I am honored to serve as guest editor of this special edition of Glendora Review, devoted to the topic of music in Africa and the African diaspora. My working theme for this issue has been "Black Music: Tradition, Flux, and Transformation," and accordingly, it covers a fairly wide range of historical moments and stylistic cur- rents. It seems appropriate that a volume with such a theme of "flux" is issued from Lagos, a city in which things seem to cohere more according to the centrifugal force of a continuously-spinning metropolis, than according to the force of gravity. A physical meta- phor for the current state of global black culture, as well as home of some of the most vital and vibrant music cultures of the black Black Music world, Lagos is an appropriate launching pad for this missive on black musical forms in transition. The authors here include academic scholars (ethnomusiccflogists, musicologists, anthropolo- gists), journalists, musicians, and music industry professionals. The individual topics range from contemporary forms (Appel, Collins, Osundare, Tradition, Flux, and Transformation Frankel, Tate, Olorunyomi, Veal), to traditional African forms trans- planted and transformed in the diaspora and beyond (Gopinath, Strong, Vincent), to interactions of African music and jazz (Blass, Currie, Pyper), and new approaches to transcription and analysis (Austerlitz). I would like to thank and acknowledge all the contributors for making this an issue we can feel collectively proud of. Ultimately, I hope this collection offers fresh perspectives on the diversity of black musics at the dawn of this new millenium. I have long admired G/endora Review for its willingness to engage with the diversity of black cultural forms, and I would like to acknowledge the Review's publisher Olakunle Tejuoso and editors, Sola Olorunyomi and Akin Adesokan, for their ongoing commitment to a dynamic vision of black culture. Their efforts ensure that in artistic and intellectual spheres, Lagos will remain a crucial cultural interface with the wider world. Michael E. Veal