Alexander H. Moore

Barrelhouse Bluesman from Dallas, TX

Images

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FOR THE TEACHER

Introduction

Texas has a vital blues tradition that emerged among the first generation of African Americans born out of slavery. Alex Moore was a blues pianist whose career spanned six decades. He was an integral part of the tradition known as the Texas barrelhouse style that developed in the urban areas of Dallas and Houston. Although he was recorded early in life, he was never able to support himself fully as a musician, and for most of his career he worked odd jobs, performing in the night spots and house-rent parties of the vibrant African American neighborhoods of Old North Dallas and Deep Ellum. Although some of his lyrics are risqué and have adult themes, his capacity for playful improvisation and humor combined with a fluid piano style that endeared him to his audiences. Renowned for his philosophical ruminations and extraordinary musicality, Alex Moore received the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship in 1987 and was a frequent participant in the Documentary Arts Folk Artists in the Schools programs of the 1980s for elementary and high school students.

Objectives

Students may:

• Improve listening skills and note taking
• Discover Texas blues music and musicians
• Listen to Alex Moore's urban piano blues
• Consider race relations in the context of blues music
• Research African American urban life in Deep Ellum
• Compose a blues song
• Study African American music elements such as improvisation, syncopation, and call and response

Big Ideas

Music and History

• Traditional music is a window into history, illustrating immigration and settlement patterns as well as social changes.
• Born during the era of Jim Crow segregation in 1899, Alex Moore's long life was marked by challenges and changes in race relations.
• Lyrics as well as musical styles help us to understand historical eras

Urbanization

• As people moved to the cities of Texas, African American business districts and neighborhoods developed and thrived.
• Urban nightlife influenced music styles and widened the audiences for different types of music and dance.
• Urbanization diversified socioeconomic groups.

Tradition and Innovation

• Traditional culture is dynamic, not static.
• Innovation helps keep traditions alive.
• Some traditional artists, like Alex Moore, are uniquely innovative and take traditional forms in new directions.

Materials

Alex Moore's story and photos
Radio clip
Audio clips
Film clips
Everyday Music Field Notes

Time Required

1-2 class periods

Subjects

Texas history, social studies, English language arts, music, visual art

Preparation

Review Alex Moore's story and the media clips. Choose Big Ideas that you find relevant to your curriculum and your students. Copy Everyday Music Field Notes and other worksheets students will need and cue the audio and video clips.

Class Discussion

Students may read the story and listen to the audio story independently, in groups, or as a class. Using the Everyday Music Field Notes worksheet will help them focus more closely. In a class discussion, raise some of the Big Ideas above, depending upon your curriculum and students' needs and grade level. Here are questions to spark discussion:

• What do you know about blues music?
• Can you whistle? Who taught you? When and where do you whistle?
• Can you read music? How did you learn?
• How does a documentary differ from a feature film? Do you think that a documentary is an art form? Why or why not?
• How many Texas blues musicians can you name?
• Why do you think Alan Govenar named his film about Alex Moore Black on White, White and Black?

Suggested Activities

Students may work independently or collaboratively to:

Research Texas blues for a class presentation or Web page that includes images and audio. Texas has a rich blues music legacy. Alex Moore was nationally recognized late in his life for his mastery, but he was not the only important Texas blues musician Topics might include types of blues such acoustic blues, electric blues, boogie woogie, barrelhouse, stride, ragtime; Texas regional blues; or specific musicians, for example, Alex Moore, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mance Lipscomb, Lightnin' Hopkins, Sippie Wallace, Big Mama Thornton, or T-Bone Walker.

The busy African American neighborhoods of Old North Dallas, Freedmantown, and Deep Ellum were where Alex Moore worked and lived. Make a map of your community showing business districts, residential areas, and important gathering places, including schools, places where young people have fun, places where there is live music. Illustrate with photographs or drawings.

Alex Moore defined blues as "what people learn about people." Blues songs are about everyday life: hard times and fun times, love, luck, money, and loss. They are not necessarily sad. Write a twelve-bar blues about an aspect of daily life, for example, homework, chores, games, or friends. Put the lyrics to a tune and sing a cappella or with keyboard or guitar accompaniment in a class presentation. The rhyme pattern is AAB. The first two lines are the same, the third line differs.

Improvisation is a hallmark of African American music genres. Listen to Alex Moore's blues "Sometimes I Feel Worried." Take the stanza below and improvise it by including something that you care about in the third line. Sing your improvisation in a class sing-along.

Sometimes I feel worried, sometimes I feel blue
Sometimes I feel worried, sometimes I feel blue
It's all on account of you, I don't know what to do

Produce a Texas History Blues podcast. Choose events from Texas history of any era, including today, and tell them from the point of view of an everyday person in a blues of at least three stanzas. You may want to include a chorus as well. Share drafts with classmates to polish your compositions before recording them for a podcast on your school website. Invite the school music specialist to get involved.

Alan Govenar named his film about Alex Moore Black on White, White and Black. In addition to Alex Moore's stories about racial discrimination earlier in his life and his rediscovery by white blues fans later in life, visual cues also relate to the title, for example, piano keys, tuxedos, and dominoes. Draw pictures and take photographs in black and white for a classroom exhibit entitled Black on White, White and Black.

Although he had to leave school after sixth grade, Alex Moore kept a daily journal and wrote many notes in beautiful penmanship. Write a journal or blog entry about something that you've learned from a friend or family member, the way Alex Moore learned musical keys from Buster Smith.

Choose a musician in your community or another Texas community to research as if you were a documentary filmmaker. Think about where you would find images; list people to interview; and decide on point of view, camera angles, and soundtrack. Compile your research into a storyboard to present in class.

Assessment Strategies

Discussions
Field notes
Presentations
Web pages
Maps
Blues lyrics
Podcasts
Black and white artwork
Journal or blog entries
Storyboards

Vocabulary

barrelhouse blues
bass
blues
boogie woogie
call and response
documentary
dominoes
Deep Ellum
festivals
Freedmantown
house parties
improvisation
jazz
Old North Dallas
piano
race relations
ragtime
rhyme
stride piano
syncopation
tempo
twelve-bar blues
whistling

Standards

Analyze information
Use and create primary sources
Diversity
Urbanization

Resources

Websites

Folkstreams.net: Streams folklore documentaries, including the films listed below. The Folkstreams Educators Portal provides a Film Analysis Framework worksheet for students.

Honkytonks.org: Honky-Tonks, Hymns, and the Blues.

Publications

Govenar, Alan. Texas Blues: The Rise of a Contemporary Sound. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2008.

Films

Black on White, White and Black. Directed by Alan Govenar, 28 min., 1990. View online at folkstreams.net.

Deep Ellum Blues. Directed by Alan Govenar, 10 min., 1985. View online at folkstreams.net.