Peter Manuel is a professor emeritus of ethnomusicology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the author of eight books, including Tales, Tunes, and Tassa Drums: Retention and Invention in Indo-Caribbean Music.
Comprehensive, rigorous, and accessible--qualities that don't always coincide. This book tackles flamenco history, structure, and culture in a way that is professional and compassionate. Literature on flamenco often undiscerningly presents a jumble of facts, hypothesis, suppositions, stories, and legends; this work masterfully untangles these and even-handedly dissects several polemics. One of the most important contributions to the field. --John Moore, flamenco guitarist