Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae, Revised Edition

by Peter Manuel, Kenneth M. Bilby, Michael Largey

Music is the most popular and dynamic aspect of Caribbean expressive culture. From the well-known genresOCosalsa, merengue, reggae, calypso, and bachataOCoto 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. Engaging descriptions of musical forms and innovations, festivals and dance halls, as well as musicians and fans, are situated in
This revised and expanded version
* Twenty-seven new illustrations
* Recent developments in the region's music, such as the emergence of reggaetn and timba
* A new and extensive study of Jamaican dancehall"

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Academic

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 10, 1995

Reviews

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is scholarly enough to be used as a textbook but warm and even occasionally funny enough to read for pleasure. Included are generous histories of the folk and popular musics of each Caribbean nation, not ignoring the political and cultural environments they grew in. And if you can read music a little you can make use of several clearly explained examples, including one that can teach you to pat a guaguancó rhythm on your thighs.

[Mills College Library]

780.9729 M294c 2006

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great intro to a variety of Caribbean popular music styles and reads pretty quickly.