Does the lost ship exist?
ES: The lost ship is our inability to identify ourselves stylistically. American jazz musicians know exactly what their roots are. It’s different here. No one agrees on where our roots are from. Are you going to tell me that Richard Nant’s music is really closely related to tango and traditional South American folkloric music? No. It’s much more difficult to categorize it. EB: So, you’re looking for roots that might not exist? ES: I think this book demystifies the idea that we don’t have roots. They’re all here! There are 150 composers. It’s all categorizable. It’s all logical. This country was formed by immigrants, by creoles, by indigenous peoples, and here, in this book, you see all of that. Tango is here. Folklore is here. Rock is here. And beneath all of the diversity of styles there’s something that unifies them. This book has a lot of material from people who are investigators as much as musicians. EB: Investigators of? ES: Of this, of the music. They’re searching. And every day
