And the Roots of Rhythm Remain

“What an amazing book! Joe Boyd has distilled decades of experience and observation of how musical ideas interbreed, and how culture is formed, into a tumultuous, gripping and dramatic story. I doubt I’ll ever read a better account of the history and sociology of popular music than this one.” —Brian Eno

“Joe Boyd has an acute ear for music and an astute eye for talent that has led him around the world, recording and returning with music that has been and will be an indelible and fascinating part of our culture. Here he reveals the searching intellect, the generous spirit, and the deep heart beneath his extraordinary life’s work.” —T Bone Burnett

“Profound . . . and beyond.” —Robert Plant

“One only hopes this can be taught in schools.” —Ry Cooder

A LEGENDARY PRODUCER WITH A FINGER ON THE PULSE OF MUSIC HISTORY: Joe Boyd has been a musical Zelig for more than half a century, from his college days as a tour manager for Muddy Waters, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto; to producing the 1965 Newport Folk Festival where Dylan went electric; to founding the UFO Club, the original home to Pink Floyd and Soft Machine and the center of London’s psychedelic scene; to working in film in the ’70s and overseeing scores for Deliverance and A Clockwork Orange; to founding his own label, Hannibal Records, and bringing global artists to western audiences, from Cuba, Mali, Brazil, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Spain.

PR AND AUTHOR EVENTS: Joe Boyd knows virtually everyone in the music industry and will be getting high-profile endorsements and doing interviews and events. ZE Books has hired the music PR firm Shore Fire Media, and we expect to garner national attention for the book. 

A WHO’S WHO OF GLOBAL MUSIC WITH SOMETHING FOR EVERY FAN: And the Roots of Rhythm Remain is a brisk, engagingly told account of global music and its interconnections, with an enormous cast of notable artists and moments: Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Paul Simon, Desi Arnaz in a conga line, Ry Cooder and the Afro-Cuban All Stars, Bob Marley, Toots & the Maytals, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Carmen Miranda, Joao Gilberto and Caetano Veloso, "Tango Argentino," Ravi Shankar and George Harrison, Roma musicians in Balkans, Django Reinhardt, Fela Kuti, The Rumble in the Jungle, Taj Mahal, and the list goes on…. 

AN AUTHORITATIVE AND ENGAGING HISTORY THAT MAKES FOR A PERFECT GIFT: Thoroughly researched and more than a decade in the making, yet still light on its feet, And the Roots of Rhythm Remain is for poptimists and rock snobs, dancefloor freaks and music scholars, cosmopolites and armchair travelers, avid listeners and neophytes alike. In a handsome, stately hardcover edition with dozens of images, it’s a great gift for every fan. 

THE FOLLOW-UP TO THE CULT HIT WHITE BICYCLES: Originally self published, Boyd’s previous book, White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s, became an underground cult sensation, selling nearly 20k copies and garnering brilliant reviews in high profile outlets (including from Elton John). 

CO-PUBLICATION WITH FABER IN THE UK: ZE Books’ publication of And the Roots of Rhythm Remain will follow just after the UK launch, and the US edition will benefit from the marketing and PR muscle they’re putting behind it.