3 Shades of Blue Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans & The Lost Empire of Cool
- 13 Mar 2025
- 9781837260379
- £12.99
- 496 pp
- 129×198mm
- 7 Mar 2024
- 9781805302018
- £10.39
- 496 pp
- 7 Mar 2024
- 9781805302025
- £34.99
- 14 hrs 7 min
In a few words
From the New York Times bestseller, the story of jazz, told through the journeys of three towering artists
In a few words
From the New York Times bestseller, the story of jazz, told through the journeys of three towering artists
In a few words
From the New York Times bestseller, the story of jazz, told through the journeys of three towering artists
[Kaplan] has written the definitive book on how that decade came to be and the three men . . . vital, marshalling with a light touch countless snippets of material
Kaplan evokes a pivotal moment in modern music . . . Entertaining
[Kaplan] has written the definitive book on how that decade came to be and the three men . . . vital, marshalling with a light touch countless snippets of material
Kaplan evokes a pivotal moment in modern music . . . Entertaining
[Kaplan] has written the definitive book on how that decade came to be and the three men . . . vital, marshalling with a light touch countless snippets of material
Kaplan evokes a pivotal moment in modern music . . . Entertaining
More about
the book
1959 saw Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and the other members of Miles’s sextet come together to record the bestselling jazz album of all time: Kind of Blue.
3 Shades of Blue follows the paths of Miles, Coltrane and Evans to the mountaintop of 1959 and their roads on from there. It’s a book about music and business, race and heroin, and an astonishing meditation on creativity and the strange hothouses that can produce its full flowering. But above all this is the story of three very different men – their struggles, their choices, their inspiration. The tapestry of their lives is, in James Kaplan’s hands, an American Odyssey.
More about
the book
1959 saw Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and the other members of Miles’s sextet come together to record the bestselling jazz album of all time: Kind of Blue.
3 Shades of Blue follows the paths of Miles, Coltrane and Evans to the mountaintop of 1959 and their roads on from there. It’s a book about music and business, race and heroin, and an astonishing meditation on creativity and the strange hothouses that can produce its full flowering. But above all this is the story of three very different men – their struggles, their choices, their inspiration. The tapestry of their lives is, in James Kaplan’s hands, an American Odyssey.
More about
the book
1959 saw Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the other members of Miles’s sextet come together to record the seminal jazz album of all time Kind of Blue.
3 Shades of Blue is a magnificent, blended biography on the meandering paths which led Miles, Coltrane and Evans to the mountaintop of 1959 and the aftermath. It’s a book about music, business, race, addiction and the cities that gave jazz its home; from New York and LA to Philadelphia, Chicago and Kansas City. Kaplan meditates on creativity and the great forebears of this golden age who would take the music down strange new paths.
Above all, this is a book about three very different men – their struggles, their choices, their tragedies, their greatness. The tapestry of their lives is, in Kaplan’s hands, an American Odyssey, with no direction home.
A compelling read . . . [Kaplan] knows how to tell a story, and in 3 Shades of Blue he has a good one to tell. Or, rather, three good ones. . . . Kaplan has framed 3 Shades of Blue as both a chronicle of a golden age and a lament for its decline and fall. One doesn’t have to accept the decline-and-fall part to acknowledge that he has done a lovely job of evoking the golden age
A superb book . . . [Kaplan is] a master biographer, a dogged researcher and shaper of narrative, and this is his most ambitious book to date
3 Shades of Blue, raises the bar . . . At a time when jazz is re-emergent and viral, seeping into virtually every musical genre (and vice versa), we are fortunate that the author has conjured this hothouse flower of a book - as rarified, intricate and haunting as an orchid
A conventionally readable portrait of jazz musicians
Richard Williams
Literary ReviewA compelling read . . . [Kaplan] knows how to tell a story, and in 3 Shades of Blue he has a good one to tell. Or, rather, three good ones. . . . Kaplan has framed 3 Shades of Blue as both a chronicle of a golden age and a lament for its decline and fall. One doesn’t have to accept the decline-and-fall part to acknowledge that he has done a lovely job of evoking the golden age
A superb book . . . [Kaplan is] a master biographer, a dogged researcher and shaper of narrative, and this is his most ambitious book to date
3 Shades of Blue, raises the bar . . . At a time when jazz is re-emergent and viral, seeping into virtually every musical genre (and vice versa), we are fortunate that the author has conjured this hothouse flower of a book - as rarified, intricate and haunting as an orchid
A conventionally readable portrait of jazz musicians
Richard Williams
Literary ReviewA compelling read . . . [Kaplan] knows how to tell a story, and in 3 Shades of Blue he has a good one to tell. Or, rather, three good ones. . . . Kaplan has framed 3 Shades of Blue as both a chronicle of a golden age and a lament for its decline and fall. One doesn’t have to accept the decline-and-fall part to acknowledge that he has done a lovely job of evoking the golden age
A superb book . . . [Kaplan is] a master biographer, a dogged researcher and shaper of narrative, and this is his most ambitious book to date
3 Shades of Blue, raises the bar . . . At a time when jazz is re-emergent and viral, seeping into virtually every musical genre (and vice versa), we are fortunate that the author has conjured this hothouse flower of a book - as rarified, intricate and haunting as an orchid
A conventionally readable portrait of jazz musicians
Richard Williams
Literary Review
