Intimate Distance: Andean Music in Japan

Although there are excellent studies of the indigenous music of the Andes, few scholars have traced the circulation of these performance traditions beyond the rural and urban Latin American scenes where they resonate. In her far-reaching ethnography, Intimate Distance, Michelle Bigenho considers how and why the music of indigenous Bolivians is meaningful for mestizo Bolivian musicians who tour Japan and for the Japanese consumers and producers to whom they market their redeployment of “someone else’s music” (2). A project that grew out of several years of fieldwork in Japan and Bolivia, which included a three-month tour of Japan in 2002 as violinist for the mestizo Bolivian music group Música de Maestros, Bigenho’s ethnography offers a rich cross section of perspectives from ninety-four informants as well as fascinating descriptions of her experiences in the field and on the stage. Black-and-white photographs, scattered throughout the book, document her encounters with musicians...