Justin Bieber, a 21st century minstrel
Here’s how, in six easy steps, you get from Justin Bieber to the Rabbit’s Foot Company, an African-American travelling minstrel troupe that got its start on the southern vaudeville circuit in the late 1890s.
1. Justin Bieber is the world’s biggest male pop star.
2. Justin Bieber has a touring band and in his band is keyboard player Reginald ‘Wizard’ Jones.
3. Wizard Jones wrote, played and produced on several albums in the 1990s and 2000s by William Bell, a leading artist on the legendary Stax soul music label out of Memphis. Bell’s best-known hits are Private Number and I Forgot To Be Your Lover. He also co-wrote, with Booker T Jones, the blues standard Born Under A Bad Sign.
4. In the 1950s, William Bell was in the backing band for Rufus Thomas, a singer and comedian from Memphis probably best known for his 60s hit Walking the Dog. Thomas’s performance at WattStax was also pretty special.
5. Thomas got his start in music all the way back in 1936 when he joined the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, which had been going since the late 19th century.
6. Some of the performers who were part of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels include Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Louis Jordan. The troupe disbanded in 1959.
So never say the Bieb ain’t steeped in history!
