Kind of blue - Ashley Khan

In the early spring of 1959, six musicians went into a studio in New York. Their leader, Miles Davis, was already the most celebrated of the younger jazz musicians in America. Two of the players were ex-junkies; two of the others were still addicts.;They spent six hours there that first day. A few weeks later they returned for another three hours. In those nine hours they recorded, in a collaborative effort, one of the finest albums of the 20th century. "Kind of Blue" is haunting, melodic and plaintive, a recreation of the musical roots of jazz.;This volume recreates those few hours in New York in words and photographs. Ashley Kahn writes about the careers and struggles of the music makers. He explains, without jargon, what makes the music so unusual. He has listened to all the tapes, and he takes us through the making of each track on the album, and he has interviewed the survivors. He also writes about the album's influential afterlife.