In the summer of 1974, under the auspices of the Columbia University School of International Affairs' Latin American Institute, he conducted fieldwork in Jamaica, researching the roots of reggae, and authored an ethnography about the social networks of the Jamaican musical community, later publishing a seminal article in Sing Out!
[2] Kaslow is credited with co-producing and playing on the seminal album of Longhair's career,[3] Crawfish Fiesta, which also featured Mac Rebbenack, aka Dr. John on guitar, and which was awarded the WC Handy Contemporary Blues Album of the Year in 1980.
In 1991, along with fellow anthropologist Claude Jacobs, Kaslow authored The Spiritual Churches of New Orleans: Origins, Beliefs, and Rituals of an African-American Religion published by The University of Tennessee Press.
[5] In the book Jacobs and Kaslow provide historical background on the formative years of the spiritual churches of New Orleans, using newspaper articles from the African-American Louisiana Weekly, as well as interviews with early church leaders conducted by fieldworkers from the Louisiana Writers' Project under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration.
In addition to regular worship services, they described baptisms, Holy communion, ordination of ministers and consecration of bishops, and feasts in honor of various saints, the Old Testament Queen Esther, and Black Hawk.