Re-Searching Black Music

In this provocative book, Yahya Jongintaba offers a new paradigm for the study of African American music. Proceeding from the proposition that Black culture in America cannot be considered apart from its religious and philosophical roots, Jongintaba argues that “theology and musicology serving together” can form the basis of a holistic, integrative approach to Black music and, indeed, to Black culture in all its aspects.

As he shows in his opening chapters, Jongintaba’s scholarly method—the...