Three Shades of Blue

[Brad]

I see there is a new book coming out about Miles, Coltrane and Evans. The only review I can find is in the Wall Street Journal by Gerald Early but since I don’t subscribe to the WSJ, I can’t read it.

Here’s the blurb from the publisher, Random House, Three Shades of Blue

[JSngry]

First reaction:

 

Maybe there will be some new insight. Anything's possible.

[gvopedz]

Here's an excerpt from the book:

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a46871755/james-kaplan-miles-davis-3-shades-of-blue-excerpt/

 

[Brad]

24 minutes ago, gvopedz said:

Here's an excerpt from the book:

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a46871755/james-kaplan-miles-davis-3-shades-of-blue-excerpt/

 

Thanks. 

[Guy Berger]

8 hours ago, JSngry said:

First reaction:

 

Maybe there will be some new insight. Anything's possible.

Not interested in this book, but definitely interested in more Unicorse content

[JSngry]

There's some to be had, for sure! 

[felser]

I like and own this book by Ashley Kahn, have no need for the current book being discussed:

[Brad]

8 hours ago, felser said:

I like and own this book by Ashley Kahn, have no need for the current book being discussed:

That’s the problem this book is going to have. 

[gvopedz]

I would distinguish between buying the book and reading the book.  I will not buy it - but if I find it in a library, sure, I'll at least start reading it and see how it goes.

[medjuck]

There's also this:  

Blue Moment: Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and the Remaking of Modern Music

[felser]

5 hours ago, medjuck said:

There's also this:  

Blue Moment: Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and the Remaking of Modern Music

How good is it?

[medjuck]

2 hours ago, felser said:

How good is it?

I read it a long time ago. IIRC (and I often don't) it connects KOB to many other movements in the arts. I liked it.  BTW I really liked the first chapter of the new book which was quoted above.   Even though I've claimed I'm not going to buy any more books about either Miles or Dylan (I am  still buying nearly everything about Ellington) I'll probably get this book.  KOB has a special place in my heart. I got it from the Columbia Record Club when it was first issued and I thought that if this was jazz, I loved jazz. 

Edited March 4 by medjuck

[Face of the Bass]

Between this and the upcoming Michael Veal book, somebody needs to alert the publishing industry that we don't need more books on Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Give me a book on Andrew Hill and Eric Dolphy. 

[JSngry]

Just now, Face of the Bass said:

Between this and the upcoming Michael Veal book, somebody needs to alert the publishing industry that we don't need more books on Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

Or 1959, period. 

[felser]

Give me a book on Charles Tolliver and Stanley Cowell and Strata-East, and a book on Lloyd McNeill.

Edited March 7 by felser

[mjazzg]

8 hours ago, felser said:

Give me a book on Charles Tolliver and Stanley Cowell and Strata-East, and a book on Lloyd McNeill.

Can't you write them? 😃 I'd be first in the queue for both

[Face of the Bass]

In all seriousness, anybody think the world needs an Andrew Hill biography? I think among all but diehard jazz fans his name and work don't resonate as much as they should. 

Edited March 7 by Face of the Bass

[Stompin at the Savoy]

I will probably buy the kindle edition someday when it drops to $2.99.  The sample seems like it is well written but the subject matter is so familiar...

The book is now the number one best seller in jazz music on Amazon. (scratches head).

Edited March 7 by Stompin at the Savoy

[JSngry]

I think Hill probably had an interesting life that a good researcher/writer could illuminate.

I mean, what did he do when he wasn't in a studio making records? I have a down beat interview where he says he's been doing concerts in the field for the Smithsonian(?). Hmmm...tell me more? 

There's a story there, I'm sure. But it would to be written as such, not a dry replication of data. 

[relyles]

I know a writer that has started doing research in order to write a Andrew Hill biography.

[Face of the Bass]

3 hours ago, relyles said:

I know a writer that has started doing research in order to write a Andrew Hill biography.

I hope he's able to do it! Biographies are hard, but jazz I would argue is really suffering from good biographies outside the obvious ones (Coltrane, Davis, Armstrong, Ellington, Holiday, etc.) It was great to see the Sonny Rollins bio that came out not so long ago, and the Thelonious Monk bio that Kelley wrote is fantastic. Jazz needs much more of that kind of thing. More books on Davis and Coltrane ain't it. 

[felser]

14 hours ago, mjazzg said:

Can't you write them? 😃 I'd be first in the queue for both

I wish I had the requisite time and talent!  McNeill had an utterly fascinating life, studying art with Picasso, designing a USPD postage stamp for Kwaanza, and being a quite celebrated photographer and a college professor in addition to his exquisite music.

[Brad]

Ted Gioia has a small excerpt in his Substack page.  He calls the book “the most readable narrative account to date of a milestone moment in American music.”

Three Shades of Blue

[sgcim]

I took "3 Shades of Blue" out from the library, and just finished it. The author had little knowledge about jazz until he was assigned to do an interview with Miles Davis for Vanity Fair in 1989. All he knew about Miles was that he had played with Bird in the 40s. The author, James Kaplan, had two Miles albums in his (mostly rock) record collection, Bitches Brew and Filles de Kilimanjaro, so don't expect an expert's book

Basically, it's a bio of Trane ,Miles and Evans. and how they came together in 1958-9, and what happened to them until their dying days. It's written for the general public so maybe it will get some people interested in post Swing jazz who never were into it. It only spends eighteen pages on Kind of Blue, so I think people were misled to think it was only about that album.

Most of the technical parts on jazz were quoted from interviews with musicians, and the well-known bios of the three musicians it centered on, but there was a lot of stuuff about Monk, Diz, Max, etc...There was confirmation of stories that you might have thought were rumors-e.g. Miles did tell Bill Evans he had to f*** all the members of the band, not give them blow jobs. Evans had to think for 30 minutes before telling Miles that he didn't think he could do it, and they all laughed their heads off at him!LOL.

There are a lot of inside views of things from musicians  that I never heard before e.g. John Lewis was behind getting Ornette and Cherry to The Lennox School of Jazz, and got Nesuhi Ertegun to pay for their airfare and tuition to raise their profile on the East Coast. Max Roach did indeed knock out Ornette with one punch, but he didn't beat him up at Ornette's  hotel afterwards. He just yelled at him from outside the hotel that he was gonna beat his ass in if he came out of his hotel room Miles hated Ornette's playing up till the end, and. Coltrane did indeed use LSD at the end of his life. Sonny went to the bridge to simply get his playing together, and Trane was a close friend of his, not a rival.

Miles' penchant for lying is taken into account, and everything he says is investigated with that in mind, although his claim to writing Donna Lee is not questioned at all.

So I'd recommend this book as a fun read for anyone interested in learning more about these three dudes and everyone they played with. The profound insights only come from the musicians interviewed; not from Kaplan.

[JSngry]

I think that Percy Heath hipped John Lewis to Ornette?

Either way, yeah. MJQ Music handled Ornette's publishing for the Atlantic records