Louisiana Music Rick Koster

Koster, journalist and author of Texas Music, has assembled a dizzying amount of information on the music and musicians of Louisiana, past and present. Because he covers blues, traditional jazz, rap, rock, pop, Cajun, Creole, zydeco, country, traditional folk, carnival, and voodoo music not to mention modern jazz, classical, gospel, and brass band music in fewer than 400 pages, the book suffers at times from overgeneralization. Some influential musicians (e.g., Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton) also receive short shrift. But everyone from Buddy Bolden to Britney Spears is here; and as long as the reader doesn't mind Koster's too frequent corny one-liners and use of very wide and somewhat biased brushstrokes in painting his picture of one of the most important musical regions in America, this is a serviceable overview. The bibliography includes information on contemporary artists' web sites, which hints at Koster's emphasis on modern music in the text. As a general-interest book, this is recommended for public libraries, especially those with patrons interested in travel and/or popular and folk-based musical styles. It may also be of some interest to academic libraries, but they certainly would do better with other more in-depth studies of individual musicians and genres associated with Louisiana. James E. Perone, Mount Union Coll., Alliance, OH

Louisiana's diverse musical heritage requires Koster to cast a wide net. It includes brass bands, early and modern Cajun, zydeco (the "Music of Voodoo," a chapter title avers), gospel, country, classic and modern jazz, piano-based rock 'n' roll, and hip-hop. Koster spews fascinating nuggets, such as the connection between the Neville Brothers and the 1976 album by the Wild Tchoupitoulas, which made them, if they weren't already, "the most famous Mardi Gras Indian tribe of all time." Y' see, Tchoupitoulas leader George "Big Chief Jolly" Landry was the Nevilles' uncle, and the tribe's LP was the brothers' first record together (most but not all the young Nevilles were in the Meters at the time). Elsewhere, Koster limns the erstwhile Ernest Kador Jr., who as Ernie K-Doe proclaimed himself "Emperor of the World" and recorded the N.O. classic, "Mother-in-Law." Little Richard, Louis Armstrong, Leadbelly, and Trent Reznor are some of the other legends Koster treats, and an extensive bibliography rounds out this asset for popular music collections. Mike Tribby