Roy Cape is a Trinidadian saxophonist active as a band musician for more than fifty years and as a bandleader for more than thirty. He is known throughout the islands and the Caribbean diasporas in North America and Europe. Part ethnography, part biography, and part Caribbean music history, Roy Cape is about the making of reputation and circulation, and about the meaning of labor and work ethics. An experiment in storytelling, it joins Roy's voice with that of ethnomusicologist Jocelyne Guilbault. The idea for the book emerged from an exchange they had while discussing Roy's journey as a performer and bandleader. In conversation, they began experimenting with voice, with who takes the lead, who says what, when, to whom, and why. Their book reflects that dynamic, combining first-person narrative, dialogue, and the polyphony of Roy's bandmates' voices. Listening to recordings and looking at old photographs elicited more recollections, which allowed Roy to expand on recurring themes and motifs. This congenial, candid book offers different ways of knowing Roy's labor of love—his sound and work through sound, his reputation and circulation as a renowned musician and bandleader in the world.

本書は、トリニダード・トバゴの伝説的奏者ロイ・ケープの半生を、単なる自伝の枠を超えて描き出した希有な一冊です。民族音楽学者との対話から生まれた構成は、複数の声が重なり合うポリフォニーの調べを奏でます。音楽を「労働」と捉え、半世紀に及ぶ献身の裏にある職人美学をテキストで追体験できる点に、本作の文学的な真髄が宿っています。 ページをめくるごとに、カリブ海音楽の熱狂を支える崇高な仕事術が浮き彫りになります。記憶の断片がロイの肉声と混ざり合い、読者を未知なる音楽史の深淵へと誘うでしょう。成功の裏にある泥臭い努力と、積み上げられた信頼の軌跡。その魂の響きに触れるとき、あなたの人生観をも揺さぶる情熱が、確かな重みを持って届くはずです。