Roomin' House Blues

The rent party is a tradition that started in Harlem in the 1920's.  As the Great Migration out of the south moved into Harlem and added jazz and swing to the rural blues and folk music, the rent party became a way of using those blues and jazz to pay the rent.  Even before the Great Depression rolled in and brought hard times to the urban main stream, large parts of the rural and non-white urban work forces were already suffering.  Having recently migrated north in many cases, many of the black workers had not dug in roots deep.  They pitched in to help each other out.  And the rent party was one of those ways.  And maybe it's a cultural phenomenon whose time has returned. In the rent party someone who didn't have enough money for their rent would invite their friends and neighbors to their place, or another larger place sometimes.  Tickets would be sold and extra for the food and drink. Sometimes more was collected by passing the hat. Jaz...