Blogs

I know from experience that reggaeton is one of those genres that people either love or hate. I myself have mixed feeling about reggaeton, but I admit than I'm fascinated by its cultural impact and worldwide reach. Like salsa before it, reggaeton quickly became the music of choice for a new young generation of young Latinos.

Over the past decade those hard-hitting syncopating beats have been steadily creeping up on us. From the streets to the radio and the night clubs, reggaeton is everywhere you look. And now -- finally -- there's a new book anthology examining the genre.

Carl Wilson, ace music writer for the Toronto Globe & Mail, tackles taste at its basest level: in the work of Celine Dion. Through careful ponderings, fan interviews, historical research, Canadian intuition and thoughtful, expert prose, Wilson struggles to understand the hows and whys of the Quebecois Queen, one of the most polarizing global cultural figures of the past decade, a woman whose appeal cuts across cultures and classes to approach a kind of fame seldom seen, and yet who is nearly universally despised among the critical elite.

Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter still looms in the margins of jazz history. Until now, her contributions during the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies were known mostly to insiders, aficionados, historians, and journalists eager to sensationalize her association with the death of Charlie Parker, who famously died in her living room in 1955.

Though de Koenigswarter's spirit flickers on in the 20-plus compositions written in her honor, it would be impossible to overstate the extent to which she sheltered, fed, bailed out, provided for, and acted as friend and advocate to the musicians on New York City's jazz scene. In this new book, you'll read about her close association with heavyweights like Monk, Davis, Blakey, Powell, and, of course, Parker. During her lengthy and informative introduction, de Koenigswarter's granddaughter Nadine paints a poignant picture of her late grandmother as a woman with a determined drive to nurture. De Koenigswarter, for example, housed more than 100 cats.