Birds of Fire brings overdue critical attention to fusion, the musical idiom that emerged in the late 1960s and 1970s, as musicians blended elements of jazz, rock, and funk. Fusion never coalesced into a distinct genre; many artists and critics disparaged the music as amorphous and hard to define. Kevin Fellezs contends that fusion's much-derided hybridity was its very reason for being. By mixing different musical and cultural traditions, fusion artists sought to disrupt generic boundaries, cultural hierarchies, and critical assumptions. Fellezs develops his argument through rigorous analysis of the music of four distinctive fusion artists. Interpreting the work of Tony Williams, John McLaughlin, Joni Mitchell, and Herbie Hancock, he explores the challenges that fusion posed to generic conventions and considers the extent to which a musician can be taken seriously as an artist across divergent musical traditions. Fellezs concludes Birds of Fire with a look at the current activities of McLaughlin, Mitchell and Hancock; Williams's final recordings; and the legacy of the fusion made by the four artists in the 1970s.

凱文·費爾利茲（Kevin Fellezs），博士美國哥倫比亞大學音樂係、非裔美國人研究所助理教授，《跨現代性》《金屬音樂研究》和《金屬音樂與文化研究》期刊編委。畢業於美國舊金山州立大學、加利福尼亞大學聖剋魯斯分校。主要研究領域：流行音樂與身份之間的關係，特彆是非洲裔、亞洲裔以及環太平洋島嶼美國社群的關係。他的研究涉獵廣泛，從爵士樂、夏威夷鬆弦吉他、重金屬到日本演歌。曾發錶《奇特的相遇：亞裔美國人與流行文化》（2007）、《重金屬：論戰與反主流文化》（2013）及《創作歌手的劍橋指南》（2016）等論文。

劉研，天津音樂學院音樂學係副教授，科研與研究生處副處長，天津市宣傳文化“五個一批”人纔，美國哥倫比亞大學音樂係訪問學者，中華美學會會員，中國音樂美學學會會員，西方音樂學會會員。畢業於華南師範大學、中央音樂學院，主要研究領域：西方音樂美學、實用主義與身體美學、美國流行音樂。曾發錶論文《瓦格納“整體藝術”觀念的美學研究》《審美經驗的復興——身體實用主義美學與流行音樂》《通過身體思考——理查德·舒斯特曼身體美學及其對音樂研究的啓示》等。