John Storm Roberts book "The Latin Tinge", is a superb book on the history of Latin music. The book is well written and clearly takes the reader through a remarkable journey, showing the evolution and the development of Latin music and its impact on the American music scene. Highly recommended!

This well-researched work is a revelation for anyone interested in the roots of American popular music, be it rock, jazz or pop. A good complement to this book is "The Brazilian Sound," which covers Brazilian music and has additional information on the influence of Brazilian musicians on American music.

The Latin Tinge stands as one of the best books ever (in English) on the American Latin scene. Roberts traces the music through its earliest moments in America, and does a great job describing all the divergent trends and fads within the field of Latin music, and manages to tie them together in a brilliant way that opens up a lot of stuff that we'd never been able to filter through before. If you've ever been looking for a goodbook on Latin music, this is it!

A masterful work by John Storm Roberts, whose early-'70s books on Latin American music were "world music" landmarks, and whose Original Music record label has reissued some of the most precious African and Latin American popular and traditional music one is ever likely to hear. The introductory chapters are a little slow-going, as Roberts twists and gyrates to avoid anticipated critical jabs. His qualifications and defensiveness may make sense to enthnomusicological insiders, but to the average reader, they seem fairly unnecessary, or at least a bit hard to follow. After that, though, the book picks up steam and is quite captivating. The main point of contention is the fascinating (and convincing) idea that *_Latin American_* influences were every bit as present at the inception of American jazz music as were African ones. In Roberts' world, the term "latin jazz" isn't exactly redundant, but it is misleading: Latin Jazz didn't spring forth in the 'Forties and 'Fifties out of whole cloth. Rather, Latin American influences on North American musicians can be found as far back as the Antebellum period, and are present at all the major junctures of jazz history. In addition to combing through historical records (such as newspapers, journals, and the records sheet music publishers), Roberts offers a clear critical narrative of the cross-pollination of Latin American dance music and Afro-European jazz. He touches on the major trends and significant collaborations of the last 120 years: ragtime, the tango, the rumba, the thunderous New York "CuBop" scene of the 1940s, and of course the bossa nova craze of the 1960s, and the gradual formalization of "Latin Jazz" as a genre. Along the way he sheds some light on famous artists such as Machito, Dizzy Gillespie and Tito Puente, as well as dimly-remembered pioneers like Antonio Machin, Don Azpiazu and gives favorable nods towards big banders who "got" the drift of the oncoming tide of Latin American crossover. Along with Sue Steward's "Musica!," this book can go a long way to fill in the gaps for folks who are new to the sound, as well as those who want to dig deep down. Recommended!!

While I can't say I'd recommend this book for a cover-to-cover read, it proved an excellent aid during my research of Latin Jazz this year. First of all, the chapters go in order by year, so you can really feel like you're progressing through time, as jazz evolves before your eyes. Next, it tends to focus on jazz itself, and then go into the big latin stars, their recordings, etc. That's actually one thing I didn't like, and that kept it from being an actual book to read through - it just talked too much about people that I personally knew nothing about. (Also, it would have been nice if the definitions of some of the basic vocabulary had been discussed. If you're into this, you'll probably be fine, but when trying to explain this to the 'typical guy on the street', definitions are helpful.) So, all in all, my recommendation is that if you're looking for actual information on Latin Jazz, this is good. It's just not something I could sit down with for a while.

A masterful work by John Storm Roberts, whose early-'70s books on Latin American music were "world music" landmarks, and whose Original Music record label has reissued some of the most precious African and Latin American popular and traditional music one is ever likely to hear. The introductory chapters are slow-going, as Roberts twists and gyrates to avoid anticipated critical jabs. His qualifications and defensiveness may make sense to enthnomusicological insiders, but to the average reader, they seem fairly unnecessary, or at least a bit hard to follow. After that, though, the book picks up steam and is quite captivating. The main point of contention is the fascinating (and convincing) idea that Latin American influences were every bit as present at the inception of American jazz music as were African ones. In Roberts' world, the term "latin jazz" isn't exactly redundant, but it is misleading: Latin Jazz didn't spring forth in the 'Forties and 'Fifties out of whole cloth. Rather, Latin American influences on North American musicians can be found as far back as the Antebellum period, and are present at all the major junctures of jazz history. In addition to combing through historical records (such as newspapers, journals, and the records sheet music publishers), Roberts offers a clear critical narrative of the cross-pollination of Latin American dance music and Afro-European jazz. He touches on the major trends and significant collaborations of the last 120 years: ragtime, the tango, the rumba, the thunderous New York "CuBop" scene of the 1940s, and of course the Brazilian bossa nova craze of the 1960s, and the gradual formalization of "Latin Jazz" as a genre. Along the way he sheds some light on famous artists such as Machito, Dizzy Gillespie and Tito Puente, as well as dimly-remembered pioneers like Antonio Machin, Don Azpiazu and gives favorable nods towards big banders who "got" the drift of the oncoming tide of Latin American crossover. Along with Sue Steward's "Musica!," this book can go a long way to fill in the gaps for folks who are new to the sound, as well as those who want to dig deep down. Recommended!!

This book is that follows the true Littles story. This is very helpful for those children who need to read small amounts and retain the information for reivews, etc. Our school (a Christian school) promotes this series as one that the children can read not only from an academic standpoint, but also from a interesting perspective for the children.

This particular book also teached the children about weather - effects, results, and what action to take.

I hope all who purchase it for their children enjoy it.

As the author readily admits, his book was rewritten when his subject, Cisco CEO John Chambers, was suddenly presiding over a shrinking, rather than expanding, company. The rewrite shows in the final product.

Robert Slater explains Cisco's fabulous rise well. The key players granted him interviews and seemed happy to discuss the company's glory days in length. The company's subsequent decline beginning in 2000 is not treated as well. I didn't learn nearly as much about Cisco's fall as the book's title would suggest I should have.

After covering business icons such as Jack Welch and George Soros, I wonder if the author was really prepared to take the critical approach necessary to cover the decline of Cisco that John Chambers oversaw.

And as if he felt the need to justify the subject matter, Slater repeatedly mentioned the fact that Cisco was the most valuable company in the world, if only for a second. The reference got annoying.

Overall, anyone who wants insight into the roots and management team at one of the world's most important tech bellwethers should read this book. There are some fascinating revelations here such as how close Cisco came to acquiring hub maker SynOptics Communications in 1993. At the same time, I was disappointed he completely omitted information about Cisco's close M&A relationship with Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital in the late 1990s.

While Slater's ninth chapter about Cisco's dealmaking techniques comes to the conclusion that most of its deals had little or no effect on the company, true M&A junkies might be better off reading Ed Paulson's adulatory book, Inside Cisco, to learn more about the communications equipment maker's aggressive corporate development program.