Customer Reviews

Latin Jazz: The Perfect Combination/La Combinacion Perfecta (Text)

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This book was produced as a companion to a traveling exhibition by the Smithsonian Institute about

American music. It is bilingual, with English and Spanish text on opposing pages. This is appropriate for the subject matter, which is the fusing of two branches of the African diaspora and their respective European influences. American Jazz absorbed the harmonic complexity of European music, but lost some of the rhythmic complexity of African music. Latin music retained the rhythmic complexity, but was more harmonically simple, albeit influenced by the rich Spanish folk tradition and it's Moorish influence. The blending of these 2 branches enriched both genres, and strengthened their respective weaknesses. It is a good overview of the history of Latin Jazz, and all of the major musicians are spotlighted. I wish that there was an accompanying CD with the book to hear a sample of the many artists profiled within. I guess I'll have to spend more money on Amazon to purchase some of these records!

This book explores the beginning of the combination of latin music and jazz by looking as far back as the 1800s and early 1900s when ragtime was morphing into jazz and latin musicians were meeting jazz musicians in Cuba, New Orleans and eventually the great melting pot of NYC. The book takes you on a fun journey up to the early 2000s. Not comprehensive but well done and easy to read. Especially enjoyable with the companion CD. Highly recommended.