J.M. Chernoff spent more than a decade as a drum student in West Africa. This is his masterwork, part African adventure story, part sociological dissertation. Its obsession with drumming as history and its passion for rhythm as style is credited with pushing Western pop musicians like Brian Eno and David Byrne to introduce Africanisms to Anglo-American pop (Talking Heads member Byrne claims to have read the thing twice). As a writer, Chernoff is obsessed with getting every nuance on the page, and descriptions of polyrhythmic structures occasionally read like watchmaking manuals. It’s that precise. For an additional $15, a 90-minute cassette illustrating the various rhythms is also available, and very worthwhile.
