Paul Berliner is an important twentieth century ethnomusicologist, best known for specializing in African Music as well as Jazz and other improvizational systems. He is best known for his popular ethnomusicology book on the Zimbabwean mbira, The Soul of Mbira: music and traditions of the Shona people of Zimbabwe, for which he received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. He also published Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation for which he received The Society of Ethnomusicology's Alan Merriam Prize for Outstanding Book in Musicology. Dr. Berliner received his Ph.D. from Wesleyan. Jazz is an original American musical art form originating around the early 1920s in New Orleans, rooted in Western music technique and theory, and is marked by the profound cultural contributions of African Americans. ... Mbira Dzavadzimu in deze (top), Mbira Nyunga Nyunga (bottom), Hosho (bottom left). ... The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) is an organization known as a collecting society that protects intellectual property, ensuring that music which is broadcast, commercially recorded, or otherwise used for profit, pays a fee to compensate the creators of that music. ...

Berliner is a Professor of Ethnomusicology at the Music Department at the John Hope Franklin Center for International and Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke University, as well as the School of Music of Northwestern University. He has recorded and produced albums of Shona mbira music, and has been recorded as a performer with Paul Winter Consort. Ethnomusicology (from the Greek ethnos = nation and mousike = music), formerly comparative musicology, is the study of music in its cultural context, cultural musicology. ... Duke Chapel Duke University is a private, coeducational, research university located in Durham, North Carolina, USA. Although founded in 1924, Duke traces its roots back to 1838. ... Northwestern University is a private, coeducational, non-sectarian university, located in Evanston, Illinois and Chicago, Illinois. ... Shona music is the music of the Shona language speaking people of Zimbabwe. ... Mbira Dzavadzimu in deze (top), Mbira Nyunga Nyunga (bottom), Hosho (bottom left). ... Paul Winter Consort is an American musical group led by the soprano saxophonist Paul Winter. ...

Recordings

performer

• Common Ground by Paul Winter The opening track, "Ancient Voices," is a collaboration with Dr. Berliner and is based on the Shona mbira song Nhemamusasa. (Link to Amazon.com)

producer/recorder Shona music is the music of the Shona language speaking people of Zimbabwe. ... Mbira Dzavadzimu in deze (top), Mbira Nyunga Nyunga (bottom), Hosho (bottom left). ...

• Explorer Series: Zimbabwe - The Soul of Mbira Nonesuch (1973, 2002) (Link to Amazon.com)
• Explorer Series: Zimbabwe - Shona Mbira Music (1977, 2002) (Link to Amazon.com)

Publications

• Berliner, Paul. (1978). The Soul of Mbira: music and traditions of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. Berkeley : University of California Press.
• Berliner, Paul. (1994). Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Link to Amazon.com)

External links

• Interview article at Afropop.org
• Northwestern University Faculty Page
• Duke University Article

See also

• [[Ethnomusicology]
• Hugh Tracey
• Mbira
• Music of Africa
• Music of Zimbabwe
• Shona music