Rebel Musics: Human Rights, Resistant Sounds, and the Politics of Music Making

From Thomas Mapfumo to Bob Marley, William Parker to Frank Zappa, Edgard Varese to Ice-T; from American blues to West African drumming, hip hop to son, gospel singing to rock’n’roll cabaret, rebel music is at the heart of some of the most incisive critiques of global politics. With explosive lyrics and driving rhythms, a new wave of rebel musicians are helping to mobilize movements for political change and social justice, at home and around the world.

Original in concept, unrivaled in content, Rebel -Musics is alone in placing human rights issues side by side with different forms of music. A wide range of -accomplished contributors, from a variety of disciplines and performance contexts, examine the ways in which human rights and music are explicitly linked, how musical activism resonates in practical, political terms, and how musical resistance is enacted.

Apart from the editors, contributors include: cabaret artist, author, and musician Norman Nawrocki; film makers Marie Boti and Malcolm Guy; musician Jesse Stewart; poet George Elliott Clarke; author Timothy Brennan; economist Spencer Henson; author Martha Nandorfy; radio host Ray Pratt; editor, author, and music -reviewer Ron Sakolsky.

Daniel Fischlin is professor of English at the University of Guelph and co-author with Martha Nandorfy of Eduardo Galeano: Through the Looking Glass (Black Rose Books). He has been active as a musician for most of his life and this is his fourth book devoted to an interdisciplinary musical topic.

Ajay Heble is professor of English at the University of Guelph. He is the author of Landing on the Wrong Note: Jazz, Dissonance, and Critical Practice and coeditor (with Daniel Fischlin) of The Other Side of Nowhere: Jazz, -Improvisation, and Communities in Dialogue. Artistic director and founder of The Guelph Jazz Festival, he is also an accomplished pianist.