Books like Kind of Blue by Ashley Kahn

Ashley Kahn’s book offers the first comprehensive, take-by-take analysis of the recording sessions that produced Miles Davis’s 1959 landmark album "Kind of Blue." The narrative draws on unprecedented access to the complete master tapes, rare interview footage—including conversations with the last surviving studio participants—and newly discovered Columbia Records documents. Kahn traces Davis’s musical evolution from bebop to modal jazz, detailing the album’s recording process, its initial reception, and its lasting cultural impact. The volume is richly illustrated with nearly a hundred images, including Bill Evans’s handwritten liner notes, unpublished studio photographs, and session charts. A foreword by drummer Jimmy Cobb, the sole surviving original group member, further contextualizes the work as the definitive chronicle of the album’s creation and legacy.

First publish date: 2000