3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool

I love this book—it is elegant, insightful, and memorable. For anyone interested in modern American music, its subject—the intertwining careers of three jazz giants—is of clear importance. Beyond that, however, Kaplan’s style seems just perfect to me. Some of his narrative may be familiar to readers, but the tone of his writing is fresh and completely his own. This story is both tough and tender, exhilarating and heartbreaking. What comes through on every page is the author’s profound respect for his subjects—the awe he has for their drive to create new and great music. The frequent mess of their actual lives suggests something of the difficulty of that quest. Kaplan has no rose-colored glasses: these lives were real and need to be seen honestly. However, he is motivated by the knowledge that it is their achievement—their lasting gifts to all of us—that transcends all the rest. Kaplan is simply wonderful at suggesting what really matters.

Fans of these three jazz giants may feel that this book plows ground that has been covered before in previous biographies, but there's enough information to make it a worthwhile read. A full fourth of the book details what happened to Davis, Coltrane and Evans after the recording of Kind of Blue. For that matter, there are other volumes available that are much more detailed about that particular album's creation. Kaplan sees the album as the high water mark of America's lover affair with jazz and that the public's interest in the music began to wane shortly thereafter. Davis dominates throughout the book in comparison to the much smaller space afforded Coltrane and Evans.

What a great story and an excellent read! Wonderful piece of research. I don’t want it to end and I rarely feel that way about a non-fiction book.If you’re a fan of jazz and/or the blues, it’s a must read.

This is a delightful study of the personalities, the music, and the social trends and tensions of the rise and fall of the cool jazz era. The book is well written, chock full of anecdotes, and thoroughly researched. Highly recommended for fans of jazz and the mid-century social scene.

Like other reviewers, I’ve read many of the standard biographies and histories, but I don’t think it’s accurate to say there’s nothing new here. Amidst the standard stories there are a number of events and angles I’ve never seen before. For example, the pics and discussion of Red Garland looking grumpy as Miles instructs him at the keyboard are eloquent and gave me a new insight about the inner dynamics in the band as it moved into its modal phase. Kaplan also offers a thoughtful skepticism about some of the legends and myths that have developed through the years. I found the discussions of personalities and the interactions between them informative and entertaining, even after having read Kelley’s book on Monk, Ashley Kahn’s (good) stuff, and several other bios and analyses.However, in terms of music theory, Kaplan doesn’t seem to know what he’s talking about. Two quick examples: 1) In his discussion of the scales used in the 1958 “Milestones” he correctly says the two modes are G Dorian and A Aeolian, but then he says of the first “...you can find it yourself by playing a white-keys-only scale from G to G on the piano.” No, that’s actually G Mixolydian. G Dorian has a B flat instead of a B natural: it’s a crucial difference (specifically, it’s the difference between bars 1-4 vs. bars 5-6 in the basic 12-bar form for “All Blues”). 2) Later, he’s talking about “So What,” that it’s made up of “just two chords, D and Eb Dorian.” No, those are scales, not chords: you can make dozens of chords from each of them. Kaplan talking about music theory sounds like Trump talking about the Bible: remember “Two Corinthians”?To summarize: the book is lots of fun when talking about people, but Kaplan should have a musician read it over and fix his musical mistakes.

Great read! Excellent book! Very well written and a very interesting way of writing three biographies of Davis, Coltrane, and Evans who would make the greatest selling jazz album of all time - "Kind Of Blue". The path to that moment and the aftermath of all three are compelling. The amount of drugs that all three did, especially Bill Evans is haunting. Very interesting read for any jazz or music fan.

very informative and interesting, and a worthwhile addition to any jazz fan's library.

Who Needed This?… not a rhetorical question, but one I found myself asking of myself, a hundred or so pages into the book, and realizing I had not read a single new thing so far.This book tells the story of three of the most influential jazz men of all time (Miles, Trane and Bill Evans), progressing chronologically by mapping their respective musical development, including rather extensive excursions on significant influences (Bird in the case of Miles, Monk for Trane).It then focuses on the time their paths crossed in Miles’s late 1950s sextet, and the creation of jazz’s most beloved and best-selling album, Kind of Blue. By the end of this episode, we are on page 300 out of 430, with the remaining 130 dedicated to the rest of these men’s careers, lives and deaths.The book is well written. The author mostly keeps to the background, and allows contrary opinions to stand side by side. Where he takes position, I find his views insightful and courageous, when courage is needed. While clearly impressed by the musical genius of his protagonists, he is never afraid to call things by their true name: Miles’s wife beating, Trane’s infidelities and disorienting LSD trips, and Bill Evans’s debilitating heroin addiction.With the exception of Kind of Blue, the discussion of music is rather brief, as it must be, given the extensive discographies of all three musicians. Telling all three stories side-by-side allows for an interesting comparative perspective concerning the musical development of these men in relation to each other, and to the times they were living in (which, of course, saw both the zenith and the decline of jazz, after the rise of rock music).So far so good, and anyone not familiar with the topic(s) will find this book a treasure trove. Only: who can we reasonably assume to be unfamiliar – and still want to read a book about jazz? The author quotes at length from the standard bios: Szwed on Miles, Miles/Troupe on Miles, Porter on Trane and Pettinger on Evans. For the excursions mentioned: Koch on Bird and Kelley on Monk. And, of course, Kahn on Kind of Blue.Who loves jazz, but does not own these books?I do own them, and hence my initially mentioned experience. Admittedly, I had thought long and hard (and, it appears unsuccessfully) about whether buying this book would be worthwhile. Is there anything new to say about any of these men? In all fairness, I think there is. Books like Ben Ratliff’s Story of a Sound (about Trane), Farah Jasmine Griffin and Salim Washington’s Clawing at the Limits of Cool (about Miles and Trane) and Enrico Pieranunzi’s The Pianist as Artist (about Evans) all prove, that new perspectives can be used, new insights gained. This book does not offer those, at least no substantial ones.My rating is a compromise.

In generale mi è piaciuto tutto. E' presente qualche imprecisione e mancanza. Mi è servito per incrementare la mia cultura in campo musicale e biografico (musica e artisti jazz)

A very good and smooth read . It does not wallow , but the dark side comes through. A reminder that genius and art walk a narrow path . Add in some narrow points of view and stir . Cheers

I enjoyed this book, which is very well written and constructed. I didn't really learn much more than I already know about three of my favourite musicians, but Kaplan captures a turning-point for jazz, and where it led for Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Bill Evans. Having read this book on Kindle I discovered Kaplan has written a two-part biography of Frank Sinatra, which is the best I've read so far. My (forlorn) hope is that he will turn his attention and considerable gifts as a writer, researcher and organiser of copious amounts of information to Duke Ellington.