Jazzocracy: Jazz, Democracy, and the Creation of a New American Mythology

A first-generation Indian-American, Sehgal grew up in Atlanta and is currently based in San Francisco. He’s that rare jazz bassist with degrees from Dartmouth and the London School of Economics. He has toured with Wynton Marsalis and worked for Senator Max Cleland on the 2004 presidential campaign of John Kerry. And he’s gained admirers in high places: Professor and public intellectual Douglas Brinkley wrote the foreword to Jazzocracy; Jimmy Carter provided a quote for the front cover. In light of the plaudits and the author’s obvious qualifications, the book is surprisingly weak, conceptually and grammatically.