Songcatchers: In Search of the World's Music

In this slim though handsomely illustrated volume, musicologist Hart--best known as the percussionist for the Grateful Dead--leads readers on a personal journey through world music. A promoter of musicians from around the globe (his collaboration on the album Planet Drum won him a Grammy in 1991), Hart discusses his early influences (as a kid he found African music records in his parents' collection wedged in between Count Basie and Duke Ellington albums) through his time with the Grateful Dead and his experiences beyond. For Hart, writing with Kostyal (Trial by Ice: A Photobiography of Sir Ernest Schackleton), music is""the orphan echo of the Big Bang that blew us into existence... the path the spirit travels between the physical and the metaphysical worlds."" And his narrative reflects that passion, with discussions on Pythagoras (who""recognized the healing powers of music""), Prussian-born explorer Franz Baos (who recorded songs and chants through his journeys) and Alan Lomax, the grandfather of ethnomusicology who traveled throughout the U.S.'s poor South, Europe and Africa.