Miles Davis: The Complete Illustrated History

by Sonny Rollins (Contributor), Bill Cosby (Contributor), Herbie Hancock (Contributor)

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.

Genres: Music, Biography, Jazz

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 19, 2012

About the author

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...

Reviews

[Deidre · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Tony Nielsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Bakari · Rating 5 out of 5]

In addition to the awesome photos and album covers, also like the quotes from Miles autobiography and the essays that describe the evolution of Miles' music and life. A great read from cover to cover.

[John Mcinerney · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Vis · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Tania · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Keith Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mediocre as biography but great as illustrated history.