Bessie Jones

On the set of "Music of Williamsburg".

Music of Williamsburg was an educational docufiction short produced by Colonial Williamsburg, depicting a day of music in 1768 Virginia’s capital through costumed reenactments. The film featured historically recreated instruments like the gourd banjo, cane fife, jawbone, and goombay drum, used by enslaved African Americans (who made up half the city’s population) in dance gatherings. Alan Lomax programmed the music for the film, assembling a groundbreaking ensemble including the Georgia Sea Island Singers (Bessie Jones, John Davis, etc.), Bahamian drummer Nat Rahmings, Mississippi fife player Ed Young, and Virginia musicians Prince Ellis and Hobart Smith to authentically represent early Southern Black and folk traditions.