Birds of Fire

“A welcome addition to jazz scholarship, Kevin Fellezs’ Birds of Fire: Jazz, Rock, Funk, and the Creation of Fusion is a well-researched and thought-provoking book on fusion.” - Eunmi Shim, Notes

“Fellezs’s first book, Birds of Fire demonstrates his agile mind and thoughtful approach to critical studies in music, sure to be followed by many more throughout his career. . . . With this book, Fellezs has forged a path for fusion (and other jazz-related music previously dismissed as “simply commercial”) to be discussed with academic rigor.” - Alex Rodriguez, Ethnomusicology Review

“Like all the best writing about music, Fellezs book makes you want to seek out the recordings he writes about I went out and bought the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Birds of Fire after encountering those of Fellezs. If you don’t know the music he writes about yet, you’ll want to soon. Recommended.” - Peter Mills, Volume

“More than a study of one underexplored market niche, Birds of Fire brilliantly illuminates how the market both inhibits and enables creativity, as well as how creative musicians challenge the music industry’s narrowing and naturalizing of complicated, constructed, conflicted, and deeply contradictory social identities.” - George Lipsitz, author of How Racism Takes Place

“What a pleasure it is to read this insightful, exciting, and extremely well listened analysis of fusion music. Kevin Fellezs suggests new ways of understanding the four artists he profiles, develops a productive framework for rethinking fusion, and helps us to understand why artists and audiences were stimulated by this music even as it was dismissed by purists. Birds of Fire is a major contribution to rethinking the place of fusion within jazz studies, as well as broader questions of genre across disciplines.” - Sherrie Tucker, co-editor of Big Ears: Listening for Gender in Jazz Studies

“Birds of Fire (named for the second album by the Mahavishnu Orchestra) is actually a relatively easy read that posits some fascinating theories about how and why fusion developed and why it was embraced by some, castigated by others.” - Andrey Henkin, New York City Jazz Record

“Fellezs offers fascinating biographical detail and the kind of serious critical overview that the music has long deserved. His knowledge is impressive, his perspective thought-provoking, reflected in fascinating historical tidbits and observations. . . . One-of-a-kind, critical reading.” - Ken Micallef, Downbeat

“Fellezs succeeds in being both academic and a fan. He succeeds in bringing these four artists in from the margins while recognising their cross-cultural capital lies in their non-belonging to any mainstream discourse.” - Andy Robson, Jazzwise

"Kevin Fellezs's Birds of Fire gives a detailed history of the fusion movement of the 1960s and 1970s. . . . This is an excellent and engaging study of this under-represented musical idiom. . . . Birds of Fire will appeal to scholars and fans alike, with enough scholarly engagement for the former, and enough biographical and musical detail for the latter.” - Katherine Williams, Popular Music