John Blanke and The Project at British Library's 'Beyond the Bassline' Exhibition

Last Thursday – 24th April 2024 -  I was delighted to attend the opening on the British Library’s latest Exhibition Beyond the Bassline: 500 years of Black British Music (26 April–26 August 2024) . For the past few months I’d been a member of the Exhibition’s  advisory board as well as contributing a work from the John Blanke  collection                  (Stephen B. Whatley’s Tribute to John Blanke) and written a chapter on John Blanke for  the exhibition’s catalogue.  

It was a chance to see the exhibition and John Blanke’s part in it but also to meet several old friends as well as the curators Dr Aleema Gray and  Dr Mykaell Riley in person , having only met them via Zoom for the past months. And also to wear my back in the day double breasted, wide shoulder pink silk suit straight out of 1970s Hawaii Five-0 as the double breasted suit is now back in fashion after 50 years as seen in H&M  April 2024!

The John Blanke installation is at the very start of the exhibition which follows the time line of Black British  from sixteenth century to the present day with a glimpse of  the future.

The installation aka display is in a line of four for early Black musicians: John Blanke (fl 1495 to 1512)  the Black Tudor  trumpeter to the court of Henry VIII and Henry VIII; Ignatius Sancho (c1729 to 1780)  shopkeeper, man of letters and composer; Billy Waters (c1728 to 1823)  the street entertainer; George Bridgetower (1778-1860) the child prodigy and virtuoso violinist.

The John Blanke display is beautifully simple and effective. The low lighting with spotlights highlighting the display’s three works: one visual, his portrait by Stephen B. Whaley; the other two texts , one from the National Archive’s collection – his petition to Henry VIII for wage increase  and the other from British Library’s own collection – the accounts of Andrew Windsor, the keeper of the Great Wardrobe details the payments made to the suppliers of the materials, and to the tailor for making Henry VIII’s wedding gift to John Blanke.

The low lighting with the dark drapes and the mounted picture in its black picture frame and mounting and the documents in glass climate controlled cabinets collectively create the effect of a shrine to John Blanke. A beautiful  presentation of John Blanke and the Project with is strapline – Imagine the Black Tudor Trumpeter made real. I was particularly impressed with the mounting of Stephen’s work which I’d discussed with the  loan team – the A4 black and white image on paper float mounted on a black background in a black A3 frame – just perfect !

I spent most of the evening  in front of the ‘shrine' as folk kept asking me and wanting know more about John Blanke. I was eventually left with literally minutes to see the rest of this exhibition. Needless to say no time at all to see the many wonderful things to see and hear and recalling so many memories as I rushed through Beyond the Bassline’s  sounds and images to the exit driven by the attendants at the evening was rapidly drawing to a close ! I have to go back to really take it in. The John Blanke ‘shrine’ is wonderful and worth visit on its own – I would say that wouldn’t!  

If you love music you’ll love this visual and sonic journey thru time – from the Tudors to cyberspace…..