Emory Cook described his passion for sound as "a way of daydreaming, an escape into the wild blue". As hi-fi took off in the 1950s, Cook recorded everything from steam trains and dog and cat fights to his beloved music of the Caribbean. Cy Grant listens to the recordings, in particular to the vivid sounds of calypso, with the help of Anthony Seeger and Jeff Pace of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, where the archive of Emory Cook's recordings is held.