Stir It Up: Musical Stews from Roots to Jazz by Gene Santoro

Gene Santoro is a fine writer who digs deep to demonstrate how artists’ lives and beliefs have shaped their work.

His subjects here range from Haiti’s Voodoo Rock band Boukman Eksperyans and “Afropop Avatar” Manu Dibango through pop/rock names including Paul Simon and Sting to blues and soul icons including Willie Dixon, Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin.