14 days

Notes: This book celebrates over 100 years of photography in the Caribbean. From calypso kings to Vodou priests, revolutionaries to dictators, colonialism to independence, slave trade to tourist paradise - the many uses and abuses of the Caribbean are vividly captured here.

The image of the Caribbean is as much a creation of the outsider as it is the complex identity of its people, a melting pot of races created out of the participants of the 400 year slave trade - enforced Africans, indigenous Caribbeans and their colonisers - French, Spanish, Dutch, English.

From luscious and beautiful backdrop of tourism and hedonist retreat, to colonial outpost and revolutionary threat within North America's backyard, the complex identity of the Caribbean stands at the intersection of tourism, the detritus of the slave trade, the decline of colonialism and the region's tropicality.

The regions politics span an almost constantly changing path of ideas, radicalism and revolutionaries - from Castro's Cuba and Michael Manley's Jamaica, to the violent right-wing dictatorships of Haiti's Francois 'Papa Doc' Duvalier and the Dominican Republic's Rafael Trujillo.

The hundreds of fascinating and unique photographs featured here illustrate more than one hundred years of Caribbean history, culture and industry as well as the subsequent diaspora of its people to America, England, Canada and elsewhere.

Introduction by Paul Gilroy. Edited by Stuart Baker.

Paul Gilroy is the author of There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack: The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation (1987), The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (1993), Black Britain - A Photographic History (2004) amongst others.

Stuart Baker is the editor of a number of photography and design books all of which deal with culture and identity including Punk 45 (with Jon Savage), Dancehall (with Beth Lesser), Kanaval: Vodou, Politics and Revolution on the Streets of Haiti (with Leah Gordon), Voguing (with Chantal Regnault), Bossa Nova, Freedom, Rhythm & Sound (both with Gilles Peterson) and more. He is also the founder of Soul Jazz Records.collection.

Review: Angus Fairbairn may split his time between London and Manchester, but his music as Alabaster dePlume speaks to a kind of old-world romanticism that takes him out of time and place. Affiliated with Total Refreshment Centre, this mightily talented artist unfurls the kind of strikingly fresh twist on jazz we've come to expect from the London-based studios. His saxophone flutters in a most unusual of ways, while around it the mood and mode varies from Americana wooze to African spiritual and on to Middle Eastern mysticism. This is music of the Earth undoubtedly, but it celebrates the ability of distinct cultures to transcend the trappings of terra firma through song.

Review: Angus Fairbairn may split his time between London and Manchester, but his music as Alabaster dePlume speaks to a kind of old-world romanticism that takes him out of time and place. Affiliated with Total Refreshment Centre, this mightily talented artist unfurls the kind of strikingly fresh twist on jazz we've come to expect from the London-based studios. His saxophone flutters in a most unusual of ways, while around it the mood and mode varies from Americana wooze to African spiritual and on to Middle Eastern mysticism. This is music of the Earth undoubtedly, but it celebrates the ability of distinct cultures to transcend the trappings of terra firma through song.

Review: To many this is where Brazilian jazz truly began: 1966, the legendary saxophonist and composer Victor Assis Brasil laid down his debut album at just 21. Still as smoky and sentimental as it was 50 years ago (but sadder knowing his life was cut short by a rare disease just 15 years later), the playful sense of space, rhythm and technique displayed (and a slight freedom from the US and European sounds of the time due to him living in Brazil) are delivered with a rawness, clarity and sense of fun such as the R&B double bass backdrop of "Simplesmente" or the cat and mouse style counterplay between the horns on "Dueto". A touching and ultimately timeless piece of jazz history.

Review: First released back in 1978 on Parachute Records, Randy Brown's debut album "Welcome To My Room" is one of the better lesser-known Philadelphia soul style sets of the disco era. The team behind Expansions Records are certainly fans, because their latest "45" offers up two of the album's most potent tracks. A-side "I'm Always In The Mood" is simply superb, with Brown doing his best Teddy Pendergrass impression atop a heavily orchestrated, dancefloor-friendly backing track. Flipside "Love Is All We Need" is a little deeper but no less sumptuous, sounding a little like Vincent Montana producing "What's Going On" era Marvin Gaye. In a word: essential.

Review: Another jewel for all the deep diggers out there produced by Calvin Arnold aka Billy Byrd - soul and funk singer, guitarist, songwriter and producer from Georgia, USA. "Lost In The Crowd" is a solid funk workout, featuring an intense rhythm and a powerful vocal. On the flip, there is a more chilled-out soul jam titled "Silly Kind Of Love" for the connoisseurs out there. Reissued due to public demand here on a nice great-sounding 45" by Vienna's always reliable Record Shack.

Review: During the 1960s and '70s, there were few greater exponents of "Forro" - a North-Eastern Brazilian style with some similarities to traditional styles of Colombian dance music - than Camarao. The talented accordionist, composer and band-leader recorded a string of fine albums between 1964 and '74, and it's tracks from these that make up The Imaginary Soundtrack to a Brazilian Western Movie, Analog Africa's fine retrospective of the Camarao's work. Musically, it's a blast - a real melting pot of jaunty, grab-a-partner styles and sounds, rich in memorable horn lines, dazzling solos and fast-past accordion motifs - while the accompanying 12-page, LP-sized booklet tells the Accordionist's story in impressive detail.

Review: One of the leading cuts from Tramps' Moments Vol 9 collection, Connie Kaye Trio's super rare "Woman" playfully riffs on Peggy Lee's "Fever" riff but comes with a completely subverted message and mood behind the lyrics and a powerful northern soul stomp. Strident, striking and full of drive, this special 45 release has been long overdue. Catch it while you can.