âShuttling back and forth between, on the one hand, critical description and analysis and, on the other, a fanâs sheer pleasure, Aldon Nielsenâs nail-hard, rhapsodic tribute
The Inside Songs of Amiri Baraka fills a crucial gap in the literature, analyzing the various album and digital recordings Baraka made in the settings of half a century of black music, from bebop to hip hop. Itâs always hard to write about music, but in this book Nielsenâs affective sensibilities as a fan complement the critical rigor.â (
Tyrone Williams, Professor of English, Xavier University, USA, and author of
Adventure of Pi (2011))