Early Response to Sittin’ In
#1 New Release/Jazz Music
Amazon.com
A great book... A story that needs to be told
Sonny Rollins
Vivid and beautiful
Los Angeles Times
An astonishing and revelatory book...It hits all the right notes. And that's saying something
All Music Books
A remarkable alternate history. Sittin' In isn't just worth a read. It's downright necessary
Jazz Times
Unprecidented...explores a seminal period in jazz culture, including how [jazz clubs] broke racial barriers
Jazziz
Big-time props to my brother, Jeff Gold...Sittin' In covers the incredibly important role jazz played in integration, as jazz clubs were among some of the first places that allowed integration during the Jim Crow era, on stages and in the audiences. It was never about the color of your skin...jazz was & is simply about 'Can you play, sucka!' & that's exactly what this book is about!
Quincy Jones
**** [Four Stars]
Mojo
This handsome book looks back not only to the distant years of clubs long gone, but to a seemingly distant time--pre-Covid 19--when we could gather freely with one another, relax, and enjoy the best live music in the land
The Wall Street Journal
Really a treasure and one that makes you ponder the dynamics, the heat and the thrill of a world that will never return and one we might have never entered
Elvis Costello
A vibrant history...beautifully designed...meticulously laid out and researched
AllMusic/The Year's Best Music Books
Fabulous; well thought out, beautifully put together and artfully done with superb taste…a treasure for all who care to know
Herb Alpert
A surprising feast of iconography that doubles as a stealth work of jazz history
Nate Chinen/WBGO (NPR)
What a great book--I'm staggered by the archival material that's been researched. Congratulations. You're making me envious
Bill Wyman (The Rolling Stones)
A beautiful book...highly, highly recommended
Tell Me Everything/SiriuxXM
Absolutely fascinating…a thoroughly entertaining, coherent, visually enticing package
Analog Planet
Sumptious...Gold gets right the camaraderie of the musicians, the atmosphere, the celebratory nature of the club experience, and the Black-white mingling in those tiny temples of music...represents a major step in jazz scholorship
Artsfuse
A swinging book, with amazing interviews and pictures...check it out
Penn Jillette
In a word, exquisite. Meticulously laid out and extensively
researched, it’s a deep dive into this amazing period of American
cultural history
Henry Rollins
A book that has a lot to say...It champions and shines a long overdue light on a golden era of our society...take a closer look and see that the jazz culture was, and is, a powerful spirit of our society
All About Jazz
Without a doubt a MAJOR contribution to jazz history in so many ways…truly a must-have for anyone for whom swing is the thing
Loren Schoenberg, National Jazz Museum in Harlem
Any research project of this depth and breadth deserves celebration…So valuable, and so browsable
Ashley Kahn, Author of Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece and A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album
A terrific book...Highly recommended!
Billy Crystal
A revelation. In these unique images of mid-century jazz
clubs, the camera is turned on the audience—showing the hidden history
of racial integration
Jon Savage, Author of England’s Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock and The Searing Light, the Sun and Everything Else: Joy Division
You definitely feel like you're back in the era when looking at these photos...just fascinating
Press Play with Madeline Brand/KCRW Los Angeles
This marvelous book is a must for anyone interested not only in the history of jazz and American city culture but also for its wondrous design...Take the trip! It just might blow your mind...
Nels Cline/Wilco and The Nels Cline Singers
Book of the year! Easily!
Johan Kugelberg/Author, The Velvet Underground: New York Art and Punk: An Aesthetic