...what would you do if you were asked to play a rhythm pattern called “78”? You or I could just sit there looking completely befuddled, but a sessions musician would know instantly that he had to play a specific rhythm pattern that became exceedingly popular in 1978! And if 78 isn’t funny enough, how about making sense of “gumboot”! Yes, that’s right. Rhythm players use the term to indicate the specific sound produced on the dholak.
Thomas Jones’s LRB review (6 December 2018; archived) of Brutus: The Noble
Conspirator by Kathryn Tempest has lots of biographical and historical
details, ...