A Book on Roots: Bigotry and the Afrocentric "Jazz" Evolution

From acclaimed jazz musician and professor, Dr. Karlton Hester, comes the third edition of his book, “Bigotry and the Afrocentric 'Jazz' Evolution." In it, Hester reminds us that much of the music that drives the music industry and contemporary world culture has Afrocentric origins. Many people love “Jazz" while refusing to acknowledge the progenitors of the music.

Reviews:

After reading and giving much deliberation to the African American history book entitled “From Africa to Afrocentric Innovations Some Call 'Jazz'" written by Dr. Karlton E. Hester, I will say I definitely found it engaging, challenging, enlarging and setting a new standard for the twenty-first century jazz authors. This textbook is written by an insider, not as an observer sitting at a table in the audience trying to understand what is happening on stage.

At best, most of the authors today are a group of dilettantes at one end of the spectrum, and a bunch of “wish they could be" participants at the other end. I get a feeling from most of the books and articles I have read that scholarship, and the capacity of understanding have reached the nadir of comprehension of our music.

The authors of today, along with many of the academicians, possess very little feeling and insight when writing about the music of my heritage. When I have read comments on other kinds of ethnic music, I have never seen such an absence of emotion, vision and knowledge as the writer makes of the music of my heritage. I am very happy to state that Dr. Karlton E. Hester is changing the course in the flow of the contemporary author's writings.

The text “From Africa to Afrocentric Innovations Some Call 'Jazz'" will become required reading in all substantial music and departments of the arts. I immediately recognized the value of his contribution to the contemporary musicology. His textbook is an example of Five Star authorship. Read it and enjoy. --Donald Byrd

About a year and a half ago, Prof. Hester sent me a draft of his manuscript. Although I had known about its existence and although we had shared ideas about it in conversation, I had not had the opportunity to inspect the final product, to follow the evolution of his ideas from beginning to end. Reading it was thus an intriguing journey for me and an immensely rewarding one. Dr. Hester's command over the jazz repertoire is impressive. There is a refreshing directness in his writing, and an ability to judge the level of necessary technical detail for the kind of audience he is aiming at. Perhaps most important of all is his willingness to tackle issues in the interpretation of jazz that some writers have run away from, to read jazz as social text and to highlight issues of race, cultural propriety, and the precise origins of artistic innovation. The book as a whole is highly ambitious and it requires a firm editorial hand to insure that its significance is not obscured by the many tributaries that flow from the central argument. That it should be made available, I have no doubts. In a field that is not exactly lacking in book-length studies, Hester's Afrocentric Innovations Some Call “Jazz" will come as a fresh and original contribution. --Kofi Agawu, Professor of Music,Yale University