A musical melting pot

An attempt to depict 50 years of black music in Britain from 1950 to 2000 seems an impossibly large task: and this rather modest collection of photographs, assembled at City Hall, seems at first glance woefully inadequate.

However, organisers the BMET (Black Music Education and Technology) are at pains to point out that this is the start of an ongoing project and is in no way intended to be definitive.

A brief meander through the 1840s, when 'black' music acts were apparently very fashionable, jumps to a cursory glance at 1945 and Ray Ellington's popularising of the jive style.

We are then led through a selection of photographs depicting each decade from 1950 onwards, every set prefaced by lengthy panels of text.

The volume of information being pumped at you rather outweighs the impact of the photographs themselves, which tend to be of the standard on stage/backstage/posed variety.

Some do make you linger, however: Miles Davis is snapped in Hammersmith in 1960, sitting on the stairs, smoking a cigarette and looking wrapped in thought. Prince Buster is laid out across four laughing women, wearing a smoking jacket and a grin, in 1967. Howlin' Wolf looks suitably lupine with a harmonica clamped to his mouth.

There's a shot of Grandmaster Flash making his debut London performance in 1982 at The

Venue in Victoria, while Mark Morrison prophetically brandishes handcuffs in 1996.

The emphasis here is on Britain's musical eclecticism and cultural fusion, which has encouraged many overseas artists to make this their spiritual and adoptive home. In the face of homogeneity, our homegrown styles have always

It's a brave attempt to capture a vast subject, and the result is certainly a good start.

Siobhan Murphy

Until Oct 31, GLA City Hall, The Queen's Walk SE1, Mon to Fri 9am to 8pm, October 18 9am to 1pm, October 19 2pm to 6pm, free. Tel: 020 7983 4000.

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