Samuel A. Floyd (Finding Aid)

Samuel A. Floyd

1937 -

Favorite Color: Blue

Favorite Food: Seafood

Favorite Time of Year: Fall

Favorite Vacation Spot: Caribbean, St. John

Interview Length: 172 minutes

Interview Date(s): January 22, 2003

Interview Location(s): Chicago, Illinois

Abstract

Samuel Floyd discusses his family background and a peripatetic musician father who left the family when Samuel was just four years old. Floyd describes life growing up with a single mother during World War II in Lakeland, Florida. Floyd also delves in to his musical background and he remembers his early days at Florida A&M University. Samuel Floyd talks about his musical experiences at Florida A&M. Then, looking back, he discusses the various musical influences during his youth. He explains why he thinks the community of his childhood home of Lakeland, Florida was educated in the arts and how it opened doors for him. Floyd then remembers being in the Florida A&M band and the attention he received because of his involvement. Next, he recalls the encouraging atmosphere at Florida A&M University. Then, Floyd details his career as a high school band director immediately following his graduation. Samuel Floyd talks about taking a new job as an assistant band director at Southern Illinois University and about the band's grueling tour schedule. Samuel Floyd describes the creation of the Center for Black Music Research. The seedlings of the idea were fomented while he was at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. Floyd then moved to Fisk University, but because of the institution's severe financial troubles, Floyd accepted an offer from Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois. In addition, Floyd discusses several pivotal figures in scholarly research on black music and unsung black composers/performers. Samuel Floyd speaks at length about unsung 18th and 19th century black composers like Scott Joplin and Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. He describes the pressures faced by an indifferent and discriminatory world during their time which led to their compositions nearly being lost to posterity. Floyd's most important discovery was that of Alton Augustus Adams, the first black bandmaster of the U.S. Navy during World War I. Samuel Floyd discusses a great triumph of his reasearch career, the reunion of several members of the lost Great Lakes Naval Band led by Alton Augustus Adams duing World War II. Floyd also details his thoughts on the loss of musical talent in the black community due to desegregation and expands his comments to include the overall loss of a sense of connectedness and black pride. Samuel Floyd discusses issues he's faced in fundraising for the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College and describes how he must look at the problems of lack of funding in the future. He then considers his legacy and moves into explaining the types of topics that interest him in his writings and the reasons behind his topical decisions. Next, Floyd talks about the advancement in black music scholarship and names other authors in his field who have helped him and inspired him to pave these roads of change. Samuel Floyd discusses how he'd like to be remembered and then narrates photos from his collection documenting his life.

53 Stories (See Ordered Story Set)