Bob Dylan Center Book Club: And the Roots of Rhythm Remain: A Journey through Global Music
Sep 22, 5 PM CT • Tulsa: Bob Dylan Center • 116 E Mathew Brady St, Tulsa, OK 74103
Legendary producer Joe Boyd has applied his keen ear and studio wizardry to folk-rock masterpieces by a remarkable range of artists including Nick Drake, Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, The Incredible String Band, Taj Mahal, Billy Bragg, 10,000 Maniacs and R.E.M.
Following the 2010 publication of his critically acclaimed memoir “White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s,” Boyd travelled the world—from Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro to Lagos and Soweto to Hungary and India—to study the remarkable music made by a diverse array of cultures. The resulting book, “And the Roots of Rhythm Remain: A Journey through Global Music” is a sweeping study of the impact that sounds from over the horizon and below the equator have had on jazz, R&B and rock ‘n’ roll, and a celebration of music as a truly global language that speaks beyond geographic boundaries. Boyd describes his magnum opus as “a non-academic page-turner, full of anecdotes, personalities and backstories.”
Making a rare visit to the States from his home in London, Boyd will engage in an onstage conversation with American Song Archives Managing Director Steve Higgins about roots, rhythms, writing, producing, the brilliance of Richard Thompson and stage-managing the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where Bob Dylan famously “went electric.”
“What an amazing book! Joe Boyd has distilled decades of experience and observation of how musical ideas interbreed, and how culture is formed, into a tumultuous, gripping and dramatic story. I doubt I’ll ever read a better account of the history and sociology of popular music than this one.”
—Brian Eno
“Joe Boyd has an acute ear for music and an astute eye for talent that has led him around the world, recording and returning with music that has been and will be an indelible and fascinating part of our culture. Here he reveals the searching intellect, the generous spirit, and the deep heart beneath his extraordinary life’s work.”
—T Bone Burnett
This event is free with admission; limited-capacity general admission seating available on a first- come, first-served basis.
This event will be livestreamed for Bob Dylan Center members.
Details:
Sunday, Sept. 22
5 p.m. CT
Bob Dylan Center
116 E. Reconciliation Way, Tulsa, OK 74103
Tickets:
Free with Bob Dylan Center admission
About the Book
“You haven’t heard this before!" the accordion flourish seemed to proclaim. Paul Simon told Joe Boyd that he immediately knew it would open Graceland, the multi-platinum album that helped usher in the 1980s “world music” boom. Yet that movement had roots extending back through the decades and across continents: tango on the eve of World War I, Latin dance across the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, reggae in the ’70s, pre-War samba and pre-Beatles bossa nova, Eastern European ensembles filling capitalist concert halls during the Cold War, Indian ragas changing rock and roll in the 1960s, the folk music–inspired classical composers of the 19th and 20th centuries.
In this sweeping history compiled from more than a decade of travel, research, interviews, and deep listening, Boyd sets out to explore centuries of fascinating backstories to these sounds. He shows how personalities, events, and politics in places such as Havana, Lagos, Budapest, Kingston, and Rio are as colorful and momentous as anything that took place in New Orleans, Harlem, Laurel Canyon, or Liverpool. And, moreover, how jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock ‘n’ roll would never have happened if it weren’t for the notes and rhythms emanating from over the horizon. The one-of-a-kind result is And the Roots of Rhythm Remain: a glorious, symphonic celebration of the music that shapes our world.
About the Author
Joe Boyd is a record producer and writer, known for his acclaimed memoir, White Bicycles. Artists he has produced include Nick Drake, R.E.M., Toots and the Maytals, Richard Thompson, Pink Floyd, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, and ¡Cubanismo! among many others over the course of a nearly sixty-year career.
After graduating from Harvard in 1964, he tour-managed Muddy Waters, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto, and others before serving as production manager for the historic 1965 Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals. He then moved to London to open Elektra Records’ office and started the famous UFO club, which became the center of London’s psychedelic revolution. In 1979 he launched his own label, Hannibal Records, which was at the forefront of bringing global artists to western audiences. As a film producer, his credits include Amazing Grace, Scandal,and Jimi Hendrix. A gifted raconteur, he appears frequently on radio, podcasts and documentaries.
About the Venue
The Bob Dylan Center inspires and celebrates fearless creativity by exploring the music and artistry of the Nobel Prize–winning singer-songwriter as a catalyst for personal expression and cultural change.
For more information on And The Roots Of Rhythm Remain, please reachout to Matt Hanks (mhanks@shorefire.com), Chris Taillie (ctaillie@shorefire.com), and Henry Thomas (hthomas@shorefire.com) at Shore Fire Media.
From the legendary producer of Nick Drake, R.E.M., Toots and the Maytals, and Pink Floyd and author of White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s comes a riveting, world-spanning tour de force illuminating the artists, histories, controversies, and collaborations that shaped global music.
Release: Sep 24, 2024
Hardcover ISBN: 9798988670025 • 960 pages • two 16-page full-color photo inserts
