Little Known African American Music History to Appreciate

The Life and Times of Noble Sissle: An American History Lesson

This Episode, a bit late uploaded, focuses on events during early R&B music history. The great and talented James Brown and Joe Tex were competing for the same audiences throughout the South and Mid-West. They performed countless one-nighters trying to expand their fan bases. Tex from Texas and Brown from Georgia were on a collision course to win a great number of fans and score hits on the music charts.
Both entertainers were great showmen: James’ dancing and Joe’s humorous storytelling. But it was the fantastic moves with the microphone stands during their shows that created tension between the two stars. Each performer claimed to have been the originator of the phenomenal tricks with this equipment. The friction began in the mid 1950s and continued to the day Tex died of a sudden heart attack in 1972.
Host Noble Sissle, Jr. speaks of his father’s reaction to the shouts and music of James Brown and his impression of the quality of R&B music that began to emerge in the early 1960s.