Joe Boyd was part of a small group of label heads and journalists who chose 'world music' as their marketing slogan in the 1980s. They had little idea how fast and how wide those simple words would spread, the controversy it would cause, and only the vaguest idea of how far back the history went.
Following the international success of his memoir White Bicycles, Boyd set out to explore the stories behind the music he had helped to populariee. His experiences as a producer working in Cuba, Brazil, Bulgaria, Mali, Hungary, Spain and India had given him the skeleton of an idea, though the subject is far broader. Over the past decade he has interviewed musicians, producers and academics, travelled the globe and spent years reading, listening and writing.
The resulting book, And the Roots of the Rhythm Remain, is like no other. It shows how personalities, events and politics in Havana, Lagos, Buenos Aires, Soweto, Rio and Seville are as colourful and fascinating as anything that took place in Storyville, Harlem, Laurel Canyon or Liverpool. And, moreover, how jazz, r&b and rock 'n' roll would never have happened if it wasn't for sounds emanating from over the horizon and below the equator.
