Griot is defined as a member of a class of traveling poets, musicians, and storytellers who maintain a tradition of oral history in parts of West Africa. It is this very concept that inspired trumpeter, composer, bandleader, and now, author, Jeremy Pelt to seek out generations of amazing Black storytellers of America’s indigenous music, Jazz, to record their stories and bring it to the fore.
In the first volume of Griot: Examining the lives of Jazz’s Great Storytellers, you will read very intimate and candid discussions from Paul West, Warren Smith, Bertha Hope, Dr. Eddie Henderson, Larry Willis, René Marie, Lewis Nash, Wynton Marsalis, Peter Washington, Terri-Lyne Carrington, Justin Robinson, Greg Hutchinson, JD Allen, Robert Glasper, and Ambrose Akinmusire.