"* Share this page using one of the following services: * Facebook * Twitter * Stumble Upon * Yahoo! Buzz * Reddit * Digg What is this? An Unlikely African-American Music Historian" [audio 4 min 45 sec]

One hundred years ago this past Friday, a bandleader named Polk Miller put together an unusual recording session. Miller — who was white — recorded seven songs with a black vocal quartet. These groundbreaking records have been reissued, offering a rare chance to hear an almost unknown part of African-American musical history. But the man who led these sessions was no civil rights activist.

Engineers from the Edison company hauled their equipment from New Jersey to Richmond, Va., which was a big deal in 1909. There, they documented one of the first interracial recording sessions in American history.