Duke University Press

A major academic achievement, Playing for Keeps: Improvisation In The Aftermath is an enlightening examination of different manifestations of improvisation, their transforming possibilities,... — All About Jazz More…

[Readers] will be more than rewarded by the insight it offers into the social aesthetics of improvisation, issues you will no longer be able to ignore as you listen to your next improv recording... — Musicworks More…

Primarily, in the beginning, this is a discourse on-and through-rhythm, on what it means to pause and to repeat, on all t he many shades of the same and its other, of noise and silence. That... — The Wire More…

One reads Christgau for Christgau as much as for the subject of his work." -- Jeff Tamarkin — MOJO More…

Primarily, in the beginning, this is a discourse on-and through-rhythm, on what it means to pause and to repeat, on all t he many shades of the same and its other, of noise and silence. That... — The Wire More…

James is an insightful philosopher and sharp cultural critic drawing comparisons between musical phenomena such as compression and the loudness wars, and the damages wreaked by neoliberal market... — The Wire More…