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Afro-Cuban Music
A Bibliographic Guide

By John Gray

Price: $124.95
Binding: Cloth
ISBN: 978-0-9844134-2-3
629 pages
African Diaspora Press
Pub. Date: Feb. 2012

SUBJECTS
Music -- Ethnomusicology
Music -- Popular & Folk
Performing Arts
Area Studies -- Latin American & Caribbean Studies
Ethnic Studies -- Black/African Diaspora Studies

SERIES TITLE: Black Music Reference Series
SERIES NUMBER: 3

REVIEWS
"Not only is Afro-Cuban Music an essential handbook for anyone researching or merely enjoying Afro-Cuban music; it is a testament to the traditional hard-copy bibliographic guide in an era where paper resources are increasingly eclipsed by digital ones." -- Latin American Music Review

"John Gray, master bibliographer of the Afro-Atlantic world has done it again. His powerful new work covers the subject in all its facets, all its glory. I wandered happily through this wondrous text, learning, learning, learning. Gray makes you aware of what an amazing cultural machine black Cuba is, from the habanera to orisha rap and back again. A landmark publication in Black Studies."
-- Robert Farris Thompson, Yale University, author of Aesthetic of the Cool: Afro-Atlantic Art and Music

"Afro-Cuban Music: A Bibliographic Guide is an impressive accomplishment that will prove an invaluable resource for researchers. It is well-organized and offers comprehensive coverage of the available literature, particularly periodical sources which would otherwise be difficult to find. Users will also appreciate the many annotations included for the details they provide on each work's contents."
-- Robin Moore, University of Texas at Austin, author of Nationalizing Blackness: Afrocubanismo and Artistic Revolution in Cuba, 1920-1940

DESCRIPTION
In spite of its relatively small size Cuba has had an inordinately large musical influence both inside the Caribbean and abroad. From the 'rhumba' (son) craze of the 1920s and '30s to mambo and cha-cha-cha in the 1950s and '60s and the Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon of the late '90s, Cuba has been central to popular music developments throughout the Caribbean, Latin America, the United States and Europe.

Unfortunately, no one has ever attempted to survey the extensive literature on the island's music, in particular the vernacular contributions of its Afro-Cuban population. This unprecedented bibliographic guide attempts to do just that. Ranging from the 19th century to early 2009 it offers almost 5000 entries on all of the island's main genre families, e.g. Cancion Cubana, Danzon, Son, Rumba, and Sacred Musics (Santeria, Palo, Abakua, and Arara), as well as such recent developments as timba, rap and regueton. It also provides sections on Afro-Cuban musical instruments, the music's influence abroad, and a biographical and critical component covering the lives and careers of more than 800 artists and ensembles. Spanish-language sources are covered comprehensively, in particular dozens of locally published journals such as Bohemia, Carteles, Revolucion y Cultura, Revista Salsa Cubana, and Tropicana Internacional, all indexed here for the first time, as well as the sizable international literature in English, French, and other European languages.

The work concludes with an extensive reference section offering lists of Sources Consulted, a guide to relevant Libraries and Archives, an appendix listing artists and ensembles by idiom/occupation, and two detailed Author and Subject Indexes.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Acknowledgments
Introduction
I.    Cultural History and the Arts
II.   Festivals and Carnival
         General Works
         Regional Studies
III.  General Works
         Non-Spanish Language Sources
         Spanish Language Sources
IV.  Musical Instruments
V.   Genre Studies
         Cancion Cubana (bolero, trova, etc.)
         Carnival Music (comparsa; conga)
         Charanga/Pachanga
         Danzon (chachacha, danzon, etc.)
         Filin/Feeling
         Guaracha
         Jazz/Latin Jazz
         Mambo
         Merengue
         Mozambique
         Pregones
         Punto Guajiro
         Rap
         Reggae/Regueton
         Rumba
         Sacred Music (Abakua, Arara, Palo, Santeria)
         Salsa
         Son
         Timba
         Tonadas Trinitarias
         Tumba Francesa
VI.  Afro-Cuban Music Abroad
         Canada
         Chile
         Colombia
         Costa Rica
         Curacao
         Democratic Republic of Congo
         Dominican Republic
         Finland
         France
         Germany
         Great Britain
         Jamaica
         Japan
         Mexico
         Netherlands, The
         Peru
         Puerto Rico
         Senegal
         Spain
         United States
VII. Biographical and Critical Studies
Sources Consulted
Libraries and Archives
Appendix:  List of Individuals and Ensembles by Idiom/Occupation
Author Index
Subject Index 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JOHN GRAY is director of the Black Arts Research Center in Nyack, New York. His previous publications include African Music (1991); Fire Music: A Bibliography of the New Jazz, 1959-1990 (1991); Blacks in Classical Music (1988); Blacks in Film and Television (1990); Black Theatre and Performance (1990); and, Ashe, Traditional Religion and Healing in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Diaspora (1989), all published by Greenwood Press.


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