"This is a fresh and original analysis of the context of the birth of jazz. In addition to offering a new and intellectually stimulating interpretation of the role of race, politics, and social class in the music’s origins, Hersch is the first in over a generation to delve deeply into the racial aspects of the lives and work of the earliest jazz musicians in New Orleans."—William Howland Kenney, author of Jazz on the River
(William Howland Kenney )
“Subversive Sounds underscores the importance of thinking in subtle, complex, and nuanced ways about the relationship between jazz and race. Engagingly written and cleverly framed, Hersch''s work displays ample skill and vision while showing us how profoundly race mattered in early New Orleans jazz. This valuable and important book belongs on the top shelf of new jazz studies.”—John Gennari, author of Blowin’ Hot and Cool: Jazz and Its Critics
(John Gennari )
“Subversive Sounds is as thoroughly researched as it is groundbreaking. In his study of New Orleans jazz, Charles Hersch is scrupulously sensitive to the music, but he has also surveyed the birthplace of jazz with the keen eye of a social historian. I was especially impressed by his willingness to consider the role of white players—as well as black and Creole musicians—in the racial politics of early jazz.”—Krin Gabbard, author of Jammin’ at the Margins: Jazz and American Cinema
(Krin Gabbard )
"A provocative new history. . . . Hersch illuminates how musicians of color drew from realities that few white people experienced in forging a form of dance music for people of both races. In that sense, Subversive Sounds is more than timely. . . . Tapping oral histories from the Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane, Hersch orchestrates voices of musicians on both sides of the racial divide in underscoring how porous the music made the boundaries of race and class. He writes, too, with an edgy sense of how music functioned."—Times-Picayune
(Jason Berry
Times-Picayune )
"An important contribution to the social history of New Orleans and jazz."—Choice
(
Choice )
"This well-documented history contributes to the dialog on the role of race in the origins of jazz."--Library Journal
(
Library Journal )
"[Hersch''s] argument is convincing, his writing engaging, and his musical analyses compelling and seductive."--Perspectives on Politics
(
Perspectives on Politics )
"A novel discussion of a surprisingly neglected issue, whose suggestions are well worth pondering."
(Andy Hamilton
The Wire )
"Hersch has the grasp of time and place that is the hallmark of all the most worthwhile historians. He has brought that to bear effectively here, and the results are illuminating for anyone wanting to understand how this music called jazz came to be."
(Nic Jones
All about Jazz )
"Exhaustive research informs [the author''s] tightly orchestrated analysis of musical performances and deft portraits of individual musicians, which stand out amid the richly textured descriptions of New Orleans life."
(Iain Anderson
American Historical Review )
