Distinguished musicologist Steven Feld created the style of anthropology of sound and music prominent on our list. In this new work he looks at the vernacular cosmopolitanism of a group of jazz players in Ghana, who have traveled widely, played with American jazz greats, and blended Coltrane with local instruments and philosophy. He describes their cosmopolitan outlook as an accoustemology, a way of knowing the world through sound. The book combines memoir, biography, ethnography, and history, telling a story of diasporic intimacy and dialogue.
Opus xi
Four-Bar Intro
"The Shape of Jazz to Come" 1
Vamp In, Head
Acoustemology in Accra: On Jazz Cosmopolitanism 11
First Chorus, with Transposition
Guy Warren / Ghanaba: From Afro-Jazz to Handel via Max Roach 51
Second Chorus, Blow Free
Nii Noi Nortey: From Pan-Africanism to Afrifones via John Coltrane
87
Third Chorus, Back Inside
Nii Otoo Annan: From Toads to Polyrhythm via Elvin Jones and
Rashied Ali 119
Fourth Chorus, Shout to the Groove
Por Por: From Honk Horns to Jazz Funerals via New Orleans 159
Head Again, Vamp Out
Beyond Diasporic Intimacy 199
"Dedicated to You" 245
Horn Backgrounds, Riffs Underneath 249
Themes, Players 299
"Steven Feld has written an astonishing book: at once a sweetly told adventure story, a biography of a very important but virtually unknown African musician, a shrewd look at the world we live in and think we know, and hidden within it all, a sly critique of the history of jazz." John Szwed, author of So What: The Life of Miles Davis "How to evoke the brilliant insight and empathy of Steven Feld's acoustemological memoir of music and musicians in Accra? To start, imagine E.T. Mensah, Shirley Temple, John Coltrane, and Ludwig van Beethoven riding (quasi-legally) in the back of a vividly motto-festooned Ghanaian trotro truck, cool-running a memory drenched, complexly overlapping soundscape of highlife evergreens, Afriphonic jazz hollers, hallelujah choruses, ratcheting sewer toads, and honking India rubber bulb horns. Centered on the voices, stories, and ambitions of a compelling cast of characters - Ghanaian musicians whose diversely linked experiences chart the layered, contradictory flows and deep reefs of globalization - Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra is a fundamental and stimulating contribution to the literature on musical cosmopolitanism and the study of contemporary urban culture in Africa." Christopher Waterman, Dean, UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture "Feld is brilliant at articulating the multiple overlapping narratives and experiences that both obfuscate and animate diasporic dialogues, and in that process his hook attains its own world-historical significance." - Tony Herrington, The Wire, March 2012 "A successful fusion of anthropology and aesthetics that illuminates the musical and cultural links - and differences - between African and American jazz, this is also a fascinating memoir of one person's attempt to understand the urban culture of Ghana in an age of globalization. Feld is a musician, filmmaker, and professor of anthropology and music at the University of New Mexico whose work revolves around the ideology of cosmopolitanism: the idea that all ethnic groups are connected and that individuals from these groups need to form relationships that lead to understanding and respect." Publishers Weekly, February 6th 2012 "The relationship between jazz and Africa is a rich, complex subject... Musician, filmmaker and distinguished professor of Anthropology and Music at the University of New Mexico, Feld gave himself the best possible chance of finding answers during a five-year sojourn in Accra in Ghana. While an easy-going, accessible prose style and sharp anecdotal detail make his memoir-adventure-biography very readable, the author scores highly first and foremost through the originality of his lines of inquiry and the succession of engrossing characters he interviews at length... It all adds up to a vital statement about the infinitely nuanced nature of cultural exchange between Africa and America, and how our fullest understanding of jazz history might be furthered by enquiries like this." Kevin Le Gendre, Jazzwise, May 2012 "The book, in its many histories, anecdotes, and musings, comes together in cultural harmony." Bill Kohlhaase, Pasatiempo, April, 2012
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