This book, Rasta, Babylon, Jamming: The Music and Culture of Roots Culture, has been a long time in coming. In the late 1970s, mainstream publishers didn't want any part of a music that spoke against colonialism, capitalism or social injustice. Viewed as a transcendent resource book, capable of enlightening and informing and providing a point of entry into the musical legacy of Rastafarians. Its message is one of a vital Afrocentric themes and the Rasta doctrine of resistance, political self-determinism and black survival. This is reggae at its best with no gimmicks, pure and unadulterated. This is reggae that belongs to everybody.
About the Author: Robert Fleming, a freelance journalist and editor, formerly worked as a writer-consultant with ex CBS News President Fred Friendly, boss of the legendary Edward R. Morrow for PBS TV show, Media and Society, after graduating from Columbia University's Journalism School. Employed throughout 1980s and into 1990s, he served as a reporter for N.Y. Daily News, earning several honors including a N.Y. Press Club award and a Revson Fellowship in 1990. He worked as a freelance editor and book editor at Random House's imprint, One World. He taught courses in film and journalism at Manhattan's The New School His articles and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, Essence, Black Enterprise, Omni, Black Issues Book Review, Quarterly Black Review, and Publishers Weekly. His non-fiction books include Rescuing A Neighborhood, The Success of Caroline Jones, The Wisdom of the Elders, and The African-American Writers Handbook. His fiction consists Fever In The Blood, Havoc After Dark, Gift of Faith, Gift of Truth, and Gift of Revelation. He has edited four anthologies: After Hours, Intimacy, Muntu Poets Anthology Vol. 2 - 47 Years Later with Russell Atkins, and Free Jazz: Creative Originality, Controlled Surprise. K Kelly McElroy. At the helm of Uptown Media Joint Ventures, K Kelly is following his passion of helping authors get their viable stories published and marketed to their readers! This passion includes expanding the audiences for recording artists and freelance journalists, as well! K Kelly is an avid Modern Jazz enthusiast. He proudly owns a vintage collection of over 1000 classic jazz CDs. His first jazz book, a buying guide, Best of the Best Modern Jazz was an effort to compile his significant knowledge of the genre to assist others who want to develop and enjoy their own modern jazz collection. Modern jazz Classics expands on the concept by adding biographical information for key musicians of the modern jazz era. K Kelly is a contributor to Robert Fleming's noted work Free Jazz and author of the book, Modern Jazz Classics, a concise, yet comprehensive, book on the best of modern jazz albums.