{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.0394114555964267, 'fraction_numerical': 0.013137151865475564, 'mean_word_length': 5.222222222222222, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Music and Conflict . Edited by John Morgan O'Connell and Salwa El-Shawan-Castelo-Branco. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2010. 289 pp. ISBN 9-870-250-7738-8

different positions of power and musicality. On the other hand Hancock, Fellezs claims, was ‘certainly aware of the racialized connotations’ (p. 213) held within his music. Therefore by titling an ‘artfully casual’ hardbop composition ‘Watermelon Man’, with its ‘images of southern black life’, Hancock could consciously explore and manipulate perceptions of race and class. By far the most persistent theme in Birds of Fire is that of the ‘broken middle’. In his introduction, Fellezs suggests that the four musicians form a ‘broken middle’ flowing across, between and through geographic, temporal, cultural, national, ethnic and generic limits. He uses this concept cleverly, suggesting that Tony Williams’ Lifetime found a creative musicality in the ‘broken middle’ between jazz and rock. For John McLaughlin, the negotiation of spirituality and everyday life provided a ‘broken middle’ that influenced his musical aesthetics. Mitchell’s activities in several artistic media (including music, art and poetry) ‘uniquely illuminated fusion’s negotiations in the broken middles between artistic media, as well as musical genres’ (p. 149). Hancock’s phenomenally successful Head Hunters emphasised the broken middles between jazz and funk, as well as between music as art form and music as commercial success. This is an excellent and engaging study of this under-represented musical idiom. My only criticism is that the opening theoretical chapters are underdeveloped, but Fellezs more than rectifies this with the superbly negotiated studies of individual artists. 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.