Editor: Conyers, James L., Jr.; Introduction: Stewart, James Brewer
Paperback; Illustrations
240 pages
Published: October 2000
McFarland & Company, Inc.
ISBN: 0786408286

Music is an expressive voice of a culture, often more so than literature. While jazz and rap are musical genres popular among people of numerous racial and social backgrounds, they are truly important historically for their representation of and impact upon African American culture and traditions. This collection of essays offers interdisciplinary study of these musical styles as they relate to black culture in America. The essays are grouped under sections. One examines an Afrocentric approach to understanding jazz and rap; another, the history, culture, performers, instruments, and political role of jazz and rap. There are sections on the expressions of jazz in dance and literature; rap music as art, social commentary, and commodity; and the future. Each essay offers insight anConyers (Black studies, U. of Nebraska, Omaha) provides a chapter on criticism which introduces the theme of the book: that an Afrocentric approach is the most appropriate one for understanding African American culture and tradition. Contributors (all but two are academics, in Black studies, music,