Each of the book's fourteen chapters is a vivid rendering of a particular location that Charters visited. While music is always his focus, the book is filled with details about individuals, history, landscape, and culture. In first-person narratives, Charters relates voyages including a trip to the St. Louis home of the legendary ragtime composer Scott Joplin and the journey to West Africa, where he met a man who performed an hours-long song about the Europeans' first colonial conquests in Gambia. Throughout the book, Charters traces the persistence of African musical culture despite slavery, as well as the influence of slaves' songs on subsequent musical forms. In evocative prose, he relates a lifetime of travel and research, listening to brass bands in New Orleans; investigating the emergence of reggae, ska, and rock-steady music in Jamaica's dancehalls; and exploring the history of Afro-Cuban music through the life of the jazz musician Bebo Valdes. "A Language of Song" is a unique expedition led by one of music's most observant and well-traveled explorers.
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Each of the book's fourteen chapters is a vivid rendering of a particular location that Charters visited. While music is always his focus, the book is filled with details about individuals, history, landscape, and culture. In first-person narratives, Charters relates voyages including a trip to the St. Louis home of the legendary ragtime composer Scott Joplin and the journey to West Africa, where he met a man who performed an hours-long song about the Europeans' first colonial conquests in Gambia. Throughout the book, Charters traces the persistence of African musical culture despite slavery, as well as the influence of slaves' songs on subsequent musical forms. In evocative prose, he relates a lifetime of travel and research, listening to brass bands in New Orleans; investigating the emergence of reggae, ska, and rock-steady music in Jamaica's dancehalls; and exploring the history of Afro-Cuban music through the life of the jazz musician Bebo Valdes. "A Language of Song" is a unique expedition led by one of music's most observant and well-traveled explorers.
Imprint | Duke University Press |
Country of origin | United States |
Release date | May 2009 |
Availability | Supplier out of stock. If you add this item to your wish list we will let you know when it becomes available. |
First published | May 2009 |
Authors | Samuel Charters |
Dimensions | 235 x 156 x 25mm (L x W x T) |
Format | Paperback - Trade |
Pages | 368 |
ISBN-13 | 978-0-8223-4380-6 |
Barcode | 9780822343806 |
Categories | |
LSN | 0-8223-4380-0 |