Miles Davis (1926-1991): Jazz Pioneer: Books

Exhaustively researched, revised edition of Ian Carr's classic biography.

This book is a compilation of everything DownBeat magazine has written about Miles Davis.

The man who has given us some of the most exciting music of the past few decades has now given us a compelling and fascinating autobiography, featuring a concise discography and thirty-two pages of photographs.

John Szwed is Musser Professor of Anthropology, African American Studies, Music, and American Studies at Yale University and author of "Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra."

His friend Robert Reisner observed, "Parker, in the brief span of his life, crowded more living into it than any other human being."

Here are interviews, reviews, commentary & insights into possibly the first truly original & artistically successful voice in saxophone playing since Parker & Young.

The life (1912-1988) and career of Gil Evans paralleled and often foreshadowed the quickly changing world of jazz through the 20th century.

In this new collection of a dozen essays, William Kenney explores the St. Louis jazz scene of Davis's youth; Eugene B. Redmond looks at East St. Louis's cultural history; Ingrid Monson examines Davis and civil rights; and Waldo Martin discusses Davis and his relation to the black avant-garde of the 1960s.

Kind of Blue has sold 7 million copies, making it the best-selling jazz album of all time. Far from being a safe commercial work, Kind of Blue broke new ground by introducing new structures to jazz. Writer Ashley Kahn puts you in the studio and re-creates the studio sessions with documentary detail while providing fresh insights into the music.

The influence of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," consisting of Davis (trumpet), Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone), Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass), and Tony Williams (drums) continues to resonate. Jazz musicians, historians, and critics have celebrated the group for its improvisational communication, openness, and its transitional status between hard bop and the emerging free jazz of the 1960s, creating a synthesis described by one quintet member as "controlled freedom." The book provides a critical analytical study of the Davis quintet studio recordings released between 1965-68, including E.S.P., Miles Smiles, Sorcerer, Nefertiti, Miles in the Sky, and Filles de Kilimanjaro.

Covers the music of the last decade in the life of Miles Davis. With numerous interviews and stories, this book focuses on the music Miles recorded and played, and how it evolved in the eyes of the musicians he played with. It shows how Miles recruited his band members, what it was like working with him in the studio or to play with him on-stage.