3 Shades of Blue

Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool

By: James Kaplan

Narrated by: Dion Graham

Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

The national bestseller!

“A superb book...[Kaplan is] a master biographer, a dogged researcher and shaper of narrative, and this is his most ambitious book to date.”—Los Angeles Times

From the author of the definitive biography of Frank Sinatra, the story of how jazz arrived at the pinnacle of American culture in 1959, told through the journey of three towering artists—Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Bill Evans—who came together to create the most iconic jazz album of all time, Kind of Blue

The myth of the ’60s depends on the 1950s being the “before times” of conformity, segregation, straightness—The Lonely Crowd and The Organization Man. This all carries some truth, but it does nothing to explain how, in 1959, America’s great indigenous art form, jazz, reached the height of its power and popularity, thanks to a number of Black geniuses so legendary they go by one name—Monk, Mingus, Rollins, Coltrane, and, above all, Miles. Nineteen fifty-nine saw Miles, Coltrane, Bill Evans, and more come together to record what is widely considered the greatest jazz album of all time, and certainly the bestselling: Kind of Blue.

3 Shades of Blue is James Kaplan’s magnificent account of the paths of the three giants to the mountaintop of 1959 and beyond. It’s a book about music, and business, and race, and heroin, and the towns that gave jazz its home, from New Orleans and New York to Kansas City, Philadelphia, Chicago, and LA. It’s an astonishing meditation on creativity and the strange hothouses that can produce its full flowering. It’s a book about the great forebears of this golden age, particularly Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and the disrupters, like Ornette Coleman, who would take the music down truly new paths. And it’s about why the world of jazz most people know is a museum to this never-replicated period.

But above all, 3 Shades of Blue is a book about three very different men—their struggles, their choices, their tragedies, their greatness. Bill Evans had a gruesome downward spiral; John Coltrane took the mystic’s path into a space far away from mainstream concerns. Miles had three or four sea changes in him before the end. The tapestry of their lives is, in Kaplan’s hands, an American odyssey with no direction home. It is also a masterpiece, a book about jazz that is as big as America.

©2024 James Kaplan (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“3 Shades of Blue is an instant classic, one that both jazz fanatics and casual fans will love. James Kaplan sweeps us into the dazzling world of Swing Street after World War II, a scene as mythical and magical as Pablo Picasso’s Paris, Timothy Leary’s San Francisco, or Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Concord. It is an intimate, enthralling portrait of the titans of 20th-century music—‘friends and geniuses together’—and the revolution they created.” —Debby Applegate, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age

“James Kaplan proves again that he is not only a penetrating commentator on American music, but also a compelling storyteller. In his new book, Kaplan writes about a decisive moment in modern jazz, and turns it into a genuine page-turner.” —Ted Gioia, author of The History of Jazz

“James Kaplan once more combines his formidable skill as an electrifying storyteller of the history of American music with a true depth of understanding of the art form itself—this time through the eyes of three jazz legends. This book reads like music. Don’t miss it.” —Seth MacFarlane, creator and executive producer, Family Guy and The Orville

important American History

informative, enlightening and entertaining. An unfiltered view of American musical history. A must read/ listen for those interested in American music.

Superb

Well researched and written. Great concept for a book that expanded my knowledge of Jazz and history. Beautiful and thoughtful narration. I will read other books by the author and will seek out the narrator's other work.

One of the most important periods of Jazz history.

Great premise and execution about an important period of American music history. I really enjoyed this book.

The history of 3 jazz greats

I loved learning the back story of their lifestyle , character and of their natural talent .

The early death of genius

This book provided a history of what is IMO the golden age of Jazz. It filled in the gaps left by the Ken Burns documentary.

I knew that many of these musicians lived hard lives and died young, but hearing about it in this book really brought home the deviation and loss.

This books also made me realize that the bulk of the jazz music I listen to and love was recorded from 1950 to 1965. I’m one of those who John Coltrane lost after A Love Supreme. I am not yet able to appreciate free jazz. Don’t know if I ever will.

This book is worth a read for jazz lovers and cultural history buffs alike. Highly recommend.

Great deep dive into a pinnacle of jazz, marred by author bias against later jazz years

I have been a huge fan of Miles Davis for nearly 45 years, buying my first albums not long before he returned from his late 70s hiatus. My first albums were a two record compilation of the Prestige releases “Workin’ & Steamin’”, and the epic Bitches Brew. His legendary ‘Kind of Blue’ album wasn’t in the first 5 albums I bought, but it is one that you cannot claim to be a fan of jazz without working through and knowing intimately. Like many others, my discovery of the incredible music of John Coltrane and Bill Evans came through their work with Miles in the late 50s.

So this book was something I grabbed instantly and tore into - and then nearly stopped. The author proclaims that everything they care about in jazz happened in the quarter century between 1942 and 1967 … and proceeds to prove that in the early chapters. That sort of myopia turned me off and I nearly DNF’d the book - but fortunately Kaplan dug into the main characters’ lives at that point. And that carried me through the rest of the book!

The stories of each artist’s origins, musical upbringing, interactions and even drug use and romantic relationships are intriguing and I learned new things throughout - he particularly calls out many of the apocryphal stories of Miles late 80s autobiography. Through these stories we learn who each of these men were and how they were brought to be in the Columbia 30th Street Studio in March 1959 for what would become a moment in history.

Part of this is each artist’s trajectory - while Miles had already been THE Miles Davis for a while, Coltrane and Evans were still ascending. Coltrane would traverse vast landscapes in music in just the eight years before his death, whereas Evans would create what is still considered perhaps the greatest piano trio music a couple of years later and then continue to reproduce that setting with varying success for two decades until his death.

After the opening statements about not caring about Miles post-1967 music, I was surprised how many pages were given to describing late stage Miles - but certainly never with the reverence of his early years and at times lacking even basic respect for the music. It is really this last section that felt like it would never end - we simply follow each artist to their death.

The over-long meandering ending lost nearly all of the energy and passion of the middle of the book which encompassed the mid-1950s to the point that it felt like something tacked on at the insistence of an external force like the publisher, rather than a passionate desire by the author to close out the stories of the key players. Coltrane dies, Evans never lives up to his 60s strength, and Miles music is hardly discussed - then Miles is dead and the book is over.

Well paced. Well researched. Well done.

I am biased. Kind of Blue is my favorite set of music, so I am drawn to any insights to its genesis. This book provides just that. I have read the biographies of Coltrane and Davis and this exposition provides even more insight to their life and times. The treatments of Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley and, Philly Joe Jones are equally enlightening.

Dion Glover is the perfect presenter.

everything about this book stood out!

I loved the whole book from beginning to end. it gave me a lot of information about the artists that I did not know. this was an amazing book!

Fantastic Telling of 3 Lives and Jazz Music

This book provides great background on modern jazz in general and the lives of the three principles leading up to the album, Kind of Blue. Dion Graham is super and a perfect narrator for this book. His phrasing added to the inherent drama of the story. With great strengths come great weaknesses. And sadly, this story is also about the self destructive behavior of the three principals, along with Bird, and others. The longest chapter of the book is an extended coda following Miles, Evans and Coltrane post 1959. It has moments of joy but is also a slow march to the inevitable ends of the three musicians. The first half of the book added needed context and background for, what turns out to be a brief interlude in the history of Jazz and music in general. All the more precious for its brevity. Highly recommended.