Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae

Music is the most popular and dynamic aspect of Caribbean expressive culture. As Caribbean music has evolved from its traditional roots to its contemporary forms, it has developed a rich variety of styles. From the well-known genres salsa, merengue, reggae, calypso, and bachata to more localized forms like chutney and kaseko, this wide-ranging book surveys Caribbean music's prodigious diversity and colorful history. Enhanced with numerous illustrations and musical examples, "Caribbean Currents" is an up-to-date overview of the region's music, covering Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad, Suriname, and smaller islands like Martinique and Guadeloupe. The authors provide an overview of Caribbean music its forms and innovations, its musicians, its festivals and dance halls, and its fans and trace its primarily African and European roots. They explore the modern genres' relationship to issues of race, regional diversity, gender, and socio-political conflicts. Given the international popularity of such Caribbean genres as reggae and salsa, this book is a critical resource for understanding musical styles that have become a dynamic part of world culture. Author note: Peter Manuel is Associate Professor of Music at John Jay College and the CUNY Graduate Center. Kenneth Bilby is a Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institute. Michael Largey is Assistant Professor of Music at Michigan State University, East Lansing.

Table of Contents:
Preface Map The Caribbean at a Glance 1. Introduction: The Caribbean Crucible The Indian Heritage The African Heritage Patterns of Musical Retention The European Heritage Creolization 2. Cuba A Day in Havana, 1986 The Cuban Crucible African-derived Musics Rumba A Music Festival in Santiago de Cuba European-derived Musics The Son and Modern Cuban Dance Music "Socialism with Pachanga" 3. Puerto Rico Cuba and Puerto Rico: "The Two Wings of the Same Bird" European-derived Musics The Fiesta de Santiago Apostol at Loiza Aldea Plena and Bomba in the Dance Hall Music and the Puerto Rican Diaspora 4. Salsa and Beyond The Son Sires a Son Ruben Blades: The Cutting Edge Style and Structure The Salsa Life Salsa Lite? Latin Rap Nueva Cancion 5. The Dominican Republic The Emergence of Merengue The Merengue Tipico of Cibao The Merengue as National Symbol The Modern Merengue The Merengue Invasion Merengue Style and Dance Bachata: Songs of Bitterness Juan Luis Guerra 6. Haiti and the French Caribbean Music in the Streets of Port-au-Prince Haitian Cultural Crossroads Creolization in Haiti: Language Creolization in Haiti: Religion Carnival and Rara Misik Twoubadou Haitian Dance Music Politics and the Haitian Diaspora Vodou-Jazz Today Music in the Lesser Antilles 7. Jamaica 1976: Traveling through Reggae's "Golden Era" Music ina Downtown Style: Recording the Unrecorded Kumina ina Trench Town Style: One Thread Out of Many Roots and Culture: Downtown Triumphant Techno-Roots: From Reggae to Ragga Coda: Rasta Kumina ina Raggamuffin Style 8. Trinidad, Calypso, and Carnival The Development of Calypso and Carnival Calypso in Colonialism Modern Calypso and Carnival Calypso and Gender The Carnival Context Steel Band Calypso and Carnival outside Trinidad 9. The Other Caribbean East Indians in the West Indies Introducing the Popular Music of Suriname Kaseko: Enter the Strings and Horns Aleke: The Drum Rules Again 10. Five Themes in the Study of Caribbean Music Unity and Diversity in a Continent of Islands Race and Ethnicity Music, Sex, and Sexism Caribbean Music International Music and Politics Glossary Notes Index

Review :
"[T]he many helpful discographies throughout the book--not to mention the cool photographs!--contribute to making this an essential text on some of the world's most irrepressible rhythms." --Booklist "Professor Manuel is a superb ethnomusicologist with several important books to his credit. He is well versed in the intricacies of hybrid music forms on the Caribbean... This is an excellent summary volume on Caribbean music." --Raul Fernandez, Professor of Social Sciences, University of California at Irvine "This excellent book encompasses Caribbean music in all its diversity and complexity. Manuel shows a great deal of contemporary sensibility and sensitivity in covering this fertile region of world music--he is able to relate the many musical traditions present in the region to those that are present in world music today." --Juan Flores, Director, Centro de Estudio Puertoriquenos, City University of New York