Freshly Printed - allow 7 days lead
Couldn't load pickup availability
King Alpha's Song in a Strange Land
The Roots and Routes of Canadian Reggae
Jason Wilson (Author)
9780774862288
Paperback / softback, published 14 February 2020
362 pages, 28 b&w photos
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.55 kg
...maybe the most comprehensive focus on reggae and Jamaican culture in Canada's most populous city. - Howard Campbell (Jamaica Observer) King Alpha's Song in a Strange Land is a vital contribution to scholarship on reggae and Canadian music and culture... Wilson disrupts many notions asasociated with reggae, leaving readers with a deeper appreciation for the music in Canada and all over the world. - Ty Hall, Carleton University (CAML Review)
When Jackie Mittoo and Leroy Sibbles migrated from Jamaica to Toronto in the early 1970s, the musicians brought reggae with them, sparking the flames of one Canada's most vibrant music scenes. In King Alpha's Song in a Strange Land, professional reggae musician and scholar Jason Wilson tells the story of how the organic, transnational nature of reggae brought black and white youth together, opening up a cultural dialogue between Jamaican migrants and Canadians along Toronto's ethnic frontlines. This underground subculture rebelled against the status quo, eased the acculturation process, and made bands such as Messenjah and the Sattalites household names for a brief but important time. By looking at Canada's golden age of reggae from the perspective of both Jamaican migrants and white Torontonians, Wilson reveals the power of music to break through the bonds of race and ease the hardships associated with transnational migration.
Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction: King Alpha's Song 1 Hybridity and Jamaican Music 2 Music of the Black Atlantic 3 Jamaica to Toronto 4 Place and Meaning in Toronto's Reggae Text 5 The Bridge Builders 6 Blackness and Whiteness 7 In Search of the Canadian Sound 8 A Strange Land Notes; Bibliography; Index