Sounds Like London (Paperback)
100 Years of Black Music in the Capital
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Scheduled for Radio 4 Book of the week - acclaimed writer Lloyd Bradley explores the influence of immigrant cultures on the capital's music scene
For as long as people have been migrating to London, so has their music. An essential link to home, music also has the power to shape communities in surprising ways.
Black music has been part of London's landscape since the First World War, when the Southern Syncopated Orchestra brought jazz to the capital. Following the wave of Commonwealth immigration, its sounds and styles took up residence to become the foundation of the city's youth culture.
Sounds Like London tells the story of the music and the larger-than-life characters making it, journeying from Soho jazz clubs to Brixton blues parties to King's Cross warehouse raves to the streets of Notting Hill - and onto sound systems everywhere. As well as a journey through the musical history of London, Sounds Like London is about the shaping of a city, and in turn the whole nation, through music.
Contributors include Eddy Grant, Osibisa, Russell Henderson, Dizzee Rascal and Trevor Nelson, with an introduction by Soul2Soul's Jazzie B.
Sounds Like London (Ebook)
100 Years of Black Music in the Capital
Buy from
Scheduled for Radio 4 Book of the week - acclaimed writer Lloyd Bradley explores the influence of immigrant cultures on the capital's music scene
For as long as people have been migrating to London, so has their music. An essential link to home, music also has the power to shape communities in surprising ways.
Black music has been part of London's landscape since the First World War, when the Southern Syncopated Orchestra brought jazz to the capital. Following the wave of Commonwealth immigration, its sounds and styles took up residence to become the foundation of the city's youth culture.
Sounds Like London tells the story of the music and the larger-than-life characters making it, journeying from Soho jazz clubs to Brixton blues parties to King's Cross warehouse raves to the streets of Notting Hill - and onto sound systems everywhere. As well as a journey through the musical history of London, Sounds Like London is about the shaping of a city, and in turn the whole nation, through music.
Contributors include Eddy Grant, Osibisa, Russell Henderson, Dizzee Rascal and Trevor Nelson, with an introduction by Soul2Soul's Jazzie B.
Lloyd Bradley
Lloyd Bradley is the author of Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King (Penguin, 2000), an account of the glory days of the Jamaican music industry, currently in its 14th UK printing, translated into six different languages and the best-selling book ever written about Jamaican music or culture. He was Associate Producer of the BBC's 2002 series Reggae: The Story Of Jamaican Music and author of its accompanying book. As a regular contributor to Mojo, The Observer, the BBC and The Times, and formerly of Q, the NME, The Guardian and The Independent, Lloyd is one of the UK's most respected writers and broadcasters on the subjects of Caribbean music, culture and its impact on the UK.