Jazz: The Rough Guide (rough Guides)

Ideal for independent travellers, this guidebook to Switzerland, written by Switzerland experts, goes beyond the basics. It blends must-see sights with hidden gems and offers unmatched practical guidance for seamless planning and on-the-go exploration. Packed with in-depth advice often missing from other guides, it helps you navigate with ease. From using public transport to discovering the best dining, accommodations, and local experiences, this guide covers it all. Every detail you need for a smooth and enriching journey.

New Orleans is widely seen as the birthplace of jazz, where African slaves created groundbreaking music that fused elements from both Africa and Western traditions. By the twentieth century, jazz (and subsequent African-based musical forms including soul, funk, and Cuban rumba) travelled back across the Atlantic, first through recordings and later by artists on tour. There, African musicians immediately recognized the source roots, adapted some, altered others, and in the process, created entirely new musical forms.

From the avant-garde folk/jazz of Poland's Chlopcy Kontra Basia to Serbia's 'King of Apocalyptical Cabaret' Boris Kovac; the music of Eastern Europe is as diverse as the geography it represents. This Rough Guide showcases today's artists who preserve valuable traditions whilst enabling the music to evolve in new and unexpected ways.

The original jug bands had their origins in the 1890s amongst African-Americans, and were then known as ‘spasm bands’. This ‘do it yourself’ approach to their instrument-making gained immense popularity in America during the 1920s and early 1930s, and became closely linked to the development of the blues. The jug could be earthenware or glass and was played by buzzing one’s lips into its mouth from about an inch away, thus creating a sound somewhere between that of a tuba or trombone.

At first glance, the musical genres of gospel and blues have little in common, with one calling to mind spiritual joy and hope in a higher power and the other rooted in the secular world of pain that lacks a divine outlet. However, on closer inspection one soon realises that the blues and spirituals flowed from the same bedrock of experience, and that neither was an adequate interpretation of life without the other. As different as these genres may seem, they both share the expression of aching hearts and troubled minds. The blues are secular spirituals, or as T-Bone Walker put it, ‘The blues are just gospel turned inside out.’

From rip roaring folk renditions by Eugenia Georgieva and Çigdem Aslan to atmospheric and heartfelt gems from African divas Sally Nyolo and Lala Njava, this handpicked selection of tracks takes you on a journey from Calcutta to Cameroon and beyond. A celebration of some of the world's great female musicians on one album, this seamless collection underlines the Rough Guide's status as the number one compilation label for world music. 'The Rough Guide to Woman of the World' presents everything from the earthy desert blues chanting of Tartit, to the golden voice of India's Anandi Bhattacharya. This is a cutting-edge collection of incredible women whose songs deliver deep and meaningful messages.