About the Author:
About the Author:
Gene Santoro is music columnist for The Nation and covers music for The New York Daily News. He has written for The Atlantic, The Village Voice, Downbeat, and The New York Times.
Review:
"Entirely readable....Most impressive is the breadth of Santoro's curiosity and the depth of his understanding of modern American musical forms, and his ability to explain the myth and meaning behind it all....Long after a reader finishes these elegant, finely detailed essays, Santoro's
colorful, intimate impressions of the music remain, along with a burning desire to get to the source of it all--the recordings."--The Tampa Tribune
"Santoro's energy, interest in historical influences and metaphoric flair enliven the entire collection."--The Nation
"Santoro is a solidly knowledgeable critic conversant with many diverse areas of contemporary music. Remarkably, he never spreads himself too thin. His book includes cogent reviews of a potpourri of performers; free jazz explorers Orentte Coleman and Sun Ra, country music star k.d. lang, rap
group Public Enemy, and rocker Neil Young are all insightfully profiled."--Booklist
"As readers of The Nation have long known, Gene Santoro maps out his own terrain in American music. He is a specialist at identifying the stylistic fissures and junctions in jazz and its relations at a time when generic boundaries are routinely trampled. Consider just his recurring
examinations of guitarists, a winding path that ties Robert Johnson to Oscar Moore to Eric Clapton to Bill Frisel. Something is happening; Santoro--succinct, candid, and sharp as a surgeon--can tell you what it is."--Gary Giddins, Faces in the Crowd
"Gene Santoro sees the whole picture--about the music, its audience, and the broader social context in which each exists--and he expresses what he sees with insight and eloquence. I learn something about every aspect of that whole, and about my responsibilities as a writer, every time I read
his work."--Bob Blumenthal
"Gene Santoro's eclecticism is never an end in itself or symptomatic of a lack of intellectual commitment. He delights in finding common elements in jazz, pop, blues, country, downtown thrash, and whatever else moves him. As a good critic should, he challenges the categorical aversions of his
readers."--Francis Davis, author of Outcasts and "In the Moment
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