Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book argues that jazz performance is driven by both an encompassing blues aesthetic and a sense of performance as a sacred ritual of transcendence. It follows several versions of the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" through recordings made at various diasporic locations. The book provides an insider's analysis of the globalization of jazz, based on his twenty years of professional involvement as a guitarist and bassist and on research he conducted with promoters, journalists, editors, managers, and other musicians. It gives a fascinating account of wassoulou music, a genre made internationally popular in recent years by the singer Oumou Sangare. The book explores a particular genre and composition from the repertory of the jeli that gained great popularity in Guinea in the 1930s and 1940s.