And the Roots of Rhythm Remain by Joe Boyd – Book Review

And the Roots of Rhythm Remain by Joe Boyd

Published by Faber

Release date: 29 August 2024

And the Roots of Rhythm Remain is Joe Boyd’s epic odyssey through global music. Fifteen years in gestation, this 900-page tome journeys through diverse cultures across four continents. It’s an exploration of how history, music, politics, religion and individuals have interacted over centuries as cultures collided, delving into the roots of music we know and love.

So who is Joe Boyd? He’s an American, now in his 80’s, very much still with it and active. Let’s pose a few questions. As a clue, they all have the same answer. Who: Was Muddy Waters tour manager when he came to London in the early 1960’s? Handed Bob Dylan his electric guitar at Newport Folk Festival in 1965? Opened and ran the UFO Club, the psychedelic hub of the London Underground in 1966? Recorded and produced Pink Floyd’s first single?

Joe Boyd’s production credits rolled on: Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, Toots and The Maytals, and REM. By the 1980’s his tastes had widened to take in more global sounds, especially Afro-Caribbean and East European. Creating his own record label catering for these sounds he founded Hannibal Records, later going on to win a Grammy for his work with Buena Vista Social Club.

And the Roots of Rhythm Remain; it’s a lyric from Paul Simon’s Under African Skies. So Boyd begins in South Africa with Simon’s controversial Graceland collaboration, fusing Zulu sounds with Simon’s lyrics and voice. But we learn that those sounds have their roots nearly a century earlier. Post American Civil War, white (blacked) Minstrel Shows toured South Africa mixing native Xhosa and Zulu rhythms with uplifting gospel, horrifying white South African preachers. Later, cheap European squeezeboxes were added to Zulu singing. By the 1920s ragtime jazz was mixing with choral sounds in shebeens – illegal drinking dens.

By the 1950’s South Africans, Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela were making waves in jazz, film and fashion. Growing apartheid led to their exile and the West became increasingly exposed to diluted South African sounds. Meanwhile, travelling in the opposite direction, the 1970s saw American Soul overwhelming native tastes.

Cuban / American singer and bandleader Desi Arnaz is our starting point for exploring Afro-Cuban influences and cross fertilisation as centuries of slavery brought the sounds and rhythms of West Africa to the Caribbean and later, southern USA. Politics and the repressive power of the church combined to stifle more exotic sounds and dances but Cuba became a focal point. In British colonies the protestant church banned drums, regarding them as emblematic of sex and pagan rituals. We hear how Arnaz popularised conga line dancing in the 1930’s; a dance derived from the movements of shackled slaves walking in line. And who did Elvis model his appearance on a few years later? Desi Arnaz.

We learn how the French purchase of New Orleans and Louisiana from Spain in 1803 led to closer links with Cuba and Haiti and an influx of musical styles. New Orleans gradually took on the musical characteristics of Havana, the original melting pot of African dance and rhythm indebted to slavery. Meanwhile, as musical styles developed, Son gave way to Rumba and prohibition in 1920’s USA brought American booze tourists who revelled in “dirty dancing,” taking these styles back home.

In 1917, the USA, keen to get Puerto Rican’s to fight in World War One, offered them citizenship. The roots of Spanish Harlem lay here, as do the sounds created later by Carlo Valdes. His transformational percussive sounds lead directly to the Latin rock of bands like Santana.

Journeying East, Ravi Shankar provides our entry point to the Indian subcontinent. Shankar’s sitar-based classical ragas intrigued Roger McGuinn of The Byrds. From here we learn how McGuinn’s conversation with George Harrison in a bathtub resulted in The Beatles Indian sojourn and Harrison’s lifelong fascination with Indian sounds. It’s a fascination brought to life in various Beatles and Harrison solo compositions.

Millennium old Islamic Sufism and the trance building sounds of Qawwali take us to Pakistan and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan; a voice that entranced Western ears before his untimely death. Collaborations ensued, most notably with Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. At the same time, Qawwali and Nusrat’s voice proved perfect for dance remixes, opening a whole new world of fusion.

We tend to think of Roma and their music as East European. In fact, their origins are Hindi. Boyd takes on a truly engaging journey from the Subcontinent, through the Middle East to the Balkans. In the twentieth century that journey takes us to Paris and guitarist extraordinaire Django Reinhart. From there the trail leads to partner in crime Stephan Grappelli and interactions with jazz and classical worlds.

Elsewhere, Boyd ventures to South America. He explores the roots of Tango in Argentina and its explosion in popularity in early twentieth-century Paris. Taking tango superstar Carlos Gardel as his lead we learn of his rise to fame as a singer, songwriter and actor; his fame eventually taking him to New York. There, in 1935 he gave a young singer, flirting on the edge of mob criminality his first break with a booking on a National radio talent show. The singer won the competition. His name; Frank Sinatra.

In Brazil he traces the origins of Samba and Bossa Nova, examining how these rhythms have seeped into so much Western music. Jamaica meanwhile gets its own chapter. It’s a tale of Calypso and Mento morphing into Ska and then Reggae; of DJs and sound systems and the influence of Motown and Soul on Jamaican sounds. Of course, there’s a section on Marley but he soon moves on to chart the rise of Lovers Rock and Dancehall. And where does this trail end? With Jamaican migration to New York and the birth of Hip Hop.

The sounds of Eastern Europe are clearly close to Joe Boyd’s heart. Marta Sebastian, Ivo Papasov Orchestra and the like predominate as Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania take centre stage as they mix traditional and Roma sounds. We’re taken further afield into Russia and the Eurasian Steppes. As we journey, we encounter everything from Franz Liszt appropriating traditional Folk to Mongolian Throat Singers mixing tradition with Heavy Metal.

The influence and inhibiting forces of politics are themes running throughout the book. Here they really come to the fore. Communism and conformity go hand in hand so twentieth-century Russia and the Eastern Block see the mass burning of instruments with individual instrumental and vocal prowess banished. We get “authorised” folklore and the rise of mass choirs singing patriotic songs under Stalin while Pussy Riot had an apoplectic impact on Putin.

We learn that this isn’t just an Eastern European trait. Dictators leaning both left and right have a history of banning music in Argentina and Brazil. Even today extreme far-right Nationalists like Victor Orban in Hungary are pushing their own perverted version of musical heritage.

The Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches have an appalling record of musical vandalism, brutally banning instruments and dancing. It’s been an inhibiting force at its worst in South America and the Caribbean. Extreme forces within Islam have been no different. Just think of the Taliban and their attitude to music. Yet Boyd shows us that creative forces have always (eventually) found a way to express themselves.

Boyd’s travels through Africa begin with drummer Tony Allen and Fela Kuti. Through them, we learn of the roots of Nigerian Highlife, Juju and Afrobeat. Running alongside, African rhythms mutate through the influence of James Brown, Funk and Soul. Adding to the sound’s mix comes Palm Wine Guitar via Portugal and Hawaii.

Moving east to The Congo and Zaire, electric guitar virtuosos appropriate the rhythms of Rumba from their former colonial masters. Rhythm and dance continue to dominate as over time, these sounds were supercharged by the guitar pyrotechnics of Soukous. Interacting with multiple lead guitar leads didn’t begin with The Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd; they were merely copyists.

Looping back west, Joe heads for Senegal and Mali to introduce Youssou N’Dour, Salif Keita, and Baaba Maal. All three modernised African sounds to become superstars at home with successful international careers. Yet a pattern emerges that filters through most African success stories. These performers all strove to modernise their sound, often with high production values and keyboards prominent. Home audiences welcomed these high-tech digital sounds while Western audiences still craved the raw exuberance of early recordings.

Further North it’s a different story. Northern Mali and Mauritania bring us the Desert Blues of Ali Farka Toure and Tinariwen alongside masters of the kora like Toumani Diabate. These sparse, string-driven sounds have more in common with John Lee Hooker and early Country Bluesmen in southern USA. Slavery exported rhythm to South America and much of the Caribbean. Here, slaves from the north of the continent took a different heritage west.

In the closing pages, Boyd leaves us with a thought that’s both chilling and contentious. He’s shown us how the roots of rhythm have remained through history but asks whether they will continue to remain. The twenty-first century has seen a decline in the use of real instruments (and musicians) as they’re replaced by digitally created sounds. The rhythms propelling music for millennia are being replaced by digital beats; computer-generated noise. These rhythms may have a basis of “real” sounds but they aren’t. He leaves us questioning whether this is good for us; akin to a diet of over-processed food. More worryingly, through our reliance on artificial digital sounds, are we losing track of our musical roots?

So The Roots of Rhythm Remain . . . but for how long?

And The Roots of Rhythm is certainly a compelling read. It’s a masterful exploration that only someone with Joe Boyd’s lifetime of experience and knowledge could have created. Some of the musical and cultural links he identifies, and the cross-pollination of sounds highlighted are real eye-openers. This work isn’t just about music. It’s an exploration of sound through history and how culture, politics and religion have both inhibited and shaped the music we hear today. Of course, it’s also about the creativity of key individuals and how sometimes chance encounters have proved starting or turning points in both careers and musical trends.

Is this a book for everyone? It’s certainly for those with curious minds and a thirst for knowledge who want to peer beyond the superficial face of music. A wider appreciation of global sounds and genres probably helps but once you’re drawn in, you’ll want to keep exploring. There’s a lot to digest but with The Roots of Rhythm Remain, Joe Boyd has written an encyclopaedic cornerstone for future writings. More than that though, he’s proved himself a master storyteller.

~

Joe Boyd’s book is published by Faber and he can be followed on Facebook and his website

Words by Trev Eales. More work by Trev on Louder Than War can be found at his author’s profile.