Lake Forest — When teenagers listen to heavy metal or rap music on the radio, most hear only a catchy beat and lyrics their parents are sure to hate.
Play the same songs for 33-year-old singer/songwriter Maggie Brown and what she will say she hears is the legacy of African culture that 250 years of slavery in America could not make its people forget.
Brown brought this message Monday to hundreds of Lake Forest Intermediate and Middle School students not as a lesson of blame for the mistakes of the past, but as a reminder of the credit due to the African culture for the genesis of many American music styles.
Her program "Legacy: Our Wealth of Music" combined her storytelling and singing abilities with an infectious musical score to deliver a history lesson to students who thought they were just being entertained.
All eyes were on Brown as she told the students how every event in the lives of her African ancestors was celebrated with the music of syncopated rhythms.
The slaves used the drum beats of their African heritage to compose rhythms to match the labor they were forced to perform, Brown said. Such work commands as "pull and haul" were turned into simple songs to ease the repetition and drudgery of their daily lives.
Brown said songs were also used to send signals of support to slaves preparing to escape to freedom in the north via the "Underground Railroad." Songs like "Wade in the Water" told slaves to travel through rivers and streams as a way to throw tracking dogs off their scent.
Her stories of the hardships faced by the slaves was something 9-year-old Jennifer Gonn said she would always remember.
"I've always felt what the Caucasian people did to African-Americans was really bad," Gonn said.
Brown demonstrated how the songs of slaves evolved into what is commonly referred to as the "blues," which she said was "drawn from the well of sorrow, but not despair." The African tradition of musical improvisation led to the creation of ragtime by musicians like Scott Joplin, who combined European classical music with a syncopated piano style.
All of the elements of African music and the American experience influenced the creation of jazz in post-Civil War New Orleans, Brown told the students. Jazz too evolved from marching street music to big-band and be-bop in the hands of such notable musicians as Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Charlie Parker.
"This music has influenced the world and even music only white folks play," Brown said. "We influence a lot of rock and even country and western."
Budding piano player Alex Colaianni, 10, said after Brown's presentation that through school and her music lessons she already knew a lot about the influence African-Americans have had on music, but she did develop a taste for ragtime.
"What I learned today was really interesting. I'm going to ask my piano teacher if I can play some Scott Joplin," Colaianni said.