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Reviewed by:
  • Afro-Cuban Music: A Bibliographic Guide by John Gray
  • Amanda Villepastour
john gray. Afro-Cuban Music: A Bibliographic Guide. Vol. 3. Black Music Reference Series. Nyack, NY: African Diaspora Press, 2012. 614 pp. ISBN: 978-0-9844134-2-3 (hardcover).

Not only is Afro-Cuban Music: A Bibliographic Guide an essential handbook for anyone researching or merely enjoying Afro-Cuban music; it is a testament to the traditional hard-copy bibliographic guide in an era where paper sources are increasingly eclipsed by digital ones. In reviewing John Gray’s new bibliographic guide (one of nine by the same author), I felt obligated to read every entry, given that he had “physically examined” an astounding 95 percent of the 4,951 entries, marking the outstanding 5 percent with an asterisk. It is Gray’s broad subject knowledge and expertise, embedded in succinct prose summaries of citations, that constitutes the bibliography’s authority, reliability, and usefulness. In the review process, I compared several of Gray’s entries with online searches and found myself having to trawl through multiple pages (often unsuccessfully) to locate citations very easily accessible in the paper copy.

As a researcher and devotee of Afro-Cuban music myself, I found reading, rather than merely referencing, Gray’s bibliography to be a rewarding and even riveting task. Indeed, I would caution Afro-Cuban specialists that one can get distracted by the abundance of rich thumbnail portraits, anecdotes, and tidbits of intriguing information.

I encountered copious references and sources related to my specific research area for the first time, many of which major electronic bibliographic sources have missed. Gray’s concise summaries of large and [End Page 315] complex works are remarkable. Also impressive and useful is the inclusion of so much obscure material, including materials I collected from Plaza de Armas book market in Old Havana or in Havana’s Chinatown.

Aimed at “students, scholars, writers and librarians . . . and the curious lay public” (x), Gray initiated this colossal project in 1993 and includes publications up to December 2008, excluding only “forthcoming” publications, brief book and record reviews, album liner notes, CDs, and anything in private collections for which no location or access is listed. Citations range across “academic studies, most in the humanities and social sciences, to popular reportage” (xi) including books; journals; audiovisual materials; and journalist materials such as the specialist magazines Downbeat, Folk Roots, Latin Beat Magazine, and Latin Percussion. Thus, journalists, amateur writers, film directors, and musicians themselves are given an equal status to academics. Gray has also ferreted out listings of obscure sources such as newspaper features, interviews, obituaries, reviews, and even advertisements and promotional materials, which are all potentially of great value and interest to researchers and aficionados alike.

Human subjects covered across the book’s sources include authors, scholars, musicians, DJs, TV presenters, film directors, producers, and composers. In terms of musical genres, the bibliography covers “folk, popular and sacred musics” (xi) to include liturgical forms (Abakuá, Arará, Palo, and Santería) and the full gamut of popular musics (bolero, charanga, danzón, filín, guaracha, jazz, mambo, pop, rap, reggae, reggaeton, rock, rumba, son, timba, and trova). As well as technical studies (e.g., books of transcriptions and musical analysis) there are abundant critical studies, including ethnographic, gender, identity, music industry, political, and tourism studies, as well as conference papers with web links.

Beyond merely labeling content, Gray’s invaluable notes against citations often summarize central arguments and research foci, and at times, one sees more detailed entries with tables of contents, list of transcriptions, photographic content, interview themes, period of fieldwork materials (e.g., entry 1699: “Based on fieldwork conducted between 2001 and 2006”) and details of video content (e.g., 3601: “Benny More . . . includes footage of classic More film and TV performances with his 1950s big band, Banda Gigante, and interviews with eldest daughter, Hilda, and musical colleagues such as Fernando Alvarez, Enrique Benitez, Jos ‘ Maracaibo’ Castaneda, and Ibrahim Ferrer”). In this and more succinct ways, Gray helpfully indicates the size of sources (e.g., 2789 “brief obituary,” 2854 “short feature,” 2889 “biographical sketch,” 3205 “biographical portrait,” 4176 “detailed bio-critical portrait,” 4600 “profusely illustrated profile”). Further, entries are...

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