And the roots of rhythm remain A journey through global music

Longtime record producer Boyd (White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s) presents an in-depth social history of the genre of world music, focusing in particular on eight subcategories that have made a global splash. He starts with the Zulu mbaqanga of South Africa, which was used in the anti-apartheid liberation movement and became popular in the U.S. through Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, and Paul Simon's Graceland. To highlight drum-heavy Afro Cuban sounds, the book discusses the introduction of rhythmic patterns like son and rumba to the U.S. by bebop jazz, Miguelito Valdés, Tito Puente, and the Buena Vista Social Club. Boyd shows the progression that led from Jamaican ska to rock steady and then reggae and dub, which became staples for American listeners through Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley. He also discusses the Indian music that inspired the Beatles, John Coltrane, and John McLaughlin, as well as the rise of Brazilian samba and bossa nova with crossover artists such as Antônio Carlos Jobim and Sérgio Mendes. The book ends with the Argentine tango, Eastern European folk music, and Fela Kuti. VERDICT Boyd's treasure trove of information about the global impact of world music (particularly on the United States) is a tour de force that will fascinate music lovers.--Dr. Dave Szatmary

The noted record producer, sound engineer, and musicologist surveys the many sounds the world has to offer. The title is from Paul Simon, whom Boyd, author ofWhite Bicycles, met back in the 1960s when Simon was in the process of making a Martin Carthy treatment of the old folksong "Scarborough Fair" his own. But borrowing is the nature of the game, and musicians are often a step behind the times. Even as Simon, enamored of Zulu music, was recordingGraceland, "on home ground, world music's biggest sellers--Le Mystère des Voix Bulgaires,Buena Vista Social Club, Ladysmith Black Mambazo--were considered old-fashioned, even reactionary." The kids, in other words, weren't listening. Instead, hip-hop reigns in Ghana, the Rolling Stones in Rio, and heavy metal in Hungary--though Boyd adds, "even the hardest-core Hungarian heavy metal headbanger will acknowledge a fondness for Muzsikás, Márta, and táncház," traditional sounds that world music--loving hipsters began to eat up courtesy of Peter Gabriel, David Byrne, and other explorers. Boyd's leanings are catholic, his enthusiasms varied, and he engagingly explores how Ry Cooder gathered the traditional Cuban musicians who made up Buena Vista, Herb Alpert scrapped light jazz for mariachi, and so on. Readers should prepare for a flood of disparate data that adds up to something more than trivia: Argentine bassist Leopoldo Thompson "may have been the first anywhere to deliver percussive slaps to this normally bowed instrument"; Elvis Presley was crazy for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and thus "Dean Martin's Italianate crooning is all over Elvis's vocal style"; "Wimoweh" owes its title to "Pete Seeger's mishearing ofuyimbube"; and much more. It's marvelous, sometimes careening adventure, as Boyd darts from one musical obsession to another. A grand treat for musicophiles and an entertaining walk through world music, leading readers to countless sounds and styles. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.