[A] fascinating biography. . . . - Bobbi Booker, Philadelphia Tribune
Ibrahim has cited the loss of information as one legacy of apartheid, and the broader context-filling in those gaps-is also key to the appeal of Muller's meticulously researched book. - Marcus O'Dair, Jazzwise
Muller . . . does a remarkable job in piecing together Benjamin's life, work, and significance within the context of post-apartheid history. - Brian Morton, The Wire
Muller's biography-plus, of and with Sathima Bea Benjamin, is welcome for many reasons; first and foremost because it spotlights a brilliant architect of song who is far less well known than she should be. But Muller goes further. She challenges still dominant androcentric and Amerocentric jazz discourses, offering alternative frameworks that allow us to consider the dynamics of race, class and gender within whose maelstrom Benjamin shaped her sound. - Gwen Ansell, Mail & Guardian
Muller examines Benjamin's experiences with apartheid, her exile from South Africa, and how these experiences helped form her career as a jazz musician. Benjamin's life story is quite colorful, and Muller effectively captures the essence of that story with this call-and-response nature of the presentation and with a writing style that is both engaging and highly descriptive. Recommended. All readers. - D. J. Schmalenberger, Choice
The story of this magnificent South African artist is, by itself, worth the price of admission. To this, Muller adds a rich (and largely unexplored) archive of jazz history and a host of useful theoretical tools, which, presented with stylistic grace and a spirit of ethnographic empathy, will likely make Musical Echoes a landmark in contemporary music scholarship and the contemporary Black Atlantic. - Ryan Thomas Skinner, Research in African Literatures
Musical Echoes not only introduces a very important vocalist, Sathima Bea Benjamin, to audiences who may not know of her. It also makes a great contribution to scholarship on jazz, world music, cultural theory, and the African diaspora. It challenges us to reconsider and revise the nationalist narratives that characterize much writing on jazz, and it provides a new framework for discussing the production, circulation, and transformation of musical cultures.-Farah Jasmine Griffin, author of If You Can't Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday
Sathima Bea Benjamin ought to share company with the likes of Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Betty Carter. . . . [She] never compromis[es] her own musical vision, refusing to either remake herself into an 'American' jazz singer or into what the world imagines to be authentically 'African.' She is who she is, Sathima Bea Benjamin, South Africa's greatest jazz singer and one of the best the world has ever known.-Robin D. G. Kelley, JazzTimes
[A] fascinating biography. . . . -- Bobbi Booker * Philadelphia Tribune *
Ibrahim has cited the loss of information as one legacy of apartheid, and the broader context-filling in those gaps-is also key to the appeal of Muller's meticulously researched book. -- Marcus O'Dair * Jazzwise *
Muller . . . does a remarkable job in piecing together Benjamin's life, work, and significance within the context of post-apartheid history. -- Brian Morton * The Wire *
Muller examines Benjamin's experiences with apartheid, her exile from South Africa, and how these experiences helped form her career as a jazz musician. Benjamin's life story is quite colorful, and Muller effectively captures the essence of that story with this call-and-response nature of the presentation and with a writing style that is both engaging and highly descriptive. Recommended. All readers. -- D. J. Schmalenberger * Choice *
Muller's biography-plus, of and with Sathima Bea Benjamin, is welcome for many reasons; first and foremost because it spotlights a brilliant architect of song who is far less well known than she should be. But Muller goes further. She challenges still dominant androcentric and Amerocentric jazz discourses, offering alternative frameworks that allow us to consider the dynamics of race, class and gender within whose maelstrom Benjamin shaped her sound. -- Gwen Ansell * Mail & Guardian *
