Christopher Small was born in 1927 and grew up in New Zealand. He is a musicologist and author; he studied musicology and subsequently taught music.
He has written compositions for films and ballet. In the early 1960s, he received a scholarship for London, where he studied under South African composers Priaul Rainier and Bernard Rans. His compositions include orchestral pieces and theatre music, as well as works for radio and television. He continued teaching music at various schools in Great Britain before moving to Spain in the 1980s, where he still lives, writes and composes. (His stay there has been interrupted by lectureships at School of Music, University of North Texas (1995) and at the Department of Musicology, University of California in Los Angeles (2001)). Christopher Small has published many works on music and on conveying music to people in diverse teaching environments. His most important works examine Afro-American music's importance to and influence on western culture: Music of the Common Tongue: Survival and Celebration in Afro-American Music (1987); Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening (1998).

Max Annas is a free-lance journalist and editor from Cologne, specialising in music and film. Annas' articles regularly appear in a wide-range of publications, including the Spex music magazine and the Kölner Stadtrevue. He has published several books including his most recent work written together with Martin Baltes "Black Beats - Selbstzeugnisse der ökonomischen, politischen und kulturellen Bewegung schwarzer BürgerInnen, nicht nur in den USA, zur Erlangung von Freiheit und Gerechtigkeit" (2003). He is also active as a filmmaker and together with Dorothee Plass directed "Passe buré! Die Filmemacherin Fanta Régina Nacro" (1996), an award winner at the XII. Black International Cinema Film Awards 1997.