African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
As contemporary tambú music and dance evolved on the Caribbean island of Curaçao, it intertwined sacred and secular, private and public cultural practices, and many traditions from Africa and the New World. As she explores the formal contours of tambú, the author discovers its variegated history and uncovers its multiple and even contradictory origins. She recounts the personal stories and experiences of Afro-Curaçaoans as they perform tambú–some who complain of its violence and low-class attraction and others who champion tambú as a powerful tool of collective memory as well as a way to imagine the future.
Against the backdrop of a tremendous surge in ethnic identity politics and social movement organizing over the last two decades in Ecuador, two complementary musical trends are explored that have emerged in reference to the country's Afro-Ecuadorian population. The first showcases the traditional music and dance of the marimba as a symbol of Afro-Ecuadorian identity. The second features numerous popular music fusions of the marimba repertoire with genres including rock, salsa, reggaetón, and more, with broad appeal to audiences throughout the country and beyond.
In spaces of violence, scholars and activists have typically addressed music as sites of resistance. In postcolonial Caribbean, the focus of most studies unsurprisingly has thus been placed on the work music has done for the oppressed—or conversely, on the ways the (neo)colonial regimes have used music to increase their control over the masses. Until recently, few publications have addressed the music that has been performed to fortify and gather people together in times of hardship. In this case, what is at stake is not so much a matter of 'us and them' or of resistance, but rather the ways in which the 'us' is mobilized to strengthen senses of belonging and networks of solidarity. Amidst the escalating everyday violence since the mid-1990s, party music in Trinidad continues to thrive. Instead of dismissing such music as merely a source of escapism or hedonism, I want to examine what makes it so compelling and what it does for people. This paper is based on in-depth study of soca music making and mumerous ethnographic interviews with Trinidadian soca artists and fans over the past 15 years.
Adieu foulard, adieu madras is a very popular tune from the French Caribbean. It is just as popular today in continental France, where it has been adapted to different musical genres. Yet, for those familiar with the simple melody and its evocative lyrics, which encourages carefree humming, not many may be aware that it is so deeply rooted in the history of French colonialism, island tropes, and ethnic relations. This essay uses Adieu foulard, adieu madras and its multiple sonic meanings as the lens to better understand the dynamics of the (post)colonial relationship of the people of the French Antilles, particularly from the island overseas departments of Martinique and Guadeloupe, many of whom have now migrated permanently to metropolitan France. For these, Adieu has now also become their song of exile.
Tambrin music on the Caribbean island of Tobago is traditionally performed to entertain people at weddings and other family celebrations. The genre is also connected with healing ceremonies and the belief in ancestral spirits. It can cause trance and possession. Nevertheless, today’s musicians hardly ever play in these traditional contexts. Opportunities to perform arise from political events, folklore festivals, and concerts for tourists. In consideration of theoretical views concerning cultural contacts, preservation, and staged respectively participatory performances, the article deals with different forms of musical interaction and different ways of playing depending on repertory, individual performers, and performance conditions, based on fieldwork conducted between 1995 and 2009, thus comprising the music of two generations of musicians.
Anderson,William M., (Ed.And Pref.), Campbell,Patricia Shehan, (Ed.And Pref.), and Seeger,Anthony, (Foreword)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
01/01; 2011
Published:
Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Education
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
The following contributions are cited separately in RILM: William M. ANDERSON, Michael B. BAKAN, Patricia Shehan CAMPBELL, Jackie Chooi-theng LEW, Phong NGUYỄN, Pornprapit PHOASAVADI, Music of Southeast Asia (RILM ref]2010-13857/ref]); William M. ANDERSON, Patricia Shehan CAMPBELL, Teaching music from a multicultural perspective (RILM ref]2010-13846/ref]); William M. ANDERSON, Kuo-huang HAN, Tatsuko TAKIZAWA, Ricardo D. TRIMILLOS, Music of East Asia (RILM ref]2010-13856/ref]); William M. ANDERSON, Kristin Olson RAO, Music of South Asia: India (RILM ref]2010-13858/ref]); Sarah J. BARTOLOME, Pierre Cary (Kazadi wa Mukuna) KAZADI, Elizabeth OEHRLE, Music of sub-Saharan Africa (RILM ref]2010-13847/ref]); Bryan BURTON, Kay L. EDWARDS, Music of native peoples of North America (RILM ref]2010-13853/ref]); Milton L. BUTLER, Marvelene C. MOORE, Rosita M. SANDS, Linda B. WALKER, African American music (RILM ref]2010-13848/ref]); Patricia Shehan CAMPBELL, David G. HEBERT, World beat (RILM ref]2010-13855/ref]); Patricia Shehan CAMPBELL, Ellen MCCULLOUGH-BRABSON, Euro-American music (RILM ref]2010-13852/ref]); Patricia Shehan CAMPBELL, Music of Europe (RILM ref]2010-13851/ref]); Ann C. CLEMENTS, Peter DUNBAR-HALL, Sarah H. WATTS, Music of Oceania and the Pacific (RILM ref]2010-13854/ref]); David G. HEBERT, Jazz and rock music (RILM ref]2010-13850/ref]); Rita KLINGER, Christopher ROBERTS, George D. SAWA, Terese VOLK TUOHEY, Music of the Middle East (RILM ref]2010-13859/ref]); Dale A. OLSEN, Milagros Agostini QUESADA, Amanda C. SOTO, Music of Latin America and the Caribbean (RILM ref]2010-13849/ref]). The first edition is abstracted as RILM ref]1990-07600/ref], the second as RILM ref]1996-23510/ref].
Examines the political and cultural possibilities and limits of the wide-ranging reggae scene that has emerged along both sides of the U.S./Mexico border since the 1990s. It investigates why and how members of seemingly disparate border communities, including Mexicanas/os, Chicanas/os, and Native Americans, find common social and political ground playing Afro-Caribbean inspired music. It also interrogates how people living in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands have responded to the impact of economic and political globalization by using reggae to fashion multiethnic and post-national political formations and social relationships at the grassroots.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
The definitive group biography of the Wailers—Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Livingston—chronicling their rise to fame and power and offering a portrait of a seminal group during a period of exuberant cultural evolution. Over one dramatic decade, a trio of Trenchtown R&B crooners swapped their 1960s Brylcreem hairdos and two-tone suits for 1970s battle fatigues and dreadlocks to become the Wailers—one of the most influential groups in popular music. A history of the band is presented from their upbringing in the brutal slums of Kingston to their first recordings and then international superstardom. It is argued that these reggae stars offered three models for black men in the second half of the 20th century: accommodate and succeed (Marley), fight and die (Tosh), or retreat and live (Livingston). The author meets with Rastafarian elders, Obeah men, and other folk authorities as he attempts to unravel the mysteries of Jamaica's famously impenetrable culture and to offer a sophisticated understanding of Jamaican politics, heritage, race, and religion.
Examines the history of a genre that spans several continents and several centuries. Material from Mexico, Cuba, France, and Great Britain are brought together to create anew, expand upon, and critique the standard histories of danzón narrated by Mexico's danzón experts and others. In these standard histories, origins and nationality are key to the constitution of genres that are racialized and moralized for political ends. Danzón, its antecedents, and successors are treated as generic equivalents despite being quite different. From the danzón on, these genres are positioned as being the products of individual, male originators and their nations. Africa is treated as a conceptual nation, and Africanness as something extra that racializes hegemonic European music-dance forms. Political leanings and strategies determine whether these music-dance forms are interpreted, adopted, or co-opted as being black or white.
