John Storm Roberts Has Passed

[paul secor]

Obit: http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pb...?Category=obits - Scroll down.

John Storm Roberts was an author, record company owner, and beyond that, a generous, warm hearted person. He taught me a lot of what little I know about African, Latin, and what's come to be known as World Music. He gave a lot to the world of music and to the world as a whole. I thank him for what he gave to me.

[AllenLowe]

that's sad; nice guy.

[BruceH]

I'll always associate his name with the "Africa Dances" anthology. Sorry to hear of his passing. RIP

[Big Wheel]

Most of what has been written on Afro-Cuban music by English-speaking writers has been complete bullshit, but Roberts's The Latin Tinge struck me as exceptionally good and I used it heavily as a source for a college paper. One of these days I should check it out again.

[John L]

I enjoyed very much his writings on, and compilations of, African music. He helped make me a fan.

[seeline]

He was my friend. So sad.

[BruceH]

I enjoyed very much his writings on, and compilations of, African music. He helped make me a fan.

Same here. His compilations introduced me to African music.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Obit: http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pb...?Category=obits - Scroll down.

John Storm Roberts was an author, record company owner, and beyond that, a generous, warm hearted person. He taught me a lot of what little I know about African, Latin, and what's come to be known as World Music. He gave a lot to the world of music and to the world as a whole. I thank him for what he gave to me.

I've never heard of him, and your link brought up obits of ten other people, Paul.

Who was he?

MG

[seeline]

Did you scroll down, MG? <- Never mind; they took it down...

Here's the relevant bit...

John Storm Roberts

KINGSTON, NY - John Storm Roberts, born February 24th, 1936 in London, England. He died November 29th, 2009, in Kingston, NY. Mr. Roberts wrote A Land Full of People, about Kenya; Black Music of Two Worlds, which covered the crossover between African, Latin and American jazz/blues music; The Latin Tinge, exploring the overall influence of Latin music on popular American culture; Latin Jazz the First Fusion, looking at the effect of early Latin music on both jazz and dance music. He produced many recordings of African and international music under his imprint of Original Music, of Tivoli, NY, which he funded and ran from 1980 through 2000. Productions included "Africa Dances," "The Nairobi Sound," "Heavy on the Highlife," "Jamila, Songs from a Somali City," and "The Kampala Sound." Shortly after Kenyan independence in 1964, Mr. Roberts went there to work for the East African Standard. Upon his return to England, he was a producer for the BBC Overseas Service. Mr. Roberts came to the United States in 1970 to become the editor of Africa Report, a publication of the African American Institute. From there he worked for several magazines as editor, wrote free lance articles on music and produced both books and records.

Edited December 3, 2009 by seeline

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Did you scroll down, MG? <- Never mind; they took it down...

He wrote Black Music of Two Worlds, The Latin Tinge, and Latin Jazz: The First Fusion. He also worked (at various times) for the BBC, The Village Voice and many other publications.

I did a search and found it. I see why I never heard of him, now - he was an East African specialist.

Clearly did a lot of good stuff.

RIP.

MG

[seeline]

No, he wasn't "an E. African specialist", although he was fluent in Swahili. A lot of the best recordings OM released were from Nigeria and Ghana, and there were many of those. His main thing was Latin music in the US and the influences of Cuban music on W. African music.

And his knowledge of many other kinds of music (non-African) was quite phenomenal.

PM if you want, re. recordings...

Edited December 3, 2009 by seeline

[mikeweil]

Sad news. His books were some of the first I was able to find about Jazz and its Carribean relations, and they served me well in finding my way from there. Thanks for the good work, and R.I.P.

[paul secor]

The New York Times obit: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/arts/mus...erts&st=cse