Eric Porter is Assistant Professor in the Department of American Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Among the many books on the history of jazz, most document the interpretations of white critics....But now, Eric Porter's brilliant book seeks to trace the ways in which black jazz musicians have made verbal sense of their accomplishments, demonstrating the profound self-awareness of the artists themselves as they engaged in discourse about their enterprise. - Susan McClary, author of Conventional Wisdom: The Content of Musical Form