Miles Davis: the man in the green shirt

by Richard Williams

Traces the life and career of the influential jazz musician from the 1920s to his death in 1991

Genres: Music, Photography, Biography

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Richard Williams is the chief sports writer for the Guardian and the bestselling author of The Death of Ayrton Senna and Enzo Ferrari: A Life. He is a lifelong fan of Nottingham Forest.

Reviews

[John Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not a full-scale biography of Miles Davis; rather, it is more of an essay on his life, supplemented by numerous photographs. The author portrays Davis as an artist who absolutely refused to repeat himself, or anyone else for that matter. Rather, he continually forged ahead. As soon as something he did became established and "normal," he abandoned it and sought a new style. This insistent experimentation was extraordinarily successful during the first part of Davis' career, when he recorded some of the seminal jazz albums and discovered many extraordinarily talented jazz musicians whom he employed as sidemen, including John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, and Cannonball Adderly. The later part of his career was not so successful; few people still listen to that music, and even at the time he was regarded as a has-been. Still, there is something to be said for a life of continuous creation. Davis accepted the price that had to be paid for such a life, and produced a considerable amount of music that people likely still will be listening to centuries from now.

[Allan Heron · Rating 3 out of 5]

This originated as the text in a coffee table book. As such, it gives a brief overview of Miles' career.

Much better enjoyed as the proper book with the pictures.

I bought this as a cheap offer via Kindle and only later realised that I did own the original book. Like many such books, I may never have read the dialogue otherwise.

[Samuele Kilkenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I new nothing Miles Davis, so this was a good overview.