James Kaplan’s jazz book explores the lives, separately and then together, of three important figures in modern jazz: Miles Davis (trumpet), John Coltrane (saxophone), and Bill Evans (piano).
Author Dan Callahan specializes in big biographies of stars such as Barbara Stanwyck and Vanessa Redgrave. He profiled Alfred Hitchcock, looked at the art of screen acting, and wrote a novel, too.
“The author calls Billie ‘the consummate performer whose gift was her ability to make a listener experience the emotion she was feeling as she sang a song.’”
Every now and again a book falls into your lap that refuses to be ignored. Your fingers, seemingly with a mind of their own, open the cover and begin to turn the pages.
Without scholars and writers like Albert Murray, Sam Charters, Paul Oliver, John Work, and Alan Lomax—all of whom explored the essence of American blues, jazz, and traditional music—we would be a l
