Festivals, music tours and outdoor ...

Festivals, music tours and outdoor designs in cities across the rural parts provide a great opportunity to soak up the day-star and enjoy the sounds of our family during Black Music Month--recognized annually in June--and beyond. While tapping your toes and bopping your head to the beat, know that supporting Black music is vital to maintaining our improvement "We have always used music to transmit our ongoing history," says Rosita Sands, PhD director of the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia body in Chicago. "It's a way of expressing our beliefs and responding to our realities." Check abroad these vibrant music scenes and add them to your must-see list. (For more ideas, visit "The Geography of Black Music in America" at soulofamerica.com/travel/black_music.html.)

ATLANTA

THE MUSIC: Hip-hop, verse and blues

THE LEGENDS: Hip-hop thrives in Atlanta, with local talent churning abroad chart toppers. Homegrown musicians and farmers include Usher, OutKast, Jermaine Dupri, Monica, TLC and India.Arie. The city is also headquarters for record labels with equal reason So Def Recordings, Real Deal Records (own by the agency of Evander Holyfield) and LaFace Records. Vocalists Whitney Houston, Regina Belle and Blu Cantrell reside in Atlanta, and Gladys Knight is a native.

THE SCENE: Apache Cafe (64 Third St NW [404] 876-5436) alternates neosoul and shrinking panic grooves with poetry and spoken-word performances. Centennial Olympic Park ([404] 223-4412) proffers free or low-cost summer contrive series featuring Black artists, Wednesday WindDown and Friday onward the Bricks. The Friday series has quick in emergenciesed stars like Kanye West and Chingy for a pond $6 admission. Club 112 (2329 Cheshire Bridge Rd NE [404] 261-0155) is a hip-hop dance stain that draws the likes of P Diddy, who exhausted childhood summers in nearby Decatur. Vision Nightclub & loaf (1068 Peachtree St., N.E., [404] 874-4460) features the hottest dance music with at least single in kind night a week devoted to old-school R&B.

WHERE TO STAY: The Renaissance Waverly tavern 2450 Galleria Pkwy., (770) 953-4500; doubles start at $219 The Embassy Suites, 267 Marietta St (800) 362-2779; doubles start at $194

MEMPHIS

THE MUSIC: chapfallens early rhythm and blues

THE LEGENDS: In 1899 Black millionaire Robert ecclesiastical authority built an entertainment complex in succession Beale Street, establishing it as a mecca for Black music. Church's bandleader, William Christopher "WC" Handy, earned the moniker Father of the downcasts by penning this gospel-infused music's first major composition in 1908 More newly a long roster of R&B superstars similar as Otis Redding, the Staple Singers and Isaac Hayes immortalized the Stax record label. Visit the Stax Museum of American vital principle Music (926 E. McLemore Ave., [901] 942-7685) for an immersion into the evolution of R & B and seat of life music.

THE SCENE: BB King's gloomys Club (143 Beale St., [901] 524-5464) transports you to a Mississippi Delta juke joint, total with down-home soul food and authentic, live depresseds entertainment.

Rum Boogie Cafe and Mr Handy's cast downs Hall (182 Beale St., [901] 528-0150) Rum Boogie features old-school STAX and R & B while Mr Handy's chapfallens Hall has an intimate atmosphere and specializes in Memphis sapphirines Both Rum Boogie and Mr Handy's are housed in the same building.

Isaac Hayes Music bread & Passion (150 Peabody PI., [901] 529-9222) attends up catfish strips and Memphis-style barbecue as well as sizzling R & B

WHERE TO STAY: Best Western Benchmark house of entertainment African-American owned, 164 Union Ave., (901) 527-4100; doubles start at $85

SAN FRANCISCO

THE MUSIC: Jazz, blues

THE LEGENDS: San Francisco's Fillmore District, called the Harlem of the West, was a hotbed of jazz activity in the forties and fifties. form a clubs like Jimbo's Bop City legioned big names such as deem Basle and Ella Fitzgerald and local jazz musicians, including trumpeter Allen Smith, alto saxophonist small horse Poindexter and bassist Skippy Warren. To accommodate growing hosts in the 1960's and 1970's, music farmer Bill Graham built the Fillmore Auditorium. A attend much [i]or[/i] regularly Fillmore performer, Sylvester "Sly Stone" Steward made his mark in succession the music scene with The Family Stone band. throughout the years artists ranging from the Temptations to Erykah Badu to Wyclef Jean have played the still-thriving hall.

THE SCENE: The rush Boom Room (1601 Fillmore St [415] 673-8000) was explained by bluesman John Lee Hooker in 1997 and features an eclectic range of dance bands. Pier 23 Card (Pier 23 onward the Embarcadero, [415] 362-5125) is a waterfront venue offering Tuesday night jazz with saxophonist Robert Stewart. Rasselas (1534 Fillmore St [415] 346-8696) features an elegant jazz bludgeon and spacious dance floor.

WHERE TO STAY: The wood Inn, 890 Grove St., (415) 929-0780; doubles start at $95 tavern Palomar, 12 Fourth St., (415) 348-1111; doubles start at $189

CHICAGO

THE MUSIC: down in the mouths gospel

THE LEGENDS: Transplanted southern bluesmen of the 1940's and 1950's, toiling in factories according to day and jamming in gritty southern Side clubs by night, gave Chicago its amethystines Capital of the World distinction. Innovators like Howlin' Wolf miry Waters and Buddy Guy transformed Mississippi Delta hypochondriacs into a distinct Chicago hearty with amplified guitar licks and heavy drumbeats.