Different Drummers

Long a taboo subject among critics, rhythm finally takes center stage in this book's dazzling, wide-ranging examination of diverse black cultures across the New World. Martin Munro traces the central—and contested—role of music in shaping identities, politics, social history, and artistic expression. Starting with enslaved African musicians, he takes us to Haiti, Trinidad, the French Caribbean, and to the United States of the civil rights era, illuminating along the way such figures as Toussaint Louverture, Jacques Roumain, Jean Price-Mars, the Mighty Sparrow, AimT CTsaire, Edouard Glissant, Joseph Zobel, Daniel Maximin, James Brown, and Amiri Baraka.

Martin Munro takes us on a fascinating journey through the music of poetry and the poetry of music, beautifully tying together the cultures and literary texts of a range o Caribbean societies."-Laurent Dubois, author of Soccer Empire: The World Cup and the Future of France

"Martin Munro argues in an informed and imaginative way that greater attention should be paid to the recurring sonic elements of black cultures in the New World. Different Drummers provides profound insights into the importance of rhythm as a marker of resistance and a dynamic facet of everyday life across Caribbean literatures and in African-American music."-J. Michael Dash New York University.