Jocelyne Guilbault

Roy Cape is a Trinidadian saxophonist active as a band musician for more than fifty years and as a bandleader for more than thirty. He is known throughout the islands and the Caribbean diasporas in North America and Europe. Part ethnography, part biography, and part Caribbean music history, Roy Cape is about the making of reputation and circulation, and about the meaning of labor and work ethics. An experiment in storytelling, it joins Roy's voice with that of ethnomusicologist Jocelyne Guilbault. The idea for the book emerged from an exchange they had while discussing Roy's journey as a performer and bandleader. In conversation, they began experimenting with voice, with who takes the lead, who says what, when, to whom, and why. Their book reflects that dynamic, combining first-person narrative, dialogue, and the polyphony of Roy's bandmates' voices. Listening to recordings and looking at old photographs elicited more recollections, which allowed Roy to expand on recurring themes and motifs. This congenial, candid book offers different ways of knowing Roy's labor of love-his sound and work through sound, his reputation and circulation as a renowned musician and bandleader in the world.

Roy Cape is a Trinidadian saxophonist active as a band musician for more than fifty years and as a bandleader for more than thirty. He is known throughout the islands and the Caribbean diasporas in North America and Europe. Part ethnography, part biography, and part Caribbean music history, Roy Cape is about the making of reputation and circulation, and about the meaning of labor and work ethics. An experiment in storytelling, it joins Roy's voice with that of ethnomusicologist Jocelyne Guilbault. The idea for the book emerged from an exchange they had while discussing Roy's journey as a performer and bandleader. In conversation, they began experimenting with voice, with who takes the lead, who says what, when, to whom, and why. Their book reflects that dynamic, combining first-person narrative, dialogue, and the polyphony of Roy's bandmates' voices. Listening to recordings and looking at old photographs elicited more recollections, which allowed Roy to expand on recurring themes and motifs. This congenial, candid book offers different ways of knowing Roy's labor of love-his sound and work through sound, his reputation and circulation as a renowned musician and bandleader in the world.

Calypso music is an integral part of Trinidad's national identity. When, for instance, Franklin D. Roosevelt asked the great Trinidadian musician Roaring, Lion where he was from, Lion famously replied "the land of calypso." But in a nation as diverse as Trinidad, why is it that calypso has emerged as the emblematic music? In "Governing Sound", Jocelyne Guilbault examines the conditions that have enabled calypso to be valorized, contested, and targeted as a field of cultural politics in Trinidad. The prominence of calypso, Guilbault argues, is uniquely enmeshed in projects of governing and in competing imaginations of nation, race, and diaspora. During the colonial regime, the period of national independence, and recent decades of neoliberal transformation, calypso and its musical offshoots have enabled new cultural formations while simultaneously excluding specific social expressions, political articulations, and artistic traditions. Drawing on over a decade of ethnographic work, Guilbault maps the musical journeys of Trinidad's most prominent musicians and arrangers and explains the distinct ways their musical sensibilities became audibly entangled with modes of governing, audience demands, and market incentives. Generously illustrated and complete with an accompanying CD, "Governing Sound" constitutes the most comprehensive study to date of Trinidad's carnival musics.

Calypso music is an integral part of Trinidad's national identity. When, for instance, Franklin D. Roosevelt asked the great Trinidadian musician Roaring, Lion where he was from, Lion famously replied "the land of calypso." But in a nation as diverse as Trinidad, why is it that calypso has emerged as the emblematic music? In "Governing Sound", Jocelyne Guilbault examines the conditions that have enabled calypso to be valorized, contested, and targeted as a field of cultural politics in Trinidad. The prominence of calypso, Guilbault argues, is uniquely enmeshed in projects of governing and in competing imaginations of nation, race, and diaspora. During the colonial regime, the period of national independence, and recent decades of neoliberal transformation, calypso and its musical offshoots have enabled new cultural formations while simultaneously excluding specific social expressions, political articulations, and artistic traditions. Drawing on over a decade of ethnographic work, Guilbault maps the musical journeys of Trinidad's most prominent musicians and arrangers and explains the distinct ways their musical sensibilities became audibly entangled with modes of governing, audience demands, and market incentives. Generously illustrated and complete with an accompanying CD, "Governing Sound" constitutes the most comprehensive study to date of Trinidad's carnival musics.

With its irresistible dance beat, strong bass line, and straightforward harmonies and lyrics, zouk has become wildly popular in the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. This book—complete with a compact disc and numerous illustrations and musical examples—provides a thorough introduction to the sound, lyrics, choreography, and social milieu of this vibrant and infectious new music."This invigorating reference work and companion CD of the Antilles' sexy zouk dance sound will lift readers out of their easy chairs and their complacency about the nonreggae aspects of Caribbean pop. . . . [Zouk] is a landmark achievement."—Timothy White, Billboard

With its irresistible dance beat, strong bass line, and straightforward harmonies and lyrics, zouk has become wildly popular in the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. This book--complete with a compact disc and numerous illustrations and musical examples--provides a thorough introduction to the sound, lyrics, choreography, and social milieu of this vibrant and infectious new music. "This invigorating reference work and companion CD of the Antilles' sexy zouk dance sound will lift readers out of their easy chairs and their complacency about the nonreggae aspects of Caribbean pop...[Zouk] is a landmark achievement."--Timothy White, Billboard