The Cambridge Companion to Caribbean Music
The diverse musics of the Caribbean form a vital part of the identity of individual island nations and their diasporic communities. At the same time, they witness to collective continuities and the interrelatedness that underlies the region’s multi-layered complexity. This Companion introduces familiar and less familiar music practices from different nations, from reggae, calypso and salsa to Tambú, merengue, and soca. Its multidisciplinary, thematic approach reveals how the music was shaped by strategies of resistance and accommodation during the colonial past and how it has developed in the post-colonial present. The book encourages a comparative and syncretic approach to studying the Caribbean, one that acknowledges its patchwork of fragmented, dynamic, plural and fluid differences. It is an innovative resource for scholars and students of Caribbean musical culture, particularly those seeking a decolonising perspective on the subject.
Nanette de Jong is a professor at the International Centre for Music Studies, Newcastle University. Her work on the Caribbean has focussed primarily on Curaçao, exploring themes of identity, ritual, and cultural memory. Her monograph, Tambú: Curaçao’s African-Caribbean Ritual and the Politics of Memory (Indiana University Press, 2012), was shortlisted for the 2013 Albert J. Raboteau Prize for Best Book in Africana Religions. She has worked more recently as an ethnomusicologist consultant for various NGOs and local organisations across the Caribbean and Southern Africa. De Jong is also an accomplished classical and salsa flautist.
