In 1962, as many Caribbean islands threw off the yoke of colonial rule, ethnomusicologist-folklorist Alan Lomax boarded a plane for the Caribbean, hauling a tape recorder and a pair of three-foot-high loudspeakers. His plan: to travel through the Lesser Antilles, the chain of islands on the southeastern edge of the Caribbean sea, and record in the field the music, rituals, and dance that survived the Middle Passage from freedom to slavery, as well as the Creole hybrids that resulted from the interactions between slave and master. He would then play those sounds back to their delighted makers and capture their reactions. When he returned, he brought back even more than volumes of musical treasures that would otherwise have been lost. These recordings, released in a series of crisply remastered, state-of-the art CDs, are testaments of survival, of the stubbornness of human faith. Caribbean Sampler (which offers an overview of the entire series) tracks Lomax's travels through Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Carriacou, St. Lucia, St. Barthelemy, Anguilla, Trinidad, and Nevis, where he captured the instruments and voices of both the achingly young and touchingly old. Also featuring Lomax's astute questions and the makers' articulate explanations, this series is "edutainment" at its most enlightening. The music is utterly delightful; the presentation priceless, and altogether it eloquently affirms the lines by reggae avatar Bob Marley, "One good thing about music / When it hits / You feel no pain." --Elena Oumano