Salsa: The Rhythm of Latin Music (Performance in World Music Series)

Rating:
Summary: A Must-Have for "Outsider" musicians
Review: As the first chapter suggests, we're all outsiders...Puerto Ricans playing Cuban rhythms, Cuban players playing jazz, white guys arranging Latin dance music and Latin Jazz...the book at times is hard to read, owing to my lack of proficiency in reading music; however, for anyone who is reasonably well versed in sight reading the excerpts are short...the chapters on percussion are extremely easy to read--even for the "non-reader"...and uncertainties are cleared up by listening to the accompanying CD, which has patterns that lend insight into the intricacies of Latin music. The book makes a convincing case that there is room for an academic approach in understanding salsa, while making it equally clear that there are shortcomings as well. Well done.