So What: The Life of Miles Davis

(Paperback)

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Miles Davis was one of the crucial influences in the development of modern jazz. His "Kind of Blue" is an automatic inclusion in any critic's list of the great jazz albums, the one jazz record people who own no other jazz records possess, and still sells 250,000 copies a year in the US alone. But Miles regularly changed styles, leaving his inimitable impact on many forms of jazz, whether he created them or simply developed the work of others, from modal jazz and be-bop, his seminal Quintet and his big-band work, to the jazz-funk experiments of later years. Miles not only knew and worked with everyone who was anyone in jazz, from Coltrane to Monk, he was a friend of Sartre's, lover of Juliette Greco and musical collaborator with musicians who ranged from Stockhausen to Hendrix.

Reviews

Szwed mixes terrific musical analysis with a deep insight into Davis's life, character and collaboration * Evening Standard *
Szwed is an accomplished sifter of wheat from the chaff. He is not only a musicologist, he is an anthripologist * The Times *

Author Bio

John Szwed is Professor of Music and Jazz Studies at Columbia University, and Director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University. He is the author of a number of books, including Billie Holiday- The Musician and the Myth, Alan Lomax- The Man Who Recorded the World and So What- The Life of Miles Davis.