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Baez, Joan: An American political folk singer born in 1941 whose songs focus on non-violence and social change.

bagpipes: An aerophone with one or more drones and a chanter which are all attached to an air reservoir (the "bag") allowing for uninterrupted sound production. The bag is filled continuously either by mouth through a blowpipe or by a set of bellows.

Balfa, Dewey: Famous Cajun fiddler.

ballad: A song genre commemorating important events and memorable individuals usually with a strophic form. Examples include broadsides, the corrido, the English ballad and the Irish ballad.

ballroom dance: Partnered, structured dances which are danced for both recreation and competition. Some of the more common ballroom dances are the Foxtrot, Tango,Waltz , Cha Cha, Rumba, Salsa and Swing.

bandoneûn: A "button accordion, associated with the tango.

banjo: A plucked lute with a long neck, predominately metal strings and a shallow single-headed membranophone as its body.

Bar Mitzvah: The religious ceremony that marks the formal passage of Jewish boys to adulthood at age thirteen.

barrel organ: A small, portable organ with a crank which turns a barrel on which notes are encoded with pins. The turning pins trigger individual pipes to sound. The player of a barrel organ is typically called an organ grinder.

barrio: A Spanish term for an urban district or suburb.

batá: Double-headed membranophones usually played in sets of three (the Iy·, the Itûtole and the Okonkolo) in Santerìa ceremonies.

beat: An individual pulse.

beating tones: Acoustical phenomenon perceived as a shimmering quality when two slightly different pitches are played at the same time.

bellows shaking: An accordion technique which results in an intensified tremolo or vibrato.

Bembè: A traditional Santerìa religious feast.

Bengal: A region of South-Asia that today is divided between Bangladesh and northeastern India.

Berhanu Makonnen: A great Ethiopian musician who is a dabtara, priest and teacher of zema.

bhangra: A dance that has its origins in the Punjab region of north India and Pakistan. Modern bhangra is a tightly choreographed group dance, with pronounced leg and shoulder movements and occasional waving of arms high overhead. Bhangra has become a popular competitive dance in the Asian diaspora.

bhangramuffin: A style developed by singer Apache Indian for his amalgam of bhangra, reggae, hip-hop and Anglo-American pop.

bimusicality: Mantle Hoodís 1960 proposal that scholars be equally proficient in performing the musical traditions they research as they are in their native musical traditions.

biphonic singing: A singing technique of Inner Asian origin where two tones (the fundamental and an emphasized overtone) are made audible simultaneously by a single singer. Also known as harmonic singing. See khoomii.

birl: An onomatopoeic reference to a quick ornamental figure of two adjacent pitches in bagpipe music.

blowpipe: The pipe through which a bagpiper blows to fill the bag which feeds air to the drones and chanter.

bolis: Short solo phrases, traditionally sung without accompaniment at the beginning of punjabi songs.

bombos: Peruvian membranophones.

Boston: A seaport on the coast of Massachusetts founded in 1630.

Br-Asian: The Asian community in Britain.

break-dancing: The dance form which emerged from the hip-hop movement.

broadsides: English and American narrative poems of the 16th to 19th centuries which were printed on one side of a page. They generally addressed contemporary events and personalities. See also English ballad.

Brooklyn: One of the five boroughs of New York City.

buskers: Public street performers who collect donations from passers-by.

button accordion: See bandoneûn.