Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra

Distinguished musicologist Steven Feld created the style of anthropology of sound and music prominent on our list. In this new work he 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. He describes their cosmopolitan outlook as an accoustemology, a way of knowing the world through sound. The book combines memoir, biography, ethnography, and history, telling a story of diasporic intimacy and dialogue.