Review in The Journal of Cold War Studies (MIT Press), Summer 2020:
“Helma Kaldewey has crafted a comprehensive study of how the German Democratic Republic learned to stop worrying and love the genre [of jazz]. A People’s Music captures the fascinating, complex, and at times delightfully absurd features of Cold War tension in the sphere of popular music. … An outstanding strength of the study is its analytical vantage point: Kaldewey’s work conceptualizes jazz less as an asset of Western diplomacy and more as a cultural phenomenon that garnered East German audiences before the genre was even founded. … In the competitive market for books on Western popular music in East-bloc countries, this jazz study is hot and cool all at once.” –Sven Kube
Review in Samples, publication of the German Society for Popular Music Studies, Vol. 18, December 2020:
“A People’s Music aims for the daunting task of presenting a full and comprehensive historical depiction of jazz in the former socialist East Germany. … until now, there was no extensive monograph in English exclusively devoted to jazz in the former GDR. … In identifying and contextualizing the efficacy of cultural ideologies, cultural institutions, mass organizations, and overall Cold War diplomacies, new insights into why and how jazz came to be included into the GDR’s cultural canon are discussed in the book. In these aspects, in my view, A People’s Music does excel.
…Kaldewey’s historical work contributes valuable insights into the academic knowledge and discourses in the field of historical jazz research. She is providing a vast amount of new sources and rendering the topic of jazz under state socialism more accessible for international audiences, especially since research on jazz in the former GDR was mainly written in German — until now.” –Martin Breternitz
Review in German Studies Review 43/3, 2020:
“Eine deutsche Übersetzung wäre wünschenswert und könnte einer weiteren Erforschung der Jazzszene in der DDR Vorschub leisten.”
“A German translation [of A People’s Music] would be desirable and could deepen our understanding of the GDR jazz scene.” –Wolfram Knauer
Article on fifteen eightyfour: Academic Perspectives from Cambridge University Press, March 2020
Review in Central European History, 54/2, 2021:
“One of the most intriguing and noteworthy aspects of Kaldwey’s study are the oral interviews she conducted with members of the East German jazz scene as well as the inclusion of their recollections and photographs in her book. Konrad Bauer, Karlheinz Drechsel, Bert Noglik, Werner Sellhorn, and many others are prominently discussed. This deeply personal approach enlivens many sections of the study…
Kaldewey’s research is innovative, exploring a diverse range of historical methods and sources, including oral interviews as well as personal photographs. This latter aspect in particular gives her study a personal and intimate quality and sheds important new light on less familiar aspects of cultural life in former East Germany. The book’s breadth and detailed analysis of jazz music and criticism within the context of the broader political and social development in the GDR add a fascinating new perspective to the exploration of the inner workings of East Germany’s political and cultural life. For all these reasons, Kaldewey’s book provides a very important addition to our understanding of the complexity of this era and East German history in general.” –Gerd Horten
Review in German History, 39/2 (2021):
“With more than 100 years of development to look back on — outside, but also inside the German-speaking world — jazz continues to incite scholarly investigation as one of the most important musical, political, and cultural expressions of the twentieth century. Helma Kaldewey’s A People’s Music builds on this long tradition to offer a sweeping, yet detail-rich overview of the cultural politics of jazz in German Democratic Republic (GDR) … Kaldewey’s work demonstrates how jazz functioned as a consistent, if also volatile political symbol and practice of East German culture and society from 1949 to 1990. …
A People’s Music makes a number of important contributions to our understanding of jazz in German cultural history and politics. It shows definitively the continuous significance of jazz and jazz history to East Germany … it reveals the music’s significance, relevance and value for understanding twentieth-century Germany.” –Jonathan Wipplinger