Ray Allen has spent more than thirty years studying the distinctive musical cultures of New York City, publishing books on a range of topics, including African American gospel quartets, old-time string band music, and the life and work of composer Ruth Crawford Seeger. In Jump Up!, Allen focuses on the transnational network of musicians and other artists who move between the Caribbean islands of their birth and the New York neighborhoods of Harlem and Brooklyn. The book's nine chapters are meticulously researched, tracing the history of Trinidadian music in New York City from the first recordings of West Indian dance orchestras in the 1920s to the present-day Brooklyn Carnival. Allen argues that Carnival and its musical expressions have fostered a sense of pan-Caribbean identity among New Yorkers from Trinidad and islands with similar Carnival traditions. Highlighting the ongoing dialogue and interaction between West Indian cultural creators and the neighboring African American and transmigrant communities (33), he demonstrates that while calypso music initially appealed to New York's downtown folk music scene, it later absorbed influences from jazz and Latin dance music (38).This book provides a fascinating discussion of calypso recordings, calypso stage shows, Carnival celebrations, and the artists who created them. The book calls attention to the pioneering work of bandleader Gerald Clark, analyzing the different shows he created for his primarily African American audience in Harlem and the white intellectuals who attended his shows at the Village Vanguard. Early chapters discuss many significant calypsonians and bandleaders such as Wilmoth Houdini and Lord Invader, and the author also underscores Alan Lomax's work in assisting them to preserve and promote their cultural heritage.Allen then moves the discussion to Brooklyn, which saw a dramatic increase of migrants from the Caribbean due to the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965. What began as block parties became full-scale Carnival parades and competitions. Allen offers comprehensive analyses of the development of these celebrations, again connecting them to the larger culture of New York City and its vernacular music. He argues effectively that the city was for many decades a major center for the recording and distribution of calypso and soca. He chronicles the efforts of key figures such as Rawlston Charles (Charlie's Records) and Granville Straker (Straker's Records) and the transmigration of musical artists as they record their selections for the Carnival season. Many famous calypsonians are discussed at length, including detailed analyses of important recordings. Included are the contributions of Lord Kitchener, the Mighty Sparrow, Lord Nelson, the Mighty Chalkdust, Shadow, Black Stalin, Lord Shorty, David Rudder, and Calypso Rose. More significantly, Allen provides detailed discussions of the role of bandleaders, arrangers, session musicians, engineers, producers, entrepreneurs, and their record labels. These include Ed Watson, Leston Paul, Art de Coteau, Ronnie McIntosh, and others. Allen thus builds upon the work of Jocelyne Guilbault (e.g., Governing Sound [2007]), who also focuses on the many creative artists involved in the production and performance of Trinidadian popular music. Allen spends much less time on song lyrics than other writers on Caribbean music, and his musicological analyses are very insightful.Jump Up! also documents the birth of Caribbean Carnival in the city, first in Harlem and then in Brooklyn. Chapter 5, in particular, documents the Brooklyn steelband movement, including the roles of Ellie Mannette, Murray Narell, Cliff Alexis, and Pete Seeger. Allen surveys the contributions of different steelbands and how the conventions of arranging for steelbands developed over a fifty-year period. This includes the revival of a J'Ouvert—traditionally the “opening day” of Carnival festivities—in which Brooklyn steelbands played a crucial role.This is a timely volume that documents music scenes that have shaped the experiences of New Yorkers for generations. Allen consulted an astonishing variety of informants, including journalists, musicians, and ordinary fans, in addition to primary sources, and he conducted more than fifty interviews with Carnival creators. The result is a richly detailed work that is engaging and accessible to a wide audience of researchers, students, and aficionados of Caribbean culture and its place in the larger world of American vernacular music. Allen effectively demonstrates the key importance of music and dance in maintaining Caribbean identity in New York City while documenting the nearly one hundred-year history of this cultural production of calypso, soca, steel pan, and related forms. For ethnomusicologists and other music scholars, the analyses of significant musical works are especially useful.Readers hoping for a discussion of contemporary soca may be disappointed to find that Allen's discussion of the genre does not go past the 1990s, when soca production in New York waned. Allen missed an opportunity to consider twenty-first-century Trinidadian Carnival music. The rapid spread of social media, the rise of streaming services, and the increasing affordability of equipment to produce and engineer sound recordings, which enables artists to self-determine musical distribution, has dramatically shifted the music industry model. This is evidenced by the careers of artists such as Kes the Band and Nailah Blackman, to name a few. Allen does mention the role of YouTube in sharing Carnival music of various eras between fans and scholars and provides helpful links to the songs discussed in the text. In general, Allen has written an informative and engaging text that fills gaps in our knowledge of the development, structure, and arrangement of Carnival music. It makes a valuable contribution to Caribbean music studies.