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Miles Davis: The Complete Illustrated History

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Here is the illustrated history of Miles Davis, the world’s most popular jazz trumpeter, composer, bandleader, and musical visionary. Davis is one of the most innovative, influential, and respected figures in the history of music. He’s been at the forefront of bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, and jazz-rock fusion, and remains the favorite and best-selling jazz artist ever, beloved worldwide.
 
He’s also a fascinating character—moody, dangerous, brilliant. His story is phenomenal, including tempestous relationships with movie stars, heroin addictions, police busts, and more; connections with other jazz greats like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk, John Coltrane, Gil Evans, John McLaughlin, and many others; and later fusion ventures that outraged the worlds of jazz and rock.
 
Written by an all-star team, including Sonny Rollins, Bill Cosby, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Clark Terry, Lenny White, Greg Tate, Ashley Kahn, Robin D. G. Kelley, Francis Davis, George Wein, Vincent Bessières, Gerald Early, Nate Chinen, Nalini Jones, Dave Liebman, Garth Cartwright, and more.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 19, 2012

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About the author

Sonny Rollins

41 books7 followers
American jazz saxophonist and composer Theodore Walter Rollins, known as Sonny, originated the practice of playing bop in three-quarter time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_R...

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5 stars
18 (40%)
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3 stars
7 (15%)
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
43 reviews7 followers
February 20, 2018
If you are a Miles Davis or jazz fan this book is required reading. The book is filled with beautiful photos and illustrations, quotes, etc. I'm new to his music but I enjoyed this book.
908 reviews
June 10, 2013
It's taken me awhile to get through this recent Miles Davis tome, but don't read anything into that. I'm a Miles nut and I think I've read pretty much every book about him, including his infamous autobiography which unfortunately demonstrated that, while he was a brilliant, once in a lifetime musician, he wasn't much of a man. This book is spectacularly good, with erudite writings by those who knew him well, including many of those he made music with. Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter among. The images are lavish and plentiful, with numerous rare pix of rare discs and concert posters. Miles Davis, the complete illustrated history, will now take pride of place on my bookshelves.
Profile Image for Ryo.
148 reviews11 followers
May 2, 2026
非常好。因为有大量老迈自传的引用,读起来像是爵爷翻译的老迈传记的配图摘要版。
1.第一次意识到Round About Midnight封面的西服墨镜红来自于Cafe Bohemia他与科川的演出照片(也是他俩那套录音合集的侧影封面);
2. 作为黑人,老迈反而青睐打击黑人政治的保守派里根(里根时代的美国追求拜金追求消费主义与老迈一辈子追求财富且爱慕虚荣的精神不谋而合)。鉴于他推崇Jack Johnson,想必如果活在当下一定也与川普打得火热的老虎伍兹惺惺相惜;
3. Dizzy对老迈的评价:“迈尔斯说话很粗鲁——你会听到他用各种粗俗的词汇,[但]他的音乐才反映了他真实的性格……迈尔斯很害羞。他超级害羞。很多人都不相信这一点,但我认识他已经很久很久了。”
Profile Image for John Mcinerney.
98 reviews1 follower
November 6, 2017
great, great photos. lots of early european pressing covers. press photos, posters, 78's. some of the essays are very good. Clark Terry's is the best.
Profile Image for Tania .
815 reviews18 followers
July 26, 2024
Miles Davis's music is so important to me. He really is like one of his most iconic album says: The Birth of the cool.
Profile Image for Keith Evans.
75 reviews1 follower
July 4, 2017
Mediocre as biography but great as illustrated history.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews