The World of Crickett Smith: Remembering a Forgotten Trumpeter and Traveler (1881-1947)
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Type
ThesisThesis type
Doctor of PhilosophyAuthor/s
O'Connell, Deirdre MaryAbstract
This thesis tracks the life of Crickett Smith, a little-remembered black American trumpeter whose life spanned from the end of Reconstruction to the first stirrings of the Civil Rights movement. Born in the midst of the Exoduster migration, Crickett Smith carved out a musical career ...
See moreThis thesis tracks the life of Crickett Smith, a little-remembered black American trumpeter whose life spanned from the end of Reconstruction to the first stirrings of the Civil Rights movement. Born in the midst of the Exoduster migration, Crickett Smith carved out a musical career on the streets and small stages of Kansas City, Chicago, New York, Paris, Moscow, and Bombay. A seminal figure in the creation and dissemination of cosmopolitan modernism, black internationalism and a distinctly American sound, Smith functioned as an unofficial cultural emissary at a time when black performers were seldom named. Even admirers devalued their artistry. To follow Crickett Smith’s journey is to travel the Exoduster’s musical path out of the contraband camps of Nashville and into the core of American culture. His story reveals the labor practices of travelling entertainers, the rise of black showbusiness, and the global circulation of cultural commodities, practices, and ideas. His career played out across imperial networks, in hyper-colonial cities, and in the city streets, cafes, and cabarets where an informal, grassroots network of black internationalism took root. Crickett Smith’s life reveals a wealth of information about cultural hierarchies, the logic of the marketplace, ways of hearing, the subjective nature of art, and unpredictable forms of fellowship both along and across the color line. Despite the extraordinary scope of his musical network and depth of engagement with the commercial, avant-garde, and anti-colonial world, Crickett Smith has barely dented the public record – an absence that speaks to the racialized nature of remembering and forgetting. My effort to recover this life, then, ranges beyond biography into a microhistorical study of the process of obfuscation and erasure.
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See moreThis thesis tracks the life of Crickett Smith, a little-remembered black American trumpeter whose life spanned from the end of Reconstruction to the first stirrings of the Civil Rights movement. Born in the midst of the Exoduster migration, Crickett Smith carved out a musical career on the streets and small stages of Kansas City, Chicago, New York, Paris, Moscow, and Bombay. A seminal figure in the creation and dissemination of cosmopolitan modernism, black internationalism and a distinctly American sound, Smith functioned as an unofficial cultural emissary at a time when black performers were seldom named. Even admirers devalued their artistry. To follow Crickett Smith’s journey is to travel the Exoduster’s musical path out of the contraband camps of Nashville and into the core of American culture. His story reveals the labor practices of travelling entertainers, the rise of black showbusiness, and the global circulation of cultural commodities, practices, and ideas. His career played out across imperial networks, in hyper-colonial cities, and in the city streets, cafes, and cabarets where an informal, grassroots network of black internationalism took root. Crickett Smith’s life reveals a wealth of information about cultural hierarchies, the logic of the marketplace, ways of hearing, the subjective nature of art, and unpredictable forms of fellowship both along and across the color line. Despite the extraordinary scope of his musical network and depth of engagement with the commercial, avant-garde, and anti-colonial world, Crickett Smith has barely dented the public record – an absence that speaks to the racialized nature of remembering and forgetting. My effort to recover this life, then, ranges beyond biography into a microhistorical study of the process of obfuscation and erasure.
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Date
2019-12-31Licence
The author retains copyright of this thesis. It may only be used for the purposes of research and study. It must not be used for any other purposes and may not be transmitted or shared with others without prior permission.Faculty/School
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, School of Philosophical and Historical InquiryDepartment, Discipline or Centre
Department of HistoryAwarding institution
The University of SydneyShare