Bill Evans, Miles Davis, Julian"Cannonball" Adderley, and John Coltrane in the studio recording"Kind of Blue" New York, 1959.They are musical traditions and rites of passage: If you were a college student in the ‘80s, you were issued a copy of Bob Marley’swith your freshman ID .
Those first three names are some of the largest loomers in jazz history. Their paths to, during and after3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of CooKaplan—who also penned the two-volume definitive look at the life of one Francis Albert Sinatra—goes into similar depth hear tracking the three title musicians, concentrating on their musical ascension, studies, breakthroughs and disappointments, and high and low points. Both professional and personal.
Other jazz giants appear in these pages from their various interactions with the three players: Monk, Mingus, Bird, Philly Joe, Diz. In fact, the fluidity in which scores of players fall in and out and back again into various live gigs, studio lineups, and informal jam sessions is…well…This doorstop tome is almost 2/3rds gone before the seven musicians actually set foot into a New York Columbia Records studio to create.
Left: Photo by Don Hunstein/© Sony Music Entertainment. Right: Photo Courtesy of Southeastern Louisiana University.A Love Supreme