn’t work for me. However, the attempt was useful since it made me realise that I believe books are more to be met like friends... Each one has their own particular merits and faults and wants to be understood in their own right. I don’t rank my friends, I can be more comfortable with some than others, at a particular time of my life or for years, and that’s how I usually feel towards books too.]
August 12, 2020
Read in the 2020 Europe Comics edition.
A graphic novel snapshot of how John and Alan Lomax went throughout the deep South of the States, recording the traditional music – the chants of the railway layers, the spiritual songs – anything with blues and tradition and home-grown blood and guts about it. They were sure of their purpose, to record for posterity the musical history of these areas, checking out different lyrics to 'Stagger Lee' for example, and making the country much more aware of its country music, through recording in what stood as archive quality at the time for the Library of Congress. But just what kind of world were they entering – and what difference, if any, did their presence and recording equipment make?
I think this was a success, for if you didn't know the story, this window into it is a good one, showing one spell of just one of their journeys. But it's not brilliant. It is really heavy-handed with the racism, portraying these cops as entirely anti-black, these whites as against the Lomaxes for being too familiar with the blacks, and so on. Everyone gets visually stereotyped, from the protuberant lips and sullen faces to the sweating, broad-bellied cops. Beyond that, the visuals are fine – rather uneven in polish at times, for some reason, but cinematically showing off the narrative in a well-directed manner. There are imperfections with the script, too – the book wants to show all the private lives of the pair, but this looks like being John sorry for how Alan's birthday turned out, and some regrets about his dead wife that certainly did little for me, until a line later on very nicely contrasted with what he says in the opening scene.
What I was left with was a final reservation, however – this story is from the point of view of the Lomaxes, and we have to take it as their gospel, and this is I assume a heavily truncated showing of that gospel. I have to assume all these events, people and situations were met, but I didn't get the feel from the script here that I was fully convinced by it being exactly the truth. And when they were there to record the unedited truth, that shows the book was perhaps not quite up to the material. But it was a solid three and a half stars for bringing this father and son back to us.
A graphic novel snapshot of how John and Alan Lomax went throughout the deep South of the States, recording the traditional music – the chants of the railway layers, the spiritual songs – anything with blues and tradition and home-grown blood and guts about it. They were sure of their purpose, to record for posterity the musical history of these areas, checking out different lyrics to 'Stagger Lee' for example, and making the country much more aware of its country music, through recording in what stood as archive quality at the time for the Library of Congress. But just what kind of world were they entering – and what difference, if any, did their presence and recording equipment make?
I think this was a success, for if you didn't know the story, this window into it is a good one, showing one spell of just one of their journeys. But it's not brilliant. It is really heavy-handed with the racism, portraying these cops as entirely anti-black, these whites as against the Lomaxes for being too familiar with the blacks, and so on. Everyone gets visually stereotyped, from the protuberant lips and sullen faces to the sweating, broad-bellied cops. Beyond that, the visuals are fine – rather uneven in polish at times, for some reason, but cinematically showing off the narrative in a well-directed manner. There are imperfections with the script, too – the book wants to show all the private lives of the pair, but this looks like being John sorry for how Alan's birthday turned out, and some regrets about his dead wife that certainly did little for me, until a line later on very nicely contrasted with what he says in the opening scene.
What I was left with was a final reservation, however – this story is from the point of view of the Lomaxes, and we have to take it as their gospel, and this is I assume a heavily truncated showing of that gospel. I have to assume all these events, people and situations were met, but I didn't get the feel from the script here that I was fully convinced by it being exactly the truth. And when they were there to record the unedited truth, that shows the book was perhaps not quite up to the material. But it was a solid three and a half stars for bringing this father and son back to us.
October 25, 2023
Nokkrar sögur af söfnun Lomax-feðga. Ágætt.
November 3, 2020
The story of John Lomax and his efforts to record and preserve folk music (which also encompassed both rural blues and traditional work chants) is a great story. Alas, this is not a great book. Between the rudimentary art style and the choppy kind of storytelling things never really get going. I'm not sure there's enough information to fill in the blanks for those who are unfamiliar with Lomax (and son), at the same time I don't believe there is much to appeal to those who might already know the story.
As others have said it gets a bit heavy-handed with the racial stuff. While that is probably closer to the truth of the times than we would like to believe, it ends up distracting from the story of how these people were able to cope by using the music as a means to escape those hardships both spiritually and, in some cases, literally. It tends to make them bystanders in a story that should belong to them as much as to Lomax.
-- This book contains racial slurs and imagery. Not for the easily offended.
***I received a digital copy of this title from NetGalley.
As others have said it gets a bit heavy-handed with the racial stuff. While that is probably closer to the truth of the times than we would like to believe, it ends up distracting from the story of how these people were able to cope by using the music as a means to escape those hardships both spiritually and, in some cases, literally. It tends to make them bystanders in a story that should belong to them as much as to Lomax.
-- This book contains racial slurs and imagery. Not for the easily offended.
***I received a digital copy of this title from NetGalley.
February 18, 2015
Belle incursion dans la culture folk américaine. On entendrait presque les chants résonner. Le livre donne envie d'aller plus et de (re)découvrir cette culture.
September 28, 2017
Padre e figlio, per le strade polverose e assolate di un'america rurale, arcaica, arretrata. Sono gli anni 30 e la missione è raccogliere testimonianze della musica nera in un mondo che continua a relegare i neri ai margini della società. Le canzoni dei reietti si cantano nel cantiere di lavoro, in case malconce, bevendole come balsami dopo le giornate, in chiesa. Sono canzoni essenzialmente funzionali: hanno lo scopo di liberare demoni interiori o anche solo di tenere il ritmo. E' quella la loro bellezza. La loro atemporalità. Lomax racconta la ricerca, racconta il razzismo sistemico, e lo fa con uno stile asciutto e con disegni davvero belli, che ricordano Reviati e un Baudoin più addomesticato per la plasticità delle forme e la trama di tratteggi. Degni di nota alcuni volti, che sembrano staccarsi dalla pagina, e tutte le tavole di viaggio, con le carrellate ai paesi attraversati, alle campagne, all'enorme cielo che segue i protagonisti.
January 13, 2021
Got this via NetGalley! Now THIS! This I like. This was fascinating!! I had no idea that there was someone who went around recording this important folk songs from African-Americans for the Library of Congress. Without these men and women singing gospel, folk and blues there would be no rock music, no Elvis, no Beatles, no Black Sabbath. Bonus: The art is really lovely!!
November 2, 2022
Covers a very limited period -albeit at the start of Alan Lomax' endeavours - in a limited way. Nice artwork. I suspect it was better in the original French.
November 11, 2024
molto molto bello, quattro stelle perché avrei voluto fosse più lungo
September 28, 2020
Lomax duo of son and father are on pursuit of a rare thing.
They travel in distant villages to record folk songs from whole of the countryside America.
This graphic novel shows events and their journey.
I liked the excellent artwork and characters shown.
It is set in old times when there were social structure was not good for black men.
I liked character of fat and thin singer duo.
A good historical graphic novel. It shows that Lomax were inspiration for Bob Dylan. That is a great fact to know.
They travel in distant villages to record folk songs from whole of the countryside America.
This graphic novel shows events and their journey.
I liked the excellent artwork and characters shown.
It is set in old times when there were social structure was not good for black men.
I liked character of fat and thin singer duo.
A good historical graphic novel. It shows that Lomax were inspiration for Bob Dylan. That is a great fact to know.
September 7, 2020
The Lomax story is an interesting one and brings to mind many folks songs and songs of the people, however the richness and depth of the story are overpowered by the minstrel and demeaning way people of color are drawn. The artist should study or hire someone capable of drawing them and their features correctly. As these people and their songs enriched the Library'system catalog and introduced the world to many, their greatness should be reflected. The art damages the comic for me.
Want to Read
August 21, 2020Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
September 6, 2020
Lomax is a clever illustrated study in folk art, culture, and the use of shadow to convey emotion. Well worth the read.
January 1, 2024
It is what it is, which is a reasonably interesting graphic history, and hey, I’m a shapenote singer. I’m always going to be fascinated by the Lomaxes.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews