| | |  | Books | Home » » Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece | | | | | | | Description: | | A stunning new edition, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis's timeless Kind of Blue, with a new afterword by the author. This acclaimed tribute to the most popular jazz album of all time is now available in a beautiful 50th anniversary edition, complete with a new afterword by Ashley Kahn. Featuring transcriptions of the unedited session tapes; in-depth interviews with musicians; freshly discovered Columbia Records files; never-before-seen photographs, and more, Kind of Blue is a vital piece of music history--and will be essential for fans and scholars for years to come. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Ashley Kahn | | Paperback:
| 240 pages | | Publisher:
| Da Capo Press | | Publication Date:
| July 03, 2007 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0306815583 | | Package Length:
| 7.95 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.46 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.63 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.79 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 14 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 ExcellentNov 09, 2009
The book itself is fantastic, even for my poor english skills.
The seller is great ! fast, in time, and very affordable !
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Khan Creates His Own Masterwork - SeriouslyAug 21, 2008
Kahn takes the reader right inside Columbia Studios at 207 E. 30th Street for the two sessions that brought us Kind of Blue. YOU ARE THERE, 'nuf said (as Stan Lee likes to write in his Spidey comics).
Listen: What's so great about this book is it fulfills and hits the mark where so many other books fall short. This book is about HOW THE MUSIC WAS MADE. I've only read a couple other books about musicians that actually manage to pull this off. For example, Lewis Porter's John Coltrane, His Life and His Music and A Love Supreme, The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album. This book hits the mark where writers like Chambers (Milestones) Thomas (Chasin' the Trane) Zappa (The Real Frank Zappa Book) fall short. When I read a book about Miles, Trane, Zappa, The Rolling Stones, Hendrix. I want to read about the music, the process of discovery. Kahn's books (along with Lewis Porter's) are the only books I've discovered that actually "get" the point of even writing the book. I don't care about the musician's personal habits and debauchery, I want to learn about THE MUSIC.
I'm not going into a bunch of details about this book. I'm going to tell you that this book is very well researched, contains lots of pictures I have never seen - though I've read 1/2 dozen or so books on Miles and own darn near all of those Legacy & Prestige remasters and boxsets with the new liner notes and photos. It's just a beautiful presentation. A book I will keep for the rest of my life though I wish I had the hardback edition.
This is an impressive work, it sets the high-water mark for music journalism and literature, period. It does not flirt with hero worship and it keeps Kahn's personal views in check. You get the the back-story, story, and the epilogue (not literally... well yes, literally but that isn't what I mean) of the story of Kind of Blue.
Hands down, this is the best book about music I have ever read. It was a quick, entertaining read. I was sorry when I arrived at the last page I enjoyed reading is so much and I'm sure I'll re-read it many times during the remainder of my life.
I also highly recommend Khan's book on A Love Supreme (that one flirts with hero-worship but it's still a great book).
Next: Impulse, The House That Trane Built.
A Kahn Wish: I would love to read a book by Khan on the Miles Davis/Gil Evans partnership. There is plenty to write about, including the way Miles (whom I dearly love despite his human flaws) used and abused Gil Evans talent and failed to compensate him fairly and without Evans' begging for what he did get in some cases (Filles de Kilamanjaro for example). I'm such a fan of this guy's work that I tried to find a way to contact him to suggest such a work but couldn't find any contact information. Kind of Blue is an awesome book but Kahn has only scratched the surface of the life and career of Miles Davis. Here's hoping there is more to come.
Kind Of EleganceMar 20, 2008
In American recorded music, one of the true masterpieces is Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and his legendary sextet of John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly, Paul Chambers, Bill Evans, Jimmy Cobb and Wynton Kelly (on one number).
From a unique perspective of research, author Ashley Kahn brings the important moment in music to life through a brief biography of Davis, the transcription & discussion of the two recording sessions which produced the album, unedited studio dialogue and rare photographs, with other gems located in the vast vaults of Sony Music.
The concise exploration by Kahn is rich in texture and beauty, as the album is brought to life through that layer of dust being brushed off the archives. And as if waiting patiently for its story to be told, the material has not lost any of its lustre after the years since 1959, and actually shines brighter by being bolstered through its timelessness.
1 of 27 found the following review helpful:
 What to make of Ashley Kahn?Jul 10, 2006
This book is a completely stupid waste of money. It is utterly ridiculous to boil an artist of Davis's stature down to one recording. Davis did amazing stuff as a kid with Charlie Parker on Dial Records. He had a huge impact in his day with Birth of the Cool and then dumped it to do more amazing work for the Bluenote label.
Then we have the long tenure at Columbia where he hit home run after home run often defining trajectory of the idiom in his day until it began to move ahead of him.
Jazz books are generally terrible with a few exceptions like Ross Russell's work on Charlie Parker and Lewis Porter's work on Lester Young and John Coltrane. Duke Ellington's Music Is My Mistress is another steller work.
You simply cannot apply some medieval notion of 'quintessence' dreamed up by Aquinas to people of this stature as nearly everything they ever did is compelling and has merit. The same applies to Kahn's idiot work on Coltrane.
If you genuinely love this idiom, buy the recordings and BE VERY WARY ABOUT THE STUFF GLIB DOOFUSES TRY TO WRITE ABOUT THEM.
I remember being a kid in the early 70's trying to learn about this music and how disgusted I was by all the lame writing out there. Kahn surely continues the tradition of moron jazz writers no matter how much he claims to love it.
There are plenty of honest hardworking scholars like Porter or ace reviewers like Gary Giddins and Bob Blumenthal who will do a far better job on the background of the idiom than a dilletante who makes a living promoting Brittany Spears and VH1.
5 of 7 found the following review helpful:
 Kind of LackingMay 23, 2006
I love Kind of Blue but I'm less impressed with Kahn's book on its creation. Kahn uses the session master tape to recreate the sessions effectively and successfully. The transcribed commentary between the musicians on the session and the descriptions of the evolution of the music through various takes is fascinating. Kahn also does a reasonable if superficial job of fitting Kind of Blue into the jazz continuum of the late fifties and early sixties and provides some interesting insights into the music itself. For example, Kahn points out that while Kind of Blue was meant to be entirely modal, Adderly in particular uses a lot of bop chromaticism as does Evans. Miles was really the only musician to adhere strictly to the modal guidelines.
On the down side, Kahn bungles the explanation of modes and modal improvisation. The modal system can be explained clearly and succinctly; it isn't rocket science. But Kahn devotes quite a bit of ink to the subject and still never manages to even define precisely what a mode is. The author also makes some technical errors in his musical explanations and ignores some important areas of the music that he should have pointed out and explicated. For example, he says nothing about Evans's use of quartal harmony on the album, which was groundbreaking on this album.
The biographical sketch on Miles is far too long and offers no information not already covered in his various biographies. Yes, some background info on Miles was needed but this was much too much.
Also, Kahn needn't have included the endless, breathless superlatives about the album by an endless list of musicians. We know how good the album is; we don't need this parade of people going on and on about it. It's redundant and serves no real purpose. Far less of this material and more in depth coverage of the session and the music itself would have made this a better book.
A far better book of this type is Geoffrey Haydon's Quintet of the Year, which describes how five of bebop's greatest practicioners met for the historical concert at Massey Hall in Toronto, which resulted in one of the most important bebop albums ever made. That book is everything that the Making of Kind of Blue might have been.
| | |
|
