The story of how Afro-American music conquered the world lies behind so much of our culture that most everyone accepts its basic outline. West African ideas of pitch and rhythm enter the New World, encoun- ter both repression and appreciation from white society, and emerge transformed in a family of sounds-blues, jazz, and rock-capable of ex- pressing the essence of modem life with moving force. But the tale is so intertwined with America's ever-festering rac...