Join us in the Donald Gordon Theatre for a free talk with legendary producer and record label boss Joe Boyd, who has spent a lifetime travelling the globe and immersing himself in music.

He witnessed first-hand the growing popularity of music from Africa, India, Latin America, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe since the 1960s and was one of the protagonists of the ‘world music’ movement of the 1980s.

In his book And The Roots of Rhythm Remain, Boyd set out to explore the fascinating backstories to these sounds and documents a decade of encounters with the most extraordinary musicians and producers who have altered the course of music for us all.

And the Roots of Rhythm Remain shows how personalities, events and politics in places such as Havana, Lagos, Budapest, Kingston and Rio are as colourful and momentous as anything that took place in New Orleans, Harlem, Laurel Canyon or Liverpool. And, moreover, how jazz, rhythm and blues and rock ‘n’ roll would never have happened if it weren’t for the notes and rhythms emanating from over the horizon.

‘A gift to the world. Blow your mind and your speakers.’ Cerys Matthews

‘I doubt I’ll ever read a better account of the history and sociology of popular music than this one.' Brian Eno

Listen to the And The Roots of Rhythm Remain playlist on Spotify and Apple Music.

Joe Boyd is a record producer and writer, known for his memoir, White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s. Artists he has produced include Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, R.E.M., Fairport Convention, ¡Cubanismo!, Toots and the Maytals, Toumani Diabaté and Taj Mahal among many over the course of a nearly sixty-year career. As a film producer, his credits include the Aretha Franklin documentary Amazing Grace, Scandal, and Jimi Hendrix.