Roots and Rhythms: The Music of the African Diaspora

Think about the last song that made you want to move. Now consider this: the rhythmic heartbeat of almost all modern popular music — jazz, blues, hip-hop, reggae, soul, samba, rock and roll — can be traced back to a single, devastating historical event. Millions of African people were forcibly taken from their homelands and transported across oceans. They carried no instruments, no written scores. Yet they carried something that could never be taken: music in their memory, in their hands, in their voices. How does a musical tradition survive without instruments or freedom? That is exactly what you are about to find out.