"Jazz Modernism uses definitive examples of early to mid-twentieth-century literary art to establish the place of classic jazz in the great modernist tradition of the arts... Brilliant licks of artistic syncopation, insight, and delightful humour." Bernadette Murphy, Los Angeles Times; "A piquant, playful book that scrambles and quickens the senses by showing the parallels between key jazz influences and their literary contemporaries." Christian Science Monitor; "Appel has a great good time sharing his stories and his joy is contagious." William P. Kelly, New York Times; "Rarely if ever has a nonmusician written about jazz so intelligently as does Appel in Jazz Modernism, and rarely has any musically trained critic brought to the study of jazz so wide a frame of cultural reference... He has certainly made a compelling case for treating what one might call 'Armstrong-era' jazz as a species of modern music." Terry Teachout, Commentary"
