The colonization of Africa, Asia and Latin America was carried out to the music of horns and the beating of drums. Brass bands marched in the footsteps of soldiers and missionaries; all over the world music was a weapon for impressing the natives with the military, religious and cultural superiority of European civilization. Local musicians soon discovered that brass lent itself to something more than just playing Western marches, songs and hymns. In the most distant corners of the world, brass bands were appropriated as dance orchestras, wedding bands and funeral ensembles that adapted to local musical traditions. Rob Boonzajer Flaes is an anthropologist at the University of Amsterdam. In "Brass Unbound" he describes through photographs and eyewitness accounts, the legacy and transformation of nineteenth century bands into African highlight music, Indian and Nepalese band parties, Suranamese winti bands, and the zinc orchestras of the Minahasa. The books includes a CD.