The Griot

Traveler and slave trader accounts also show the role that the professional musician played in African society. Every village had its master musician, likened by Richard Jobson to an Irish bard, and these African minstrels (called griots) held an esteemed position in society and were often seated near the king or chief, a sign of their high rank. However, these griots, who could be either male or female, did not limit themselves to royal audiences; they would play for anyone willing to pay them for a song, a practice that the slave trader Mungo Park described as paying "solid pudding for empty praise."

It is ironic to note that street music, and the squalid conditions many blues musicians like Son House and Huddy Ledbetter were forced to play in, singing their blues on street corners for pocket change - had its origins in such exalted and esteemed practices.

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