[j_kao]

For fans of Dilla's music (you may not know the producer, but I'm sure you'll know some of his songs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_Dilla_discography), I'd highly recommend the book Dilla Time.

The author goes into a lot of detail about what swing is, its origins in African music (polyrhythms) and the racial tensions that came from these rhythms, and how it eventually made its way into modern music.

[jjulius]

Can also vouch for this book. I'm about halfway through and I absolutely love it, though I'm biased because I've always had a penchant for anyone or anything that fucks around with musical time. There's a documentary being put together based on the book as well, which I'm really looking forward to.