Different drummers

Long a taboo subject among critics, rhythm finally takes center stage in this book's dazzling, wide ranging examination of diverse black cultures across the New World. This work traces the central, and contested, role of music in shaping identities, politics, social history, and artistic expression. Starting with enslaved African musicians, the author takes us to Haiti, Trinidad, the French Caribbean, and to the civil rights era in the United States. Along the way, he highlights such figures as Toussaint Louverture, Jacques Roumain, Jean Price Mars, The Mighty Sparrow, Aime Cesaire, Edouard Glissant, Joseph Zobel, Daniel Maximin, James Brown, and Amiri Baraka. Bringing to light new connections among black cultures, he shows how rhythm has been both a persistent marker of race as well as a dynamic force for change at virtually every major turning point in black New World history.