Keeping the Message That's Old and New; Martin Longley Sounds out the Yoruba Jazz People, Due on Sunday at the MAC

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The West African Yoruba people have arguably provided 20th Century popular music with its most importance source, from the roots of North American jazz, blues, soul and funk (not to mention rock 'n' roll) to its spreading across South America and the Caribbean, resulting in everything from reggae to samba, calypso to Cuban son.

Of course, most of the time this transplanted music of the slaves collided with any available European lineage: waltzes, quadrilles, flamenco, hillbilly music, creating an unending flow of hybrid forms, making it very hard to define simple lines of descent.

Just looking at Cuba, Haiti and Brazil, we can see how the original Yoruba spirituality …