Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece (Paperback)

~ (Author) "SOME CONTEND THAT they can hear Kind of Blue in a solo Miles recorded fifteen years earlier on "Now's the Time," a Charlie Parker 78..." (more)
Key Phrases: hard bop classic, nonet recordings, original liner notes, New York, Miles Davis, Bill Evans (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Concise, compelling, elegant, evocative and handsomely packaged, rather like the LP it succinctly celebrates." -- -San Francisco Chronicle

"In clear and graceful prose Kahn treats us to the story of Kind of Blue's unparalleled commercial success." -- American Music Summer 2004

"This fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the making of a masterpiece...only enhances the pleasure of the music itself." -- -People

Â"An informative, intriguing book.Â" -- Newark Star-Ledger, 8/14/06

Review

U.S. News & World Report, 1/5/09
“a brisk read, full of rarely seen photos.”

Malcolm Jones, Newsweek, 2/9/09
“Absorbing.”

Counterpunch.org, 8/14/09
“excellent”

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; Paperback reprint. edition (September 18, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306810670
• ISBN-13: 978-0306810671
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #795,728 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Companion, a guide, and much more., April 4, 2002

By	Lawrence Peryer (New Haven, CT United States) - See all my reviews

A surprisingly brisk read for a book of such ambitious scope, the author begins a full decade before the recording it chronicles. A wide range of subject matter - the evolution of jazz, Miles as an artist and creative voice, recording techniques, even the business of jazz marketing - are covered engagingly, intelligently and leave the reader with a better context in which to place this seminal recording.

Long-time fans, who know the music and the myths inside out, will marvel anew at the dedication Miles showed not only to his music, but in what can only be called his sentimentality in working with the other artists on the dates. His relationship with pianist Bill Evans is especially poignant.

The rise of modal jazz and its off-shoot from bop, along with the impact on the post-war generation of players is juxtaposed against a record label system willing to actually bid for jazz artists(!) and put real thought and resources into promoting their works. There is a tinge of nostalgia to the writing, though the author is not a contemporary of the original recording's release. This tone is far out-weighed by the realization that Kind of Blue really did mark a second (or third) Golden Age in jazz and that men the likes of Miles Davis - or Babe Ruth or Marlon Brando - seem not to walk among us much anymore.

In an age of celebrity profiles and Behind the Music "documentaries", Kahn's book shows us that every story has many stories, and he tells each with a respectful touch.

39 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Great Subject, a Deficient Book, May 1, 2003

By	Jerry Engelbach (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I hate to be a nay-sayer when so many other critics have nothing but unqualified praise for this book. And, by and large, it's an interesting read with much fascinating information. As a compilation of facts, it offers an exciting look behind the scenes at the creation of a milestone (no pun intended) of jazz.

However, to a serious musician and record collector, the book has deficiencies that cannot be overlooked.

First of all, the book is far too adulatory. It is far better than the completely worshipful and therefore useless Eric Nisenson book on the same subject, but that's not saying much. When I buy a book I want a book, not an extended press release. There's just too much that reads like it came from the pen of a PR man rather than a journalist.

In fact, Kahn's excuses for the ineptitude of Columbia Records leave the impression, incorrect I'm sure, that he's on their payroll. More of this below.

First, I suspect that Kahn is not himself an experienced musician. When he tries to write about the music itself he makes numerous mistakes. I'll cite just one.

On page 70 is a picture of the chart Cannonball Adderley used for "Flamenco Sketches," with a caption by the author that refers to the scales used in the tune as "C Ionian, A-Flat Mixolydian, B-flat Major 7th, D Phrygian, and G Aeolian." The chart, however, is transposed for Eb alto saxophone, so the picture doesn't match the description. It would have been helpful if the caption had mentioned this.

Worse, however, is the apparent lack of understanding of music in the caption itself. "C Ionian" is the same as C Major. If the author knew this, he might have clarified what surely must sound like pure technical jargon to non-musical readers, most of whom have heard of C Major but may have no clue to what an "Ionian" is.

"A-flat Mixolydian" is a convoluted way of referring to a scale that begins on Eb! It's an Eb Dorian.

"B-flat Major 7th" is a chord, not a scale. The scale is B-flat Major, period. Or, if we're going to be technical again, B-flat Ionian.

It may well be that musicians occasionally refer to the scale described as "D Phrygian" by that name. But they would be wrong. The name jazz musicians give to the scale is "D Phrygian DOMINANT," and the correct name of the scale is "fifth mode of the G harmonic minor scale," which begins on D. It's a mouthful, to be sure. But it just ain't a plain vanilla D Phrygian, which contains one note that is crucially different. A chord built on the root of the scale shown is a dominant, not a Phrygian, chord.

"G Aeolian" is possibly accurate. That would be the same as "G natural minor." But since some of the notes in the middle are obscured, it might just as easily be G Dorian.

It's Kahn's excuses for Columbia records that really annoy me.

On "Kind of Blue" Columbia mixed up the tracks, which resulted in 50,000 copies of the record being produced with incorrect labeling. I had one of those original discs, and the best I can say is that it was fun figuring out the mistake and then relabeling my own record.

Astonishingly, the master tape machine for "Kind of Blue" ran slow, so pressings ran faster than the original recording and sounded sharp. This caused no end of puzzlement and annoyance to musicians who tried to play along with and learn from the album. Luckily, Columbia had a safety tape that ran at the correct speed, which has been used for subsequent reissues.

Kahn mentions the above gaffs with the very slightest of "tsk"s, nowhere near the condemnation they deserve. But even more incredibly, he has nothing but praise for the sound of "Kind of Blue," which is probably the worst sounding groundbreaking record I've ever heard.

Columbia has a reputation among music listeners with real ears as producer of (and I repeat) the worst sounding recordings of all the big record companies. They don't begin to reach the hem of the outstanding recordings of Decca (London), EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, and the absolute stars of early stereo recording, RCA Victor and Mercury, and numerous small companies such as Chesky. There isn't room to go into the details here, but if you have a good sound system and appreciate the value of realistic acoustics and accurate soundstaging across the width of the speaker field, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Sometimes a good record slips through, but "Kind of Blue" isn't one of them. Columbia has always been into multi-miking and "cleaning up" (i.e., "doctoring") in the editing. Their recordings typically sound canned, and it's regrettable that so many fine artists, including Leonard Bernstein and Miles Davis, allowed their immortal performances to be preserved in, shall we say, less than state-of-the-art sound.

"Kind of Blue" is all but ruined by multi-miking, added echo, no concern for the dynamic range and true timbre of real musical instruments, and the complete lack of a believable three-dimensional space holding live musicians. There are any number of superb recordings out there that blow "Kind of Blue" away.

The greatness of "Kind of Blue" lies not in its sound but in its harmonic experimentation and the inspired performances of its musicians, and in the almost spontaneous way in which the tunes were created and realized. Miles Davis himself said in an interview that he wished for a time when recordings preserved everything, including the mistakes. Listening to "Kind of Blue" makes one wish that Miles had meant it, and that we had the sounds of breathing, the sweat, the uncertainty, the little glitches, the beauty marks, and the natural acoustics of the room -- the human presence that sets the sublime so far above the merely great.

Kahn says nary a word about all this. I wouldn't go so far as to say that he has no ears, but his book reads as if he didn't use them.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The greatest jazz album, February 3, 2003

By	"gusgus88" (Provo, UT United States) - See all my reviews

This was the second book I have read by Ashley Kahn. The first being "A Love Supreme." Kahn does a great job in providing new information that you don't read in the many other biographies about Miles. Truly one of the best music ventures of all time, I didn't know what to expect from Kahn when reading this book. How does an author tackle such a daunting task as writing a book about a masterpiece. I was quite impressed with Kahn's words and detail about the music and musicians behind this album. I will read this book over and over again.