A unique, insider perspective on race relations in a great American music

Reva Marin is the author of Oscar: The Life and Music of Oscar Peterson, a finalist for the 2004 Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction, and “Representations of Identity in Jewish Jazz Autobiography,” published in the Canadian Review of American Studies.

Reva Marin's profile page

Outside and Inside provides a fascinating and long-overdue look at the role of white jazz musicians through the lens of their autobiographies. Marin explores the relationships of these musicians to African American culture as well as to their own white ethnicities with subtlety and insight. This book is essential and richly enjoyable reading for all those interested in the complex role of race and ethnicity in jazz.

Charles Hersch, author of Jews and Jazz: Improvising Ethnicity

I cannot imagine a more balanced and nuanced approach to the highly vexed issues around jazz, race, and sexuality. Reva Marin has taken on a deeply problematic subject and opened it up brilliantly.

Krin Gabbard, author of Better Git It in Your Soul: An Interpretive Biography of Charles Mingus

In Outside and Inside Reva Marin brings gender squarely and skillfully into the jazz autobiography discourse. The sampling of male jazz autobiographies selected for analysis is judicious, reflecting a range of behaviors related to race and ethnicity. Highly recommended.

Bruce Boyd Raeburn, curator emeritus, Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University, and author of New Orleans Style and The Writing of American Jazz History

Marin's text is enhanced with excellent photographs and notes, a bibliography of works cited, and a helpful index. Her well-written and well-argued study is accessible to all and is highly recommended to libraries of all types.

Musical Research Services Quarterly