Progressive Commentary Hour – 11.24.15

Ned Sublette is a musical composer, musician, record producer and musicologist best known for his mastery of Spanish and Cuban music.  He is also a historian and investigative researcher of Americana and regarded as the leading scholar on Cuban music.  Musically, Ned has worked with John Cage, LeMonte Young and other modern contemporary composers and Willie Nelson.   He has degrees from the University of New Mexico and studied at University of California at San Diego. In addition to his books on the history of slavery and the musical culture of Cuba and New Orleans, Ned is co-author with his wife Constance, of the recent “The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave Breeding Industry,” an epic size history of the US through the eyes of American slavery with enormous relevancy today in our cheap-labor economy with workers serving as commodities for the elite.  American Slave Coast took 5 years to research through a residency with Washington Colleges Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience.