Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra

《Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra》是一部融合回憶錄、民族誌、傳記與音樂史的深度之作，從迦納首都阿克拉的在地視角，重新思考爵士樂的全球流動與文化意義。作者 Steven Feld 為聲音人類學的重要開拓者，他以長時間的田野傾聽，貼近描寫當地爵士音樂人如何在日常生活中，將非洲音樂傳統、非裔美國爵士精神與個人生命經驗交織在一起。

書中聚焦多位關鍵人物，包括實驗性鼓手 Ghanaba（Guy Warren）、以 John Coltrane 為精神核心的薩克斯風演奏者 Nii Noi Nortey、深受前衛爵士鼓手啟發的傳統打擊樂大師 Nii Otoo Annan，以及以喇叭音樂為司機送行的 por por 車隊文化。透過這些故事，作者提出「acoustemology」的概念，將聲音視為理解世界的方式，也藉此挑戰以美國為中心或過度單一化的爵士史敘事。

Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra is a richly textured exploration of jazz as an African diasporic art form, told from the perspective of musicians in Ghana’s capital city. Drawing on memoir, biography, ethnography, and music history, Steven Feld—pioneer of the anthropology of sound—listens closely to how Accra’s jazz players engage the world through what he terms an “acoustemology,” a way of knowing shaped by sound.

Centered on the lives and creative practices of figures such as Ghanaba (Guy Warren), Nii Noi Nortey, Nii Otoo Annan, and the por por horn ensembles of Accra’s drivers, the book traces complex musical dialogues linking Ghanaian traditions with African American jazz, from John Coltrane to New Orleans jazz funerals. Feld challenges nationalist and Afrocentric narratives of jazz history, revealing instead a vernacular cosmopolitanism grounded in lived experience, race, class, mobility, and imagination.

Accessible yet theoretically ambitious, Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra is an essential contribution to jazz studies, ethnomusicology, African studies, and cultural anthropology, offering a deeply humane and resonant account of global musical exchange.