Imagine Washington, DC as a musical map. Contralto Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial, after her concert shifted from a private, segregated auditorium to the public, inclusive space of the National Mall. On sports fields, marching bands high step at half-time. Drum circles gather Sundays in the park. Jazz spills out of churches, and clubs pulse with the percussive patterns of the Caribbean: cadence, calypso, dancehall. Go-go, DC’s home-grown fusion of funk, blues, soul, and salsa, syncopates city streets. Sheet music, instruments, and performance programs hint at how music moves the District.
