Books by Steven Feld

A unique collaboration between two of the most challenging voices studying music today, this volume explores the dual themes of musical participation and musical mediation. A number of the authors' most important essays, thoroughly revised and updated, are introduced and framed by dialogues that supply additional context, introduce retrospective concerns, and reveal previously unseen connections. This format expresses the authors' desire for a more reflexive, experimental discourse on music and society and invites readers to join their conversations. Music Grooves ranges from jazz, blues, polka, soul, rock, world beat, rap, karaoke, and other familiar genres to major scholarly debates in music theory and popular culture studies. The authors cover vital issues in media studies, ethnomusicology, popular culture studies, anthropology, and sociology, while discussing musics from America, Greece, Cuba, Africa, and Papua New Guinea and artists as diverse as James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Li'l Wally Jagiello, Bo Diddley, Walt Solek, Madonna, Paul Simon, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Billie Holiday.

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. This book describes their cosmopolitan outlook as an accoustemology, a way of knowing the world through sound.