The postcolonial history is full of outlandish incident and anecdote, from the American gangsters running their casinos, to the corrupt politicians running the country (on the whole the gangsters treated the country better than the politicians). Musicians find work in every imaginable locale, from Mexican films about the tragic lives of mulattas, to American jazz bands; from social clubs (like the Buena Vista) to brothels and bars and street parties (the rumba is named for the drink that fuels the party's energy). Amazing characters take the stage with oversized talents and, sometimes, oversized personalities. Chano Pozo survives three shots to the mid-section in an argument over money, only to succumb a few years later to seven shots in an argument about pride;

in the interim, through his work with Dizzy Gillespie, he almost single handedly infuses the spirit of Cuban music into modern American jazz.

There are a few small errors: Comteans everywhere will be outraged that Sublette calls Cesare Lombroso the "chief theorist" of Positivism, and jazz musicians will be surprised to learn that swing is "not a rhythmically complicated music" (I doubt if there are a dozen musicians alive today who could sit in with Benny Goodman's 1940 quartet). But such complaints are few, and the book is well produced, well edited, well indexed, and a bargain besides. I do have one suggestion for the publishers: the book would be so much more fun to read if one could listen to musical examples alongside the text - why not provide a website indexed with the appropriate clips? If there were such a website it would be nice if it could include some of Ned Sublette's own music, like the wonderful Que Electricidad, which shows us how music from another culture can -to paraphrase the song -open its mouth and suck in your soul.