Ralph Thomas is an African American ethno musician      

"We play specific musical traditions, both in terms of musical structure, repertory and performance, and in terms of the part music plays in society; on the other hand we consider the principles and methods that may be applied to the study of any music in its cultural setting, and the problems and insights that arise when we compare musics on a worldwide basis. The term ethnomusicology is generally applied to this multifaceted approach to the performance of world music."