"Writing about jazz is no easy matter. Its pleasures and its artistry have no precedent in aesthetics. Here's a new American art form of which we have rarely had an adequate description. It is appropriate that a great poet should be the one who finds the words for that experience. Hayden Carruth has written one of the finest books on jazz we have."—Charles Simic

"Sitting In is a book about art, about participation, about the cultures of jazz and poetry: the homage of a white poet and jazz musician to the greatness of the African American gift to the sensibility of this country. But, more than this, it's a book about our extremes—personal and public—a book that defies critical boundaries—a book of passion, conscience, and contradictions. Poets and musicians should read it, students of multiculturalism should read it; all those with hopes for our national future should read it. And keep going back to the music."—Adrienne Rich