Publishers Weekly Book Review
“Gerber’s deft, energetic examination of Gershwin’s music . . . illuminates the enormous Jewish contribution to the great American musical export, jazz.” — (BookLife) Publishers Weekly
“[H]istoric facts and figures about jazz with a fairly complete survey of its origins in slave songs, spirituals, minstrel shows, and Storyville flesh dens, as well as a chronicle of the rise of New Orleans trumpeter Louis Armstrong.” —(BookLife) Publishers Weekly
“Gerber . . . links the raw power of jazz and the blues to the country’s past of prejudice and racism.” — (BookLife) Publishers Weekly
[Gerber] scores points with his bold commentary about the complicated political and cultural relationships between Jewish and black communities with regard to jazz.” — (BookLife) Publishers Weekly
“Gerber does well with the life of musical genius George Gershwin, a Brooklyn son of Russian Jews who rose from Tin Pan Alley to produce such startling masterpieces as ‘Porgy and Bess’ and ‘Rhapsody in Blue.’” — (BookLife) Publishers Weekly
