Kenneth Bilby
Smithsonian Institution, Anthropology, Department Member
Celebrating the legendary studio musicians of Jamaican popular music through personal photographs and interviews. This is the first book devoted to the studio musicians who were central to Jamaica’s popular-music explosion. With color... more
Celebrating the legendary studio musicians of Jamaican popular music through personal photographs and interviews.
This is the first book devoted to the studio musicians who were central to Jamaica’s popular-music explosion. With color portraits and interview excerpts, over 100 musical pioneers—such as Prince Buster, Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar, Lee “Scratch” Perry, and many of Bob Marley’s early musical collaborators—provide new insights into the birth of Jamaican popular music in the recording studios of Kingston, Jamaica, in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Includes a listening guide of selected songs.
This is the first book devoted to the studio musicians who were central to Jamaica’s popular-music explosion. With color portraits and interview excerpts, over 100 musical pioneers—such as Prince Buster, Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar, Lee “Scratch” Perry, and many of Bob Marley’s early musical collaborators—provide new insights into the birth of Jamaican popular music in the recording studios of Kingston, Jamaica, in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Includes a listening guide of selected songs.
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More than two and a half centuries after it was first outlawed in Jamaica in 1760, obeah remains illegal in most territories of the former British West Indies. Yet, opinions on the meaning and essential nature of this controversial... more
More than two and a half centuries after it was first outlawed in Jamaica in 1760, obeah remains illegal in most territories of the former British West Indies. Yet, opinions on the meaning and essential nature of this controversial Afro-Caribbean spiritual phenomenon vary widely. While many contemporary West Indians hold negative views of obeah, viewing it as evil witchcraft or sorcery, others point to its widespread use in healing, protection from harm and solving a wide range of everyday problems – positive views that were also commonly held by enslaved West Indians in earlier generations.
Despite the scholarly attention obeah has received, relatively little has been written about the many laws enacted against it in different territories at different periods. Offering a perspective on obeah that challenges conventional conceptions of this widely misunderstood aspect of West Indian society and culture, the core of this book is a detailed examination of anti-obeah laws, and their socio-political implications, in seventeen jurisdictions of the English-speaking Caribbean from the period of slavery to the present.
Aside from chronologically tracing in each territory the development of these laws and their major provisions, the book also examines how anti-obeah legislation has helped to create and perpetuate cultural distortions that resound into the present. Anti-obeah legislation, particularly after the end of slavery in the nineteenth century, played a central role in creating public misunderstandings of the meaning and role of obeah among the West Indian masses, and led to the stigmatization and devaluation among future generations of Africanderived spiritual beliefs and practices.
Despite the scholarly attention obeah has received, relatively little has been written about the many laws enacted against it in different territories at different periods. Offering a perspective on obeah that challenges conventional conceptions of this widely misunderstood aspect of West Indian society and culture, the core of this book is a detailed examination of anti-obeah laws, and their socio-political implications, in seventeen jurisdictions of the English-speaking Caribbean from the period of slavery to the present.
Aside from chronologically tracing in each territory the development of these laws and their major provisions, the book also examines how anti-obeah legislation has helped to create and perpetuate cultural distortions that resound into the present. Anti-obeah legislation, particularly after the end of slavery in the nineteenth century, played a central role in creating public misunderstandings of the meaning and role of obeah among the West Indian masses, and led to the stigmatization and devaluation among future generations of Africanderived spiritual beliefs and practices.
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Constructed from the oral histories of one of the most secretive groups in the Caribbean, the Maroons of Jamaica, this book provides a unique view of a culture that has been nurtured by enslaved Africans and their descendants to survive... more
Constructed from the oral histories of one of the most secretive groups in the Caribbean, the Maroons of Jamaica, this book provides a unique view of a culture that has been nurtured by enslaved Africans and their descendants to survive against tremendous odds for nearly 350 years. The descendants of African slaves who escaped from the Spanish and British plantations in Jamaica during the 17th and early 18th centuries, the Maroons battled for and maintained their autonomy during 70 years of guerrilla warfare with the British army that ended in a truce in 1739. The British colonial government in Jamaica violated the truce and began a deportation campaign to eradicate the Maroons in 1795. Nearly 600 were captured and sent to Nova Scotia, where many died of exposure. Remarkably, this and later efforts to destroy the group failed, and today the Maroon settlements on Jamaica still consider themselves an independent nation governed by the terms granted in the 1739 truce.
In numerous visits to the island over 25 years, Kenneth Bilby gained the confidence of the Maroon elders, who revealed to him secret details of their ancestral heritage--including history, music, Kromanti religion, language, and culture--for publication. Whereas almost all previous studies of the Jamaican Maroons have focused on the distant past, this one is as much about present-day Maroons as about their ancestors. For the first time, the story of what it means to be a Maroon is conveyed through the words of the Maroons themselves. Gathering together dozens of oral-history narratives, sacred songs, and other forms of esoteric knowledge, the book is a study of cultural memory challenging the common assumption that contemporary Maroons have little or no knowledge of their own ancestral past, as well as the related idea that they have "all but disappeared" from Jamaica. Equally important is the story of the complex local and global politics into which the contemporary Maroons are increasingly drawn and the problematic ways in which the Maroons’ highly valued history has been appropriated, theorized, and commodified in postcolonial Jamaica and beyond, threatening to sever the Maroons from their own past.
In numerous visits to the island over 25 years, Kenneth Bilby gained the confidence of the Maroon elders, who revealed to him secret details of their ancestral heritage--including history, music, Kromanti religion, language, and culture--for publication. Whereas almost all previous studies of the Jamaican Maroons have focused on the distant past, this one is as much about present-day Maroons as about their ancestors. For the first time, the story of what it means to be a Maroon is conveyed through the words of the Maroons themselves. Gathering together dozens of oral-history narratives, sacred songs, and other forms of esoteric knowledge, the book is a study of cultural memory challenging the common assumption that contemporary Maroons have little or no knowledge of their own ancestral past, as well as the related idea that they have "all but disappeared" from Jamaica. Equally important is the story of the complex local and global politics into which the contemporary Maroons are increasingly drawn and the problematic ways in which the Maroons’ highly valued history has been appropriated, theorized, and commodified in postcolonial Jamaica and beyond, threatening to sever the Maroons from their own past.
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In the Jamaican folk pharmacopoeia, cannabis -- known locally as "ganja" -- occupies a special place. Its use by large numbers of Rastafarians as a religious sacrament, its widespread cultivation as a lucrative crop, and its close... more
In the Jamaican folk pharmacopoeia, cannabis -- known locally as "ganja" -- occupies a special place. Its use by large numbers of Rastafarians as a religious sacrament, its widespread cultivation as a lucrative crop, and its close association with the reggae industry have all contributed to its notoriety. Although the plant has been present in the island for many generations, its local history has been only very sketchily documented. This paper uses oral traditions, ethnographic data, and other sources to shed light on aspects of its local history and cultural background that have been largely neglected in the available literature.
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In eastern Jamaica live two distinct groups of people who characterize themselves as belonging to African nations. The Windward Maroons, who are concentrated in the Johncrow Mountains and Blue Mountains of the interior, are descendants... more
In eastern Jamaica live two distinct groups of people who characterize themselves as belonging to African nations. The Windward Maroons, who are concentrated in the Johncrow Mountains and Blue Mountains of the interior, are descendants of enslaved Africans who escaped from plantations and formed their own alternative societies in the forest during the 17th and early 18th centuries. The other African nation in this part of the island, known as the Bongo Nation, is dispersed across the coastal plains below the Blue Mountains. They are descended primarily from indentured African laborers who arrived in Jamaica following the abolition of slavery in 1834. The discussion focuses on how these two clearly distinct "nations," which have been in contact for well over a century, have used broad musical commonalities to bridge the many cultural differences that still exist between them.
Research Interests: African Diaspora Studies, Caribbean History, Caribbean Studies, Jamaica, Caribbean Slavery, and 9 moreAfro-Caribbean Music, Cultural Anthropology, Maroons in Jamaica, Slavery in the Americas, Caribbean Music, Maroons, Kumina, Music of the African Diaspora, and African and African Diaspora Religious Music
In hemispheric context, the early Maroon communities of Jamaica -- those formed in the 17(th) century, during the late Spanish and early British periods -- were hardly unique. But those that made treaties with the British crown in Jamaica... more
In hemispheric context, the early Maroon communities of Jamaica -- those formed in the 17(th) century, during the late Spanish and early British periods -- were hardly unique. But those that made treaties with the British crown in Jamaica in 1739 were destined for special fame (or infamy, depending on the perspective). Though hugely outnumbered and poorly equipped, they launched a highly effective armed resistance and nearly managed to bring economic development in parts of the island to a standstill. Unconquered, they persisted as free peoples in the heart of Britain's most important and notorious slave colony until long after the abolition of slavery in 1834. The fact that they were never defeated or assimilated into the larger population set them apart from most of the other Maroon groups spread across plantation America. Today they remain, after the Maroons of Suriname and French Guiana, the most culturally and politically distinctive of all surviving Maroon communities of the Americas.
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The Aluku (also known as Boni) Maroons are just one of six ethnic groups, or "tribes," descended from African slaves who fled Surinamese plantations in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and successfully created their own societies... more
The Aluku (also known as Boni) Maroons are just one of six ethnic groups, or "tribes," descended from African slaves who fled Surinamese plantations in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and successfully created their own societies in the forested interior (the other five groups are the Saramaka, Djuka, Paramaka, Matawai, and Kwinti). The Aluku are distinguished from the others in that they are the only group to have established most of their traditional villages in French Guiana and to have chosen allegiance, as a group, to the French government, while the rest tied their futures to neighboring Suriname. All of these Maroon societies are undergoing rapid change as they confront, and become ever more a part of, the larger societies surrounding them. But Aluku society, because of its presence in a French overseas department that is actively pursuing a policy of assimilation, is perhaps experiencing the most profound and fundamental transformation of all.
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Obeah encompasses a wide variety of beliefs and practices involving the control or channelling of supernaturallspiritual forces, usually for socially beneficial ends such as treating illness, bringing good fortune, protecting against... more
Obeah encompasses a wide variety of beliefs and practices involving the control or channelling of supernaturallspiritual forces, usually for socially beneficial ends such as treating illness, bringing good fortune, protecting against harm, and avenging wrongs. Although obeah was sometimes used to h a m others, Europeans during the slave period distorted its positive role in the lives of many enslavedpersons. In post-emancipation times, colonial officials, local white elites and their ideological allies exaggerated the antisocial dimensions of obeah, minimizing or ignoring its positive functions. This negative interpretation became so deeply ingrained that many West Indians accept it to varying degrees today, although the positive attributes of obeah are still acknowledged in most parts of the anglophone Caribbean.
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From Princeton Library Chronicle, Vol. 72, No. 2, 574-583 (2011).
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... The Aluku apparently played both sides for a time, and a prominent Aluku kapiten,Apatu, even went so far as to meet with a Dutch official in 1891 to discuss the question of who was likely to be chosen as the next gaanman. ...
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... In the words of Richard Price, "for some 300 years, the Guianas have been the classic setting for maroon communities"--with the ... Those so inclined found not only historical parallels, butcontemporary... more
... In the words of Richard Price, "for some 300 years, the Guianas have been the classic setting for maroon communities"--with the ... Those so inclined found not only historical parallels, butcontemporary musical links to the Jamaican sound that lent further support to this process of ...
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... St. Vincent in 1773. (Engraving from an original painting by Agostino Brunias; courtesy National Library of Jamaica.) Page 4. 658 Kenneth Bilby spective, and few historians have given more than passing consideration to it. This ...
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An overview of the evolution of Jamaican popular music, focusing specifically on its local sources in "traditional" Jamaican musical practices, but also stressing ways these have been combined with a broad range of musical and cultural... more
An overview of the evolution of Jamaican popular music, focusing specifically on its local sources in "traditional" Jamaican musical practices, but also stressing ways these have been combined with a broad range of musical and cultural influences both local and transnational.
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Research Interests: Popular Music, Ethnomusicology, Jamaica, Afro-Caribbean Music, REGGAE MUSIC, and 10 moreSka Music, Caribbean Music, Reggae, World music-Ethnomusicology, Reggae and Rastafari studies, Jamaican Music History, Development and Cultural, Jamaican Music History and contexts 1960-89, Mento music, History of Jamaican Music, and Rocksteady
It seems clear that the global appeal of Jamaican popular music over the last several decades stems in part from the premium its makers have always placed on innovation. There are two sides to this coin: musical-stylistic innovation and... more
It seems clear that the global appeal of Jamaican popular music over the last several decades stems in part from the premium its makers have always placed on innovation. There are two sides to this coin: musical-stylistic innovation and technological innovation. As Jamaican music has continued to evolve, the latter has arguably come to overshadow the former, especially when viewed and interpreted from the outside; and understandably so. After all, few other countries have contributed as much as Jamaica to the technologically based reconfiguring of the global popular soundscape that started to gain momentum during the last few decades of the 20th century. From its birthing of a technologically sophisticated sound system culture that has spread to urban areas in many parts of the world to its revolutionizing of recording and remixing techniques in ways now taken for granted elsewhere, Jamaica, despite its disadvantaged economic and technological position in the world system, has consistently been at the forefront of musical modernity in recent years. What accounts for Jamaica' s cutting-edge status in the world of popular music? And do the ultramodern ways of making popular music in Jamaica in recent times have anything to do with the country' s musical past? This presentation explores the frequently broached, but seldom elaborated, question of how, if at all, Jamaica' s latest, technologically-driven sounds relate to its ancestral musical culture and the generations-old traditions that constitute it.
Research Interests: Improvisation, Popular Music Studies, Popular Music, Ethnomusicology, Sound studies, and 13 moreJamaica, Modernity, Cultural Memory, History of Popular Music, Afro-Caribbean Music, Musical Instruments, Dancehall Music, Afro-american studies, Music and Technology, Reggae, Jamaican Music History, Development and Cultural, Oral History, and Sound Systems
The Aluku (also known as Boni) are one of the six present-day Maroon peoples living in Suriname and French Guiana (the others being the Saamaka, Ndyuka, Matawai, Pamaka, and Kwinti). The ancestors of the Aluku escaped from Dutch slave... more
The Aluku (also known as Boni) are one of the six present-day Maroon peoples living in Suriname and French Guiana (the others being the Saamaka, Ndyuka, Matawai, Pamaka, and Kwinti). The ancestors of the Aluku escaped from Dutch slave plantations on the coast of Suriname during the 18 th century and built new Afro-American societies and cultures in the interior forest that have survived until today. Their music and dance traditions are among the most African in the Americas. In 2018, the Aluku heritage of music and dance was registered in France' s National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage (a precondition for official recognition by UNESCO). The author was invited to the Aluku territory in 2019 to participate in the celebration of this honor and to discuss the recordings of traditional Aluku music he made there as part of a long-term anthropological and ethnomusicological study that began in 1984. This contribution is an expanded version of the talk he gave on that occasion. It discusses the role of several Aluku music and dance genres in traditional social life in the past and reflects on changes to these traditions over the last few decades. It also addresses some of the challenges previous generations have faced-and the current younger generation continues to face-in attempting to maintain the integrity of this cultural heritage following the incorporation of the Aluku territory into the French state in 1969.
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Guianese Maroon musical traditions, among the most African in the Americas, are now part of a rapidly globalizing world. Even as contemporary Maroons carry the traditional musics of their foreparents into the future, they participate... more
Guianese Maroon musical traditions, among the most African in the Americas, are now part of a rapidly globalizing world. Even as contemporary Maroons carry the traditional musics of their foreparents into the future, they participate increasingly in a wide array of urban and global mass-mediated musical trends. This article discusses several examples of how young Maroon popular musicians continue to balance the old and the new, creating and circulating new musical blends and joining global musical networks while remaining connected to ancestral forms and aesthetics. Even as they reach out to other parts of the African diaspora, they use new forms of music to redefine their social positions in their own countries. So far these young Maroon musicians appear to have had considerable success in using their creative output to resist the homogenizing pressures of globalization.
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Cangoma Calling: Spirits and Rhythms of Freedom in Brazilian Jongo Slavery Songs. Pedro Meira Monteiro and Michael Stone, eds. Dartmouth: University of Massachusetts, 99-106. 2013.
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In Geoffrey Haydon and Dennis Marks, eds. Repercussions: A Celebration of African-American Music. London: Century, pp. 128-151 (1985).
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In Timothy Barringer, Gillian Forrester, and Barbaro Martinez-Ruiz, eds. Art and Emancipation in Jamaica. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 120-135 (2007).
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Research Interests: Afro-Caribbean Music, Grenada, Alan Lomax, Guadeloupe, Trinidad, and 12 moreTrinidad and Tobago, Caribbean Music, Martinique, Caribbean Culture, Lesser Antilles, Windward Islands, Caribbean popular music, dancehall culture, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucian Culture, Anguilla, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Barthélemy
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Reggae Ambassadors has the look of an anthology of short articles from a glossy French music magazine. It does not purport to be a scholarly study. However, as France has produced some of the best reggae journalism of recent times, this... more
Reggae Ambassadors has the look of an anthology of short articles from a glossy French music magazine. It does not purport to be a scholarly study. However, as France has produced some of the best reggae journalism of recent times, this is not necessarily a bad thing. This book, like the much-missed French fanzines Natty Dread and Ragga, displays a relatively high standard of music journalism (as does the companion video documentary released in conjunction with it). It consists of thirty-four...
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The role of orally transmitted ancestral memory in ongoing struggles to overcome past injustices is proving critical in the struggle for human rights, civil rights and justice. In this context, the presentation reflects on two... more
The role of orally transmitted ancestral memory in ongoing struggles to overcome past injustices is proving critical in the struggle for human rights, civil rights and justice. In this context, the presentation reflects on two path-breaking cases of recent public memorialization: the Moiwana Massacre, which took place in the Republic of Suriname, South America and the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado.
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Ce dossier propose un panorama de l'expression musicale des marrons du plateau des Guyanes, sujet sur lequel la documentation est encore pauvre. Il aborde les formes et pratiques musicales sacrées comme profanes des communautés Aluku,... more
Ce dossier propose un panorama de l'expression musicale des marrons du plateau des Guyanes, sujet sur lequel la documentation est encore pauvre. Il aborde les formes et pratiques musicales sacrées comme profanes des communautés Aluku, Ndyuka, Saramaka, Paramaka, et Matawai. Il décrit le répertoire stylistique traditionnel, mais aussi les expressions contemporaines propres aux marrons comme la musique aléké sans oublier les adaptations marronnes des musiques de variétés internationales comme le hip-hop, le dancehall, le zouk.
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A talk presented by Kenneth Bilby. Bilby's first encounter with the Maroons of Jamaica was in 1977, when he arrived in the community of Moore Town. There he spent 14 months undertaking a study of relations between Maroons and their... more
A talk presented by Kenneth Bilby. Bilby's first encounter with the Maroons of Jamaica was in 1977, when he arrived in the community of Moore Town. There he spent 14 months undertaking a study of relations between Maroons and their Jamaican neighbors as part of his research for a master's degree in anthropology. After multiple return visits to Jamaica, he is as involved as ever with the Maroons and the implications of what he learned among them. Descendants of enslaved Africans who escaped from plantations, fought the British colonists and won their freedom in 1739, the Maroons have survived as distinct ethnic groups to the present. Their heroic history inspired Toussaint L'Ouverture of Haiti, and in the 1930s led African-American cultural icons Zora Neale Hurston and Katherine Dunham to carry out pioneering anthropological research among them. The Maroons have retained a rich, historically deep, and clearly distinctive oral culture. His presentation focuses on the complexities and challenges of working with an oral culture that has traditionally been concealed from outsiders, yet has gained in political significance in an era characterized by conflicting claims over cultural authenticity and ownership of the past.
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Paper presented at 31st Annual Conference on African Linguistics
Boston University, March 3, 2000
Boston University, March 3, 2000
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Description sound recordings 67 sound tape reels (approximately 40 hr.) : analog, 7 1/2 ips, 2 track, stereo. ; 10 in.
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Few may dream of a career in ethnomusicology, but who hasn't stopped at one time or another to ponder where the musical sounds we take for granted in our daily lives come from, or how long they have been around? In most parts of the world... more
Few may dream of a career in ethnomusicology, but who hasn't stopped at one time or another to ponder where the musical sounds we take for granted in our daily lives come from, or how long they have been around? In most parts of the world today, one cahnot pose these basic questions without conjuring up an enormously complicated history of cultural exchange. At the heart of this history lies the transatlantic slave trade and its ongoing repercussions. So profound an imprint has the music of people of African descent made on the dominant popular styles of the Western Hemisphere (and, by extension, the rest of the globe) that any serious attempt to locate the sources of today's mass-mediated musics almost inevitably ieads, through a maze of little-known rural and urban folk traditions, back to the African continent.
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Finding Aid for Kenneth M. Bilby Jamaica Maroon Collection at the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
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http://www.cairn.info/revue-volume-2017-1.htm Edited by Thomas Vendryes. This special issue of Volume! is dedicated to Jamaican music. Its nine texts, along with a dozen reviews of major recent books, offer a description and an analysis... more
http://www.cairn.info/revue-volume-2017-1.htm
Edited by Thomas Vendryes.
This special issue of Volume! is dedicated to Jamaican music. Its nine texts, along with a dozen reviews of major recent books, offer a description and an analysis of the main features of these musics, through their uses – from riddims to sound sytems – and discourses – from culture to slackness. Gathering works from leading scholars in the field, this survey sheds new light on the main debates that stem from Jamaican popular music.
Introduction
Thomas Vendryes, « Wi likkle but wi tallawah ! » L’écho musical d’une petite île des Caraïbes
Pratiques phonographiques
Peter Manuel & Wayne Marshall, « La méthode du riddim : esthétique, pratique et propriété dans le dancehall jamaïcain »
Jean-Christophe Sevin, « Le vinyle, le reggae et les soirées sound system. Une écologie médiatique »
« Culture », « slackness » et émancipation
Giulia Bonacci, « Terrible et terrifiant. Le reggae jamaïcain au prisme des mémoires
Emmanuel Parent, « Vybz Kartel : un révolutionnaire conservateur ? Mutations contemporaines de la figure de l’intellectuel organique dans l’Atlantique noir »
Carolyn Cooper, « Incarner l’émancipation : marronnages érotiques dans la culture dancehall jamaïcaine »
Hubert Devonish & Byron Jones, « Langue, musique et crise de la nation jamaïcaine »
Circulations
Herbie Miller & Roberto Moore, « Le jazz jamaïcain, sur l’île et à l’étranger »
Brian d’Aquino, Julian Henriques & Leonardo Vidigal, « A Popular Culture Research Methodology : Sound System Outernational »
Varia
Christian Béthune, « L’explicite, l’implicite et le mineur : deux blues obscènes de Lucille Bogan »
Notes de lecture
Sabine Sörgel : Markus Coester & Wolfgang Bender (eds), A Reader in African-Jamaican Music, Dance and Religion, Ian Randle Publishers, 2014
Dennis Howard : Donna Hope, International Reggae : Current and Future Trends in Jamaican Popular Music, Pelican, 2013
Werner Zips : Donna Hope, Reggae from Yaad : Traditional and Emerging Themes in Jamaican Popular Music, Ian Randle Publishers, 2016
David Katz : Michael Garnice, The Ultimate Guide to Great Reggae, Equinox Publishing, 2016
Michael Largey : Kenneth Bilby, Words of Our Mouth, Meditations of Our Heart, Wesleyan University Press, 2016
Kenneth Bilby : Alexandre Grondeau, Reggae Ambassadors. La légende du reggae, La Lune Sur le Toit, 2016
Abdoulaye Gaye : Thibaut Erhengardt, Reggae et politique dans les années 70, Natty Dread, 2016
David Aarons : Sarah Daynes, Time and Memory in Reggae Music, Manchester University Press, 2010
Hélène Lee : Clinton Hutton & al (eds), Leonard Percival Howell and the Genesis of Rastafari, University of the West Indies Press, 2015
Dennis Howard : Carolyn Cooper, Sound Clash : Jamaican Dancehall Culture At Large, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004
Sabine Sörgel : Julian Henriques, Sonic Bodies. Reggae Sound Systems, Performance Techniques, and Ways of Knowing, Bloomsbury, 2011
Erin MacLeod : Christopher Bateman & Al Fingers, In Fine Style : The Dancehall Art of Wilfred Limonious, One Love Books, 2016
Edited by Thomas Vendryes.
This special issue of Volume! is dedicated to Jamaican music. Its nine texts, along with a dozen reviews of major recent books, offer a description and an analysis of the main features of these musics, through their uses – from riddims to sound sytems – and discourses – from culture to slackness. Gathering works from leading scholars in the field, this survey sheds new light on the main debates that stem from Jamaican popular music.
Introduction
Thomas Vendryes, « Wi likkle but wi tallawah ! » L’écho musical d’une petite île des Caraïbes
Pratiques phonographiques
Peter Manuel & Wayne Marshall, « La méthode du riddim : esthétique, pratique et propriété dans le dancehall jamaïcain »
Jean-Christophe Sevin, « Le vinyle, le reggae et les soirées sound system. Une écologie médiatique »
« Culture », « slackness » et émancipation
Giulia Bonacci, « Terrible et terrifiant. Le reggae jamaïcain au prisme des mémoires
Emmanuel Parent, « Vybz Kartel : un révolutionnaire conservateur ? Mutations contemporaines de la figure de l’intellectuel organique dans l’Atlantique noir »
Carolyn Cooper, « Incarner l’émancipation : marronnages érotiques dans la culture dancehall jamaïcaine »
Hubert Devonish & Byron Jones, « Langue, musique et crise de la nation jamaïcaine »
Circulations
Herbie Miller & Roberto Moore, « Le jazz jamaïcain, sur l’île et à l’étranger »
Brian d’Aquino, Julian Henriques & Leonardo Vidigal, « A Popular Culture Research Methodology : Sound System Outernational »
Varia
Christian Béthune, « L’explicite, l’implicite et le mineur : deux blues obscènes de Lucille Bogan »
Notes de lecture
Sabine Sörgel : Markus Coester & Wolfgang Bender (eds), A Reader in African-Jamaican Music, Dance and Religion, Ian Randle Publishers, 2014
Dennis Howard : Donna Hope, International Reggae : Current and Future Trends in Jamaican Popular Music, Pelican, 2013
Werner Zips : Donna Hope, Reggae from Yaad : Traditional and Emerging Themes in Jamaican Popular Music, Ian Randle Publishers, 2016
David Katz : Michael Garnice, The Ultimate Guide to Great Reggae, Equinox Publishing, 2016
Michael Largey : Kenneth Bilby, Words of Our Mouth, Meditations of Our Heart, Wesleyan University Press, 2016
Kenneth Bilby : Alexandre Grondeau, Reggae Ambassadors. La légende du reggae, La Lune Sur le Toit, 2016
Abdoulaye Gaye : Thibaut Erhengardt, Reggae et politique dans les années 70, Natty Dread, 2016
David Aarons : Sarah Daynes, Time and Memory in Reggae Music, Manchester University Press, 2010
Hélène Lee : Clinton Hutton & al (eds), Leonard Percival Howell and the Genesis of Rastafari, University of the West Indies Press, 2015
Dennis Howard : Carolyn Cooper, Sound Clash : Jamaican Dancehall Culture At Large, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004
Sabine Sörgel : Julian Henriques, Sonic Bodies. Reggae Sound Systems, Performance Techniques, and Ways of Knowing, Bloomsbury, 2011
Erin MacLeod : Christopher Bateman & Al Fingers, In Fine Style : The Dancehall Art of Wilfred Limonious, One Love Books, 2016