From The Tango To Reggae: Black and Creole Music of Latin America and the Caribbean

Guaguancó, son, rumba, mambo, chachacha, samba, biguine, compas, bossa nova, Latin jazz, zouk, reggae, ragga, bomba, merengue, calypso, soca, dancehall: the Afro-Latin and Afro-Caribbean world is an endless wellspring of rhythms and melodies. This book offers a fascinating overview of its main traditional and popular genres. It considers artists such as Bob Marley, Celia Cruz, Machito, Kassav’, Gilberto Gil, Milton Nascimento, Harry Belafonte, Mighty Sparrow, and Rihanna. It also allows us to discover the still little known black music of countries such as Bolivia, Mexico, Costa Rica or Honduras, and explains, in particular, the African origin of the tango and the milonga. An award-winning pianist, musicologist, and documentary filmmaker, Isabelle Leymarie has taught at several American academic institutions, including The New School, Livingston College’s Jazz Department, Boricua College, and Yale; and at several conservatories and music schools in the United States and France. She is the author of over a dozen books published in several languages, among them Cuban Fire: The Story of Salsa and Latin Jazz (Continuum); Dizzy Gillespie (Actes Sud); Jazz Latino (Robinbooks); Cuba – La música cubana (Océano); Picasso and All That Jazz (Createspace); and Jazz Piano: Yesterday and Today (Createspace).