Religious afro-american singing. Spiritual is resulted from the meeting of deported african slaves with christianism and it was born in the churches (the only place where they cold meet), probably from the last years of 18th century. It melts melodical elements of liturgical european singing with african elements: from african tradition come the rythms and the question-answer scheme between the soloist and the choir. The lyrics (inspirated by Bible) talk about daily difficulties of black men life, and often express hope for freedom and redemption. The last great spiritual singer were Rosetta Tharpe and Mahalia Jackson. Spirituals and gospels stay on the roots of black american culture: that explains their proud recovery and their fusion with rhythm and blues (afro-american dance music) and with hard bop (Horace Silver, Art Blakey).