Kind Of Blue

In this tribute to Miles Davis's classic album, Kind of Blue, Ashley Kahn writes about the careers and struggles of the musicians who made it and explains why the music is so unusual, guiding the reader through the making of each track on the album.

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In the early spring of 1959, six musicians went into a studio in New York. Their leader, Miles Davis, was already the most celebrated of the younger jazz musicians in America. Two of the players were ex-junkies; two of the others were still addicts. They spent six hours there that first day. A few weeks later they returned for another three hours. In those nine hours they recorded, in a collaborative effort, one of the finest albums of the twentieth century. Kind of Blue is haunting, melodic and plaintive, a re-creation of the musical roots of jazz. This volume brings to life those few hours in New York in words and photographs. Ashley Kahn writes about the careers and struggles of the musicians who made it, and has interviewed the survivors. He explains, without jargon, why the music is so unusual. He has listened to all the tapes, and he takes us through the making of each track on the album. He also writes about the album's influential afterlife.