Description
Book SynopsisIn the United States, African American and Italian cultures have been intertwined for more than a hundred years. From as early as nineteenth-century African American opera star Thomas Bowers The Colored Mario all the way to hip-hop entrepreneur Puff Daddy dubbing himself the Black Sinatra, the affinity between black and Italian cultures runs deep and wide. Once you start looking, you'll find these connections everywhere. Sinatra croons bel canto over the limousine swing of the Count Basie band. Snoop Dogg deftly tosses off the line I'm Lucky Luciano 'bout to sing soprano. Like the Brooklyn pizzeria and candy store in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever, or the basketball sidelines where Italian American coaches Rick Pitino and John Calipari mix it up with their African American players, black/Italian connections are a thing to behold and to investigate. In Flavor and Soul, John Gennari spotlights this affinity, calling it the edge now smooth, sometimes serrated between Ital
