Meticulously researched...
Just Jazz
For anyone with an interest in Paul Whiteman, this book must surely be an essential purchase.
New Orleans Music
...a long overdue biography of a long-maligned and neglected icon whose influence and generosity gave us so many of the musicians and singers we revere today....
Bing
Rayno has written the definitive Whiteman biography....The book, which took nearly twenty years to write, is an exhaustive study of the man and his music....It is a most interesting book to read and a valuable reference for anyone interested in the music of that era. I look forward to reading volume two.
The Potomac River Jazz Club
Though Rayno writes in the homemade prose style and with the uncritical enthusiasm of the hobbyist, there is nothing amateurish about his meticulous scholarship, and the facts he has so painstakingly assembled have cleared the way for a fully informed reconsideration of Whiteman's place in American music.
Terry Teachout
Spirituality and Practice
Rayno describes [this book] as "a vigorous attempt to set the record straight." The attempt is unarguably successful.
Mississippi Rag
This is a wonderful book and not just for a read - it's a very useful reference work, too…Writers and researchers will turn to it often.
Jazz Journal International
From any perspective, [this book] is an astonishing achievement…A wonderful value and a must for all those with an interest in 1920s popular music.
Jazz Rag
The most complete story of Whiteman and music that ranged from syncopated dance tunes to concert styled compositions...herculean.
Radiogram
Unsurpassed…Rayno has gone to extraordinary lengths to build the fullest possible picture of Whiteman and his band and the results are astonishing…the real clincher is the biographical sketches of virtually everyone ever associated with Whiteman, from musicians to politicians to bootleggers to film directors to night club owners. This is an absolute goldmine of information for anyone with a serious interest in the musical scene of the period…a monumental achievement.
VJM's Jazz and Blues Mart
...a most interesting book to read and a valuable reference for anyone interested in the music of that era.
Black Athlete Sports Network
Rayno has done painstaking research on Paul Whiteman over a twenty-year period....This book documents the contributions Whiteman made in educating the public about this unique American musical art form.
The Escambia Sun-Press, Llc
Rayno's big book is daunting. Its collection of data amazes and confounds, its discography is important, and Youngren's opening essay is terrific and brief.
Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association
Very readable and remarkably detailed.
L.A. Jazz Scene
A researcher's dream, to be sure, but it is also readable on many levels…Rayno's treatise is clearly a labor of love and is the definitive musical biography of Paul Whiteman. Majestic and thorough, it deserves a place in any library of popular music.
Steven Lowery Rayno's book sheds much-needed light on a misunderstood figure in American music and provides a detailed picture of Whiteman's many facets.
John Edward Hasse, Curator of American Music, Smithsonian Institution Here finally is a remarkably accurate, equable, and impeccably researched assessment of the life and achievements of Paul Whiteman, for many decades the most maligned figure in jazz history. Bravo to Don Rayno for sorting out reality from myth, fact from fiction.
Gunther Schuller, Composer and jazz historian Exhaustively researched for nearly two decades, the definitive Paul Whiteman study has supplanted fiction with fact and wild surmise with sober reason.
Norman P. Gentieu, long-time jazz historian