Juke joint

Juke joint (also jukejoint, jook house, jook, or juke) is the African-American vernacular term for an informal establishment featuring music, dancing, gambling, and drinking, primarily operated by African Americans in the southeastern United States. A juke joint may also be called a "barrelhouse". Juke joints were the first secular cultural arenas to emerge among African-American freedmen. Classic juke joints, found for example at rural crossroads, catered to the rural work force that began to emerge after emancipation.[1] Plantation workers and sharecroppers needed a place to relax and socialize following a hard week, particularly since they were barred from most white establishments by Jim Crow laws.

Set up on the outskirts of town, often in ramshackle, abandoned buildings or private houses, juke joints offered food, drink, dancing, and gambling for weary workers.[2] Owners made extra money selling groceries or moonshine to patrons, or providing cheap room and board.

Etymology

The term juke is believed to come from the Gullah word joog or jug, meaning rowdy or disorderly, which itself is derived from the Wolof word dzug meaning to misconduct one's self.[3][4]

History

The origins of juke joints may be the community rooms that were occasionally built on plantations to provide a place for Black people to socialize during slavery. This practice spread to the work camps such as sawmills, turpentine camps and lumber companies in the early twentieth century, which built barrel-houses and chock-houses to be used for drinking and gambling. Although uncommon in populated areas, such places were often seen as necessary to attract workers to sparsely populated areas lacking bars and other social outlets. Also, much like "on-base" officer's clubs, such "company"-owned joints allowed managers to keep an eye on their underlings; it also ensured that the employees' pay was coming back to the company. Constructed simply like a field hand's "shotgun"-style dwelling, these may have been the first juke joints.

During the Prohibition era, it became common to see squalid independent juke joints at highway crossings and railroad stops. These were almost never called "juke joints," but rather were called by names such as "Lone Star" or "Colored Cafe". They were often open only on weekends.[5]

Juke joints may be considered the first "private space" for blacks.[6] Paul Oliver writes that juke joints were "the last retreat, the final bastion for black people who want to get away from whites, and the pressures of the day."[5]

Urban juke joint

Peter Guralnick describes many Chicago juke joints as corner bars that go by an address and have no name. The musicians and singers perform unannounced and without microphones, ending with little if any applause. Guralnick tells of a visit to a specific juke joint, Florence's, in 1977. In stark contrast to the streets outside, Florence's is dim, and smoke-filled with the music more of an accompaniment to the "various business" being conducted than the focus of the patrons' attention. The "sheer funk of all those closely- [sic]packed-together bodies, the shouts and laughter" draws his attention. He describes the security measures and buzzer at the door, there having been a shooting there a few years ago. On this particular day Magic Slim was performing with his band, the Teardrops, on a bandstand barely big enough to hold the band.[17]

Katrina Hazzard-Gordon writes that "[t]he honky-tonk was the first urban manifestation of the jook, and the name itself later became synonymous with a style of music. Related to the classic blues in tonal structure, honky-tonk has a tempo that is slightly stepped up. It is rhythmically suited for many African-American dances…", but cites no reference.[18]

Legacy

The allure of juke joints has inspired many large-scale commercial establishments, including the House of Blues chain and the Ground Zero in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Traditional juke joints, however, are under some pressure from other forms of entertainment, including casinos.[16]

Jukes have been celebrated in photos and film. Marion Post Wolcott's images of the dilapidated buildings and the pulsing life they contained are among the most famous documentary images of the era. Juke joints are featured prominently in the movies The Color Purple, The Great Debaters, and Sinners.

See also

• Delta blues
• Junior Kimbrough
• List of public house topics

Further reading

• Cobb, Charles E. Jr., "Traveling the Blues Highway", National Geographic Magazine, April 1999, v.195, n.4
• Hamilton, Marybeth: In Search of the Blues.
• William Ferris; – Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues – The University of North Carolina Press; (2009) ISBN 0-8078-3325-8 ISBN 978-0807833254 (with CD and DVD)
• William Ferris; Glenn Hinson The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 14: Folklife The University of North Carolina Press (2009) ISBN 0-8078-3346-0 ISBN 978-0-8078-3346-9 (Cover :phfoto of James Son Thomas)
• William Ferris; Blues From The Delta Da Capo Press; Revised edition (1988) ISBN 0-306-80327-5 ISBN 978-0306803277
• Ted Gioia; Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music – W. W. Norton & Company (2009) ISBN 0-393-33750-2 ISBN 978-0393337501
• Sheldon Harris; Blues Who's Who Da Capo Press 1979
• Robert Nicholson; Mississippi Blues Today ! Da Capo Press (1999) ISBN 0-306-80883-8 ISBN 978-0-306-80883-8
• Robert Palmer; Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta – Penguin Reprint edition (1982) ISBN 0-14-006223-8; ISBN 978-0-14-006223-6

External links

• A collection of Juke Joint Blues musicians and playlists
• Random House Word of the Day. Accessed 2006-02-02.
• Junior's Juke Joint. Accessed 2006-02-01.
• Juke Joint Festival. Accessed 2006-02-02.
• Jukin' It Out: Contested Visions of Florida in New Deal Narratives
• Juke Joint video
• Juke Joint at Queens