"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

"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."

Jason Berry | Times-Picayune

"An important contribution to the social history of New Orleans and jazz."

Choice

"This well-documented history contributes to the dialog on the role of race in the origins of jazz."

Library Journal

"A significant contribution to our understanding of the longstanding--but understudied--relationship between music and politics. . . . Hersch’s] argument is convincing, his writing engaging, and his musical analyses compelling and seductive."

Perspectives on Politics

"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