An Ethnomusicologist’s Last Lecture: Music and Globalism, Philosophy and Religion explores the frustration of many scholars and artists with the content and directions of studies on music, which continue to be mostly based on Western thought, methods, theories, and even the modes of communicating ideas, and mostly through written, published works. Steven Loza argues that this pattern has pervaded both philosophy and ethnomusicology, fields which should be much more globally based in terms ...

Music is powerful and transformational, but can it spur actual social change?A strong collection of essays, At the Crossroads of Music and Social Justice studies the meaning of music within a community to investigate the intersections of sound and race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and differing abilities. Ethnographic work from a range of theoretical frameworks uncovers and analyzes the successes and limitations of music's efficacies i...

Postnational Musical Identities gathers interdisciplinary essays that explore how music audiences and markets are imagined in a globalized scenario, how music reflects and reflects upon new understandings of citizenship beyond the nation-state, and how music works as a site of resistance against globalization."Hybridity," "postnationalism," "transnationalism," "globalization," "diaspora," and similar buzzwords have not only informed scholarly discourse and analysis of music...

Jazz great Gerald Wilson (1918-2014), born in Shelby, Mississippi, left a global legacy of paramount significance through his progressive musical ideas and his orchestra's consistent influence on international jazz. Aided greatly by interviews that bring Wilson's voice to the story, Steven Loza presents a perspective on what the musician and composer called his "jazz pilgrimage."Wilson uniquely adapted Latin influences into his jazz palette, incorporating many Cuban and Brazilian i...