NOISE OF THE WORLD

GLOBAL GRILLING 

By Jason Ferguson

Published 12/2/04

NOISE OF THE WORLD: NON-WESTERN ARTISTS IN THEIR OWN WORDS
By Hank Bordowitz
(Soft Skull Press, 384 pages) Hank Bordowitz is an excellent writer and a man of exquisitely ephemeral musical tastes. His championing of non-mainstream and non-Western artists has played a large role in bringing much-deserving music to the attention of people who otherwise wouldn't know better. However, in Noise of the World, Bordowitz steps aside, writing maybe a dozen of the nearly 400 pages and letting the rest be filled with the "A" parts of his many interviews with those artists who are thoughtlessly stuffed into "world music" bins across the country.

With a cast of interviewees ranging from heavyweights like Ravi Shankar, Fela Kuti and Jimmy Cliff to less-sung legends like Hassan Hakmoun, Osamu Kitajima and Vijay Anand, Bordowitz allows the musicians to run through their opinions and insights. What's most surprising is how many of the artists tend to focus in on the marketing of their music, rather than the creative processes that go into making it. To be sure, there's plenty of insight into the musicians' inspirations, but (and this may be due to Bordowitz's lines of questions) it's shocking to hear so many of the subjects carp on their unfair treatment outside of their homelands. "But we're stars in Exotic-land," so many of them seem to be saying, "so why can't we break through in America?"

That minor quibble aside, reading Ernest Ranglin give a beautiful and eloquent reggae history lesson or just knowing that Fela's chest was puffed to its egocentric extremes during his interview give Noise of the World plenty of between-the-lines context and make it a fascinating read.

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From Booklist

Bordowitz generously introduces world music by editing his interviews with musicians of many cultures to read like statements from them, sans his questions and comments. The subjects, more than 60 in all, include very well-known (e.g., Gloria Estefan, Hugh Masakela, Ravi Shankar) and important but less familiar (e.g., Jimmy Cliff, Fela Kuti, Coxsone Dodd) Third World performers as well as two Americans (Michael Doucet, Paul Simon) with stakes in world music. All relate their musical passions and purposes. Burning Spear (aka Winston Rodney) and Black Uhuru's Duckie Simpson address the mainstream perception that reggae begins and ends with Bob Marley, the latter expressing resentment while Spear takes a spiritual approach to the situation. Nigeria's King Sunny Ade, hyped as the next world music superstar after Marley's demise, voices no regrets as he discusses introducing new instruments into his irresistible juju music. Some pieces are dated, but the meat of the collection--the artists' conceptions of their work--remains fresh. Great stuff for what the Rastas might call conscious music collections. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

 

This is a little late in coming but Hank wants to send his mad props to Kate Kazeniac at Da Capo.  Kate has gotten Every Little Thing Gonna Be Alright: The Bob Marley Reader into some excellent press, and it keeps on coming:

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FROM THE DECEMBER 2004 ISSUE OF YM:

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FROM FUSION MAGAZINE:

Every Little Thing Gonna Be Alright: The Bob Reader edited by Hank Bordowitz (Da Capo Press)

There are two Bob Marleys. One, born from com­merce and marketing— an image. He is dreadlocks and pot. A picture on a flag that you might hang in your dorm room. He’s the fucking Nike swoosh. The other, from poverty and passion. A liberation largesse. Peace pageantry and other such alliterations. The gentle preacher, raucous and revolutionary whose sermons spanned continents not through advertising, but as a revolt against oppression with unity and spirituality (smoking sacramental spliffs also helps spread the word, as it was the time of the season). In Every Little Thing Gonna Be Alright: The Bob Marley Reader, Bordowitz seems to capture the best of both. Emotive essays by Rita Marley, Alice Walker, and an interview with the quixotic mota-man himself seem most personal, as the rest of the book is composed of compelling magazine and newspaper articles. (This book will most likely appeal to you, as it is a safe assumption that you are a reader of magazines.) The source selection ranges from reputable fact merchants such as Natural History Magazine, and High Times to the Quaalude consciousness of Creem Magazine’s Lester Bangs. An entire section is dedicated to writings on the division of the Manley estate, and there is an excerpt from the Marvel comic, “Marley Tale of the Tuff Gong.” From The Village Voice  to Essence, the book is a vending machine of all things Marley It’s very filling, but if you still have room, might I suggest a Payday? The salt of the peanuts alongside the sacralicious golden caramel proves an exotic palate catalyst. Plus, it cures the munchies, bro.

—Elliot David

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FROM JOHN SHELTON IVANY'S TOP 21

Book: Every Little Thing Gonna Be Alright: the Bob Marley Reader
Contributors: Alice Walker, Lester Bangs, Rita Marley & etc.
Editor: Hank Bordowitz
Publisher: Da Capo/Perseus

    Bob Marley was born in rural Jamaica, raised in Kingston's Trenchtown,  and rose to international acclaim as the first pop star of the so called "Third World." He took an isolated indigenous music and turned it into an international phenomenon that spread a message of peace as much as it did a simple rhythmic sound.
    Every Little Thing Gonna Be Alright: the Bob Marley Reader incorporates pieces from publications, ranging from Newsweek to High Times, from Rolling Stone to the People's National Party Newspaper, showcasing the expansive reach of Bob Marley, the musician and the man. Strains of songs like "Get Up, Stand Up" and "No Woman, No Cry" are heard just as often coming from under the doors of college dorm rooms today as they were in his prime, and this is the book on a man whose voice is both musically and politically enduring.
    Robert Marley transcended the humility of his rural beginnings to become not only a million-selling artist and stadium filling entertainer, but, more importantly, a nearly religious figure whose pleas for brotherhood and justice achieved universal anthemic status. BOY DO WE NEED HIM NOW!
 

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FROM KLIATT MAGAZINE

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FROM DIRTY LINEN

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FROM YELLOWBRIX

The Bruce Springsteen Scrapbook

Found this on the Rock 102, (Springfield Ma) website:

THE U2 READER: A QUARTER CENTURY OF COMMENTARY, CRITICISM, AND REVIEWS

The U2 Reader has gone into a second printing, with some (very) minor corrections. 

OTHER STUFF

One of the things that has kept Hank hopping is his second term as an adjunct at Ramapo College.  Last term he taught Marketing and Management In the Music Business, and had a genuinely good time with a terrific class.  This term, he took on two classes, Writing About Music (and Dancing about Architecture) and Music In Our Time.  Be very afraid for his students!  As part of his work there, Hank gave the following school-wide lecture:

Wednesday, April 13
1pm - 2:15pm, Room: A-217
Prof. Hank Bordowitz, Adjunct Professor of Music
"Noise of the World: Global Indigenous Pop Music in McLuhan's Global Village"

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Hank has also took on the job of designing and writing an online curriculum for Music Business and Law for Full Sail. The course is complete and Full Sail on-line students should be "enjoying" it soon.