The Dukes Library

The Torino Ms J.II.9 codex, kept in the National University Library of Turin, is a sumptuous manuscript consisting of 159 sheets, each measuring 377x270 mm. We may safely assume that the person responsible for putting together the musical works of this codex was a Frenchman resident at the Court of the Lusignan family long enough for the codex to be completed; the period in question must have been sometime between 1413 and 1430 CE.

“Avant garde got soul too” - so opined drummer Charles Moffett with some amount of amusement through a composition title on album for Savoy in 1969. The controversial observation was likely shared if unstated by William Hooker, a generation younger and just getting his start in so-called fire music after an apprenticeship in soul jazz. Light directs an edifying and expansive beam on these efforts, bringing into focus a cache of recordings that trace the drummer’s development from journeyman to self-styled Griot. Adding up to well over four hours of music, the bulk of it is previously unreleased.