These ‘audio-visual’ cinema events combine a wonderful collection of rare film clips – Taj Mahal with Toumani Diabaté, Kate Bush with the Trio Bulgarka, Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo, Ivo Papasov and David Sanborn, Ravi Shankar with George Harrison, Paul Simon with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelly etc – interspersed with narration and […]

Dear Mailing List, Let’s start this newsletter with some music. Our first playlist for my new book And the Roots of Rhythm Remain seemed to go down well, so Andrea and I have put together another 100-track selection of artists, songs and styles described in the book. You can find them both here. The long […]

Dear Mailing List, Ze Books weren’t fooling anyone on April 1st when they released the American paperback of And the Roots of Rhythm Remain. The hardcover was selling so fast (11,000 in the UK and US combined) that they had to move the paperback release forward. For those of you residing in or around either […]

Dear Mailing List, Five years without setting foot in the US came to an end last month when Andrea and I landed in New York to start a five-week promotional tour. I was on the lookout for seismic cultural shifts, but the only difference I detected was the aroma of legal marijuana wafting through the […]

Dear Mailing List, First things first: a plug for my new Instagram (@joeboydofficial) and old Facebook accounts, with news about the book, my touring, radio and press as well as intros to characters, moments and pieces of music from And the Roots of Rhythm Remain. Which is not to underplay the fact that And the Roots of […]

Dear Mailing List, After the blare of trumpets in the last newsletter about the imminent arrival of the Big Book, the publication date of And the Roots of Rhythm Remain has now been moved to the end of August. There will be launches and events on both sides of the ocean and I’ll be sure […]

Dear Mailing List, Remember me? You may recall that I used to send out newsletters fairly regularly. A few of you even sent messages saying you missed them. My excuse has been that I’ve been consumed by trying to finish the book I’ve been writing for so many years. Well, I’ve finally done it! And […]

Dear Mailing List, Back in the forgotten mists of time, I used to send out regular newsletters… some of you older folk may remember them…   But since I’ve put on the blinkers and have caught a whiff of the stables, I’m racing to the finishing line of my book and haven’t got time for such […]

Dear Mailing List, George Wein: October 3, 1925 to September 13, 2021 On a cold January day in 1964, I walked into George Wein’s office on Central Park West. He was looking for a tour manager for the Blues and Gospel Caravan featuring Muddy Waters, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Rev Gary Davis that was booked […]

Dear Mailing List, As we stagger into 2021, I can suggest a couple of comforting musical crumbs. For those of you in the UK, BBC2 is screening Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace this coming Saturday, January 2 at 2030 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000qzvh). For Brits, this is, of course, free. For everyone else, the film is available on various digital platforms for […]