The Soul of Black Peru.

• Author: Holston, Mark

Until the release of this compilation, the music of Peru's small Afro-Peruvian community remained all but unknown outside of that South American nation. Indeed, it has been the indigenous-based folk music from that country's Andean highlands that had come to define Peruvian music to the world-at-large.

The Soul of Black Peru documents the emergence and maturity of a style that began to move out of the shadows and into the spotlight in Peru in the 1960s and 1970s after centuries of a closeted existence. The flourishing of black cultural awareness internationally and an emphasis on nationalistic expression in Peru served to give this long-neglected music a certain cachet among the country's intellectual community and led to a flurry of public performances, new writing, and recording activity.

Credit pop music innovator David Byrne for making this unusual program available to an international audience. The singer/songwriter has in recent years used his star appeal to bring attention to several compilations of Cuban and Brazilian music, but his Peruvian foray is the most rewarding yet.

While Afro-Peruvian music...