Though humans have made music for millennia, its been barely a century since we acquired the technology to capture the astonishing variety of sounds we make. This book offers both a panorama of the worlds music and a vivid portrait of the pioneers who traveled the world to collect it, with photographs on almost every page. Musicologist and Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Harts own travels are a part of the story, but here also are trailblazers dating back to 1890.