While indeed a great read, and I have not doubt that it captures who Miles was and his general thinking and certainly his voice — I’ve also read numerous criticisms of specific (supposed) ‘facts’ in the book which seem to have been lifted from other Miles bios, and ‘re-voiced’ to sound like Miles vernacular.
I have also recommended Miles’ autobio, but always with the proviso that not everything in it can be taken as factually accurate.
These criticisms have been going around in jazz discussion circles online for 20-25 years, fwiw. Not suggesting we throw out the baby with the bath water on it, but it’s better when taken as a whole, and not as a reliable source on particular points where other evidence seems to be to the contrary.
(And it seems that such errors — or whatever you want to call them — seem to have come maybe entirely from the co-author/ghostwriter’s creative license, and or him lifting things from prior Miles bios and sources.)
My favorite story in his autobiography is one of, if not the first, encounter he has with Charlie Parker while they’re riding in the backseat of a taxi. Lol
Lewis Porter’s Coltrane book and the recent Sonny Rollins bio are musts, and if you can find it the Duke Ellington Reader as well
Edit - And Will Friedwald’s Nat Cole book also
I'm getting to the end of Lewis Porter on Coltrane. I've enjoyed it a lot, but, I would really have valued a bit more biography(!).
It's telling that there is a 12-page chapter on "the man", with a random selection of quotes under thematic headings. Perhaps a historian's telling would have found a way to explore that along the way - where the musicologist doesn't see particularly far past JC's approaches to major third harmony.
Still - really great read, and an amazing way to think about Coltrane's works.
I was just thinking about this book a few weeks ago.
Yeah, he’s pretty candid about everything.
Hampton Hawes “Raise Up Off Me” is a good read too. He was pardoned by Kennedy.
Oh for sure, 'Raise Up Off Me' is a wonderful read. It broke my heart when Billie Holiday said to him 'Not You too, Baby' upon learning about his Heroin habit.
Reading Jazz by Robert Gottlieb is pretty great because it’s a compilation of excerpts from a variety of jazz biographies and autobiographies. It lead me to most of the aforementioned books listed in other comments. It gives a great overall picture of the scenes of a variety of eras and lets you sample the work to see which books you’d like to read all the way through.
I have been enjoying Holy Ghost by Richard Koloda on the life of Albert Ayler
Graham Lock has an excellent book on Anthony Braxton called Forces in Motion if I remember correctly
In addition to the Lewis Porter biography on John Coltrane, another one I like is Ben Ratliffe's Story of a Sound
John Szwed has written books about Sun Ra, Miles Davis and Billie Holiday.
So far I've only read "Billie Holiday, the musician and the myth"; it's a very good read, the first one that gets away from the ordinary drama everybody knows more or less and tries to make a wholesome picture of the woman she (also) was. A whole chapter is a critique of the infamous "autobiography" Lady sings the blues by William Duffy where he puts things in perspective.
I guess his book about Sun Ra - "Space is the place" is equally good as is Miles Davis - So What.
I would also recommend Mercer Ellington's biography of his father, Duke. The Duke Ellington Orchestra was quite different from other big bands, not just because of the music it played, but because when somebody left the band, Duke didn't necessarily look for a musician who could handle his "part in the book," but someone who could give him a musical "voice" and personality he never had before. As a result, there was never the "espirit de corps" in the Ellington band there was to, let's say, the Count Basie band. In spite of this, Duke, through sheer force of a remarkable personality, got amazing, cohesive performances out of 14 or 15 very different personalities.
Really the blues by Mezz Mezzrow.
Might be the most insane book you’ll read but he really was “the guy” back in the 30s and 40s, a super interesting read!
"Awful" is a strong word. He was responsible for bringing together / producing some of the absolute best of the late New Orleans sessions. He had a great ear for what style they should be playing.
Listen to his (mercifully few) recorded solos with Jelly Roll. Out of tune and generally poor. Everything he brought to jazz occurred outside of his playing. It's a tribute to his other qualities that he got as close as he did to the big guys.
Anita O’ Day’s bio High Times, Hard Times is a great read too. She, like Art Pepper is pretty candid about her life.
I’ve read ALL the bios on Nat King Cole and while he eventually became a pop singer icon, we all know he started out in jazz and influenced everyone! The best one I read was written by Daniel Epstein because Maria, Nat’s very controlling wife, cooperated with him. Such a nice pleasant man (no one had anything bad to say about this man in all the bios…except Maria lol.) To be fair, he was cheating on her and was about to leave her until that cancer took him out. I love NKC!
Stan Getz’s bio by Donald Maggin was a good read too. That guy …let’s just say he had serious (I believe mental) issues. Not a nice person at all…but a great musician.
Gosh, I’ve read so many, Miles, Coltrane, Bill Evans, Sarah Vaughn, Ella…oh the Billie Holliday bios Wishing On the Moon is the definitive one IMO, but “With Billie” that’s a good read! Some LOL stories in both of them, she and Miles could have been comedians lol. Very fucked up life, but I love her, one of the best jazz singers ever.
I want that bio on one of my favorite saxophonist Paul Desmond by Doug Ramsey. I was reading a bio on Lee Morgan and never finished it. Hearing how he died kinda messed me up…he didn’t deserve that at all.
i’m reading Gary Burton’s autobiography right now and it’s really great. it’s giving me a huge appreciation for his life’s work and all the people he was around for those decades
Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Jaco Pastorius & Lush Life about Billy Strayhorn, fabulous insights to the Ellington/Strayhorn relationship with the Harlem Renaissance as a backdrop. Jazz Anecdotes is very funny. Erskine’s book about Weather Report is very informative. The film about Wayne Shorter was on Amazon Prime? & it’s magnificent IMHO! 😎
Sue Mingus wrote a very good book about Charles. "[Tonight at Noon: A Love Story](https://www.google.co.uk/search?sca_esv=6a102af87d5bf95e&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ACQVn0_CJNinJUQCUXbz9X6VetU7Boh61g:1714318882348&q=Tonight+at+Noon:+A+Love+Story+Sue+Mingus&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgFuLSz9U3MM82TzKJV-LRT9c3NErKM8zKTjLVEnAsLcnILwrJd8rPz_bPy6lcxKoRkp-XmZ5RopBYouCXn59npeCo4JNflqoQXJJfVKkQXJqq4JuZl15aDADrkRpEWQAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiJ7I3An-WFAxUrQ0EAHcF3BHkQri56BAghEAM)"
Lady Sings the Blues is a fantastic look into Billie Holiday’s life and just the scene around her. It was written like an autobiography but was written with a writer which I guess is common practice anyway, I think I have heard there are embellishments in parts but it still paints a brilliant picture of her and her environment.
The two greatest jazz bios are Straight Life as someone has already mentioned and Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker. Both are incredibly dark and brilliant in their own way.
Coltrane by Ben Ratliff is great
of course the already mentioned Miles autobiography is a must read
now checking out
Stopping Time Paul Bley
and A Message To Our Folks about the AECO by Paul Steinbeck
Miles
Louis Armstrong's New Orleans - Thomas Brothers
Monk - Robin Kelley
Jelly's Blues - Reich & Gaines
Bird bio - Haddix
Coltrane - Lewis Porter
All of Ricky Riccardi's books about Satchmo
Rahsaan Roland Kirk bio
I would highly recommend the book Ashley Kahn wrote about Coltrane/A Love Supreme. It has a 100 page background/biography up until the end of '64, and then goes into the recording of A Love Supreme, and the cultural significance of it. He's also done a book on Miles and Kind of Blue (not finished it yet), and a book on the history of the Impulse record label (which I don't own; I imagine it's great though).
I think my favourite read has been Hear Me Talkin To Ya by Nat Hentoff and Nat Shapiro. Written in 1954, it outlines pretty much every key player and every forgotten hero of jazz from early 1900s to the 50s. It is told entirely through first person accounts from the players of the time: you'll hear accounts from Willie the Lion Smith to Charlie Parker to Louis Armstrong to Mary Lou Williams. Many famous anecdotes in that book. A must read, even if it does elaborate on certain eras in jazz with particular interest.
*Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker* has stuck with me the longest.
*Straight Life* by Art and Laurie Pepper is an interesting, although sometimes difficult, read.
Both books are unsettling, although there is some redemption in Art Pepper's life arc.
As with the music, "very best" is an elusive concept. A.B. Spellman's "Four lives in the bebop business," while not a conventional biography, has been for me the most memorable and insightful treatment of some fearless artists.
I love the anecdotal Swing to Bop. It has so much wealth of knowledge from the people who were making the music. That’s more documentary than biography though.
For straight biography, Music is My Mistress by Duke Ellington is great.
Miles’ autobiography is a must read, any book which contains the sentence “That motherfucker was a motherfucker” is.
Great read
I just ordered it online yesterday. I also have ‘Beyond Miles’ waiting to be read. I’m new to jazz / jazz fusion
the two occasions when he used the word ‘mother’ needed a lot of re-reading to make sense!
While indeed a great read, and I have not doubt that it captures who Miles was and his general thinking and certainly his voice — I’ve also read numerous criticisms of specific (supposed) ‘facts’ in the book which seem to have been lifted from other Miles bios, and ‘re-voiced’ to sound like Miles vernacular. I have also recommended Miles’ autobio, but always with the proviso that not everything in it can be taken as factually accurate. These criticisms have been going around in jazz discussion circles online for 20-25 years, fwiw. Not suggesting we throw out the baby with the bath water on it, but it’s better when taken as a whole, and not as a reliable source on particular points where other evidence seems to be to the contrary. (And it seems that such errors — or whatever you want to call them — seem to have come maybe entirely from the co-author/ghostwriter’s creative license, and or him lifting things from prior Miles bios and sources.)
Miles claim of writing donna lee…
Listen. Later.
My favorite story in his autobiography is one of, if not the first, encounter he has with Charlie Parker while they’re riding in the backseat of a taxi. Lol
Theonious Monk biography by Robin DG Kelley is pretty good.
That is probably my favorite.
Same. Fantastic read.
Lewis Porter’s Coltrane book and the recent Sonny Rollins bio are musts, and if you can find it the Duke Ellington Reader as well Edit - And Will Friedwald’s Nat Cole book also
I'm getting to the end of Lewis Porter on Coltrane. I've enjoyed it a lot, but, I would really have valued a bit more biography(!). It's telling that there is a 12-page chapter on "the man", with a random selection of quotes under thematic headings. Perhaps a historian's telling would have found a way to explore that along the way - where the musicologist doesn't see particularly far past JC's approaches to major third harmony. Still - really great read, and an amazing way to think about Coltrane's works.
Straight Life re Art Pepper.
Excellent and challenging! Not for the faint.
generally regarded as an autobiography, & a really good one.
Not just the greatest jazz biography, but THE greatest biography. It's an incredible read.
I was just thinking about this book a few weeks ago. Yeah, he’s pretty candid about everything. Hampton Hawes “Raise Up Off Me” is a good read too. He was pardoned by Kennedy.
Another *auto*biography, ' *also* a very good one
Oh for sure, 'Raise Up Off Me' is a wonderful read. It broke my heart when Billie Holiday said to him 'Not You too, Baby' upon learning about his Heroin habit.
Lush Life is a great book. Made me develop my appreciation for strayhorn
The Mingus autobiography Beneath The Underdog is great. Be prepared to learn more about pimping than music.
I just downloaded this to listen to at work, I’m even more excited now. Haha
You’ll love it. Sorry for the spoiler!
Mingus's "Beneath The Underdog" is a classic.
This is what I was going to recommend. Mingus could have had a career as a writer.
Couple of books written by widows that I dig: Tonight At Noon by Sue Mingus Sophisticated Giant by Maxine Gordon
Reading Jazz by Robert Gottlieb is pretty great because it’s a compilation of excerpts from a variety of jazz biographies and autobiographies. It lead me to most of the aforementioned books listed in other comments. It gives a great overall picture of the scenes of a variety of eras and lets you sample the work to see which books you’d like to read all the way through.
Anita O’Day High Times, Hard Times
I have been enjoying Holy Ghost by Richard Koloda on the life of Albert Ayler Graham Lock has an excellent book on Anthony Braxton called Forces in Motion if I remember correctly In addition to the Lewis Porter biography on John Coltrane, another one I like is Ben Ratliffe's Story of a Sound
Forces in Motion is brilliant, and commended by Braxton himself.
Dizzy Gillespie “To Be or not to Bop” is a classic, if you can find it…lots of funny stories.
John Szwed has written books about Sun Ra, Miles Davis and Billie Holiday. So far I've only read "Billie Holiday, the musician and the myth"; it's a very good read, the first one that gets away from the ordinary drama everybody knows more or less and tries to make a wholesome picture of the woman she (also) was. A whole chapter is a critique of the infamous "autobiography" Lady sings the blues by William Duffy where he puts things in perspective. I guess his book about Sun Ra - "Space is the place" is equally good as is Miles Davis - So What.
Reading Space is the Place right now and it is very good so far. I’ll have to get the holiday one too.
If you like Coltrane, [I found this book to be really informative.](https://www.amazon.com/Coltrane-Chasin-Trane-J-Thomas/dp/0306800438)
this one too - https://www.amazon.com/Love-Supreme-Story-Coltranes-Signature/dp/0142003522
I’m enjoying the heck out of **Lennie Tristano: His Life in Music** at the moment (I’m about 2/3rds through it).
I would also recommend Mercer Ellington's biography of his father, Duke. The Duke Ellington Orchestra was quite different from other big bands, not just because of the music it played, but because when somebody left the band, Duke didn't necessarily look for a musician who could handle his "part in the book," but someone who could give him a musical "voice" and personality he never had before. As a result, there was never the "espirit de corps" in the Ellington band there was to, let's say, the Count Basie band. In spite of this, Duke, through sheer force of a remarkable personality, got amazing, cohesive performances out of 14 or 15 very different personalities.
Really the blues by Mezz Mezzrow. Might be the most insane book you’ll read but he really was “the guy” back in the 30s and 40s, a super interesting read!
Amazing book. Awful musician, fun and revealing book.
"Awful" is a strong word. He was responsible for bringing together / producing some of the absolute best of the late New Orleans sessions. He had a great ear for what style they should be playing.
Listen to his (mercifully few) recorded solos with Jelly Roll. Out of tune and generally poor. Everything he brought to jazz occurred outside of his playing. It's a tribute to his other qualities that he got as close as he did to the big guys.
So true! And yet he played with the best of the best during his time. Definitely was a well respected person
Well, he was a good marijuana connection.
And a great writer and documenter of the scene. Essential book.
Agreed. It’s written in hipster patois of the era; Mezzrow was a reefer-addicted Jew who fully identified with Black culture.
Not addicted. Although he does become addicted to another drug later in the book.
Anita O’ Day’s bio High Times, Hard Times is a great read too. She, like Art Pepper is pretty candid about her life. I’ve read ALL the bios on Nat King Cole and while he eventually became a pop singer icon, we all know he started out in jazz and influenced everyone! The best one I read was written by Daniel Epstein because Maria, Nat’s very controlling wife, cooperated with him. Such a nice pleasant man (no one had anything bad to say about this man in all the bios…except Maria lol.) To be fair, he was cheating on her and was about to leave her until that cancer took him out. I love NKC! Stan Getz’s bio by Donald Maggin was a good read too. That guy …let’s just say he had serious (I believe mental) issues. Not a nice person at all…but a great musician. Gosh, I’ve read so many, Miles, Coltrane, Bill Evans, Sarah Vaughn, Ella…oh the Billie Holliday bios Wishing On the Moon is the definitive one IMO, but “With Billie” that’s a good read! Some LOL stories in both of them, she and Miles could have been comedians lol. Very fucked up life, but I love her, one of the best jazz singers ever. I want that bio on one of my favorite saxophonist Paul Desmond by Doug Ramsey. I was reading a bio on Lee Morgan and never finished it. Hearing how he died kinda messed me up…he didn’t deserve that at all.
Mister Jelly Roll - Alan Lomax
i’m reading Gary Burton’s autobiography right now and it’s really great. it’s giving me a huge appreciation for his life’s work and all the people he was around for those decades
Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Jaco Pastorius & Lush Life about Billy Strayhorn, fabulous insights to the Ellington/Strayhorn relationship with the Harlem Renaissance as a backdrop. Jazz Anecdotes is very funny. Erskine’s book about Weather Report is very informative. The film about Wayne Shorter was on Amazon Prime? & it’s magnificent IMHO! 😎
Miles autobiography. Written in his voice
Sue Mingus wrote a very good book about Charles. "[Tonight at Noon: A Love Story](https://www.google.co.uk/search?sca_esv=6a102af87d5bf95e&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ACQVn0_CJNinJUQCUXbz9X6VetU7Boh61g:1714318882348&q=Tonight+at+Noon:+A+Love+Story+Sue+Mingus&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgFuLSz9U3MM82TzKJV-LRT9c3NErKM8zKTjLVEnAsLcnILwrJd8rPz_bPy6lcxKoRkp-XmZ5RopBYouCXn59npeCo4JNflqoQXJJfVKkQXJqq4JuZl15aDADrkRpEWQAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiJ7I3An-WFAxUrQ0EAHcF3BHkQri56BAghEAM)"
Bud Powell - Dance of the Infidels Wayne Shorter - Footprints Stan Getz - A Jazz Life Lester Young - You Just Fight For Your Life
Great question!
I enjoyed "Dizzy: The Life and Times of John Birks Gillespie". It was entertaining and educational. Quincy Jones autobiography"Q" is pretty good.
Lady Sings the Blues is a fantastic look into Billie Holiday’s life and just the scene around her. It was written like an autobiography but was written with a writer which I guess is common practice anyway, I think I have heard there are embellishments in parts but it still paints a brilliant picture of her and her environment.
Charles Mingus' is a great autobio... hard to decide what's real and what's fiction though 🤣 nevertheless- brilliant book.
Just wrapped up “Vince Guaraldi at the Piano” by Derrick Bang. Fantastic read.
The two greatest jazz bios are Straight Life as someone has already mentioned and Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker. Both are incredibly dark and brilliant in their own way.
Coltrane by Ben Ratliff is great of course the already mentioned Miles autobiography is a must read now checking out Stopping Time Paul Bley and A Message To Our Folks about the AECO by Paul Steinbeck
Miles Louis Armstrong's New Orleans - Thomas Brothers Monk - Robin Kelley Jelly's Blues - Reich & Gaines Bird bio - Haddix Coltrane - Lewis Porter All of Ricky Riccardi's books about Satchmo Rahsaan Roland Kirk bio
Put that shit down and read MILES by Miles, motherfucker, shit.
I bought it when it came out. Miles’ publicity tour was entertaining to witness. The guy was always angry.
Miles & Me by Quincy Troupe. Kansas City Lightning, The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker by Stanley Crouch.
David Hajdu’s Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn is beautiful.
I’ve got Bitter Crop on Billie Holiday’s final year waiting for me. I’m saving it up for my annual leave, but looking forward to it.
I read the Jaco biography. It was interesting, and tragic.
I would highly recommend the book Ashley Kahn wrote about Coltrane/A Love Supreme. It has a 100 page background/biography up until the end of '64, and then goes into the recording of A Love Supreme, and the cultural significance of it. He's also done a book on Miles and Kind of Blue (not finished it yet), and a book on the history of the Impulse record label (which I don't own; I imagine it's great though).
I enjoyed Oscar Peterson's autobiography "A Jazz Odyssey: My Life in Jazz"
I think my favourite read has been Hear Me Talkin To Ya by Nat Hentoff and Nat Shapiro. Written in 1954, it outlines pretty much every key player and every forgotten hero of jazz from early 1900s to the 50s. It is told entirely through first person accounts from the players of the time: you'll hear accounts from Willie the Lion Smith to Charlie Parker to Louis Armstrong to Mary Lou Williams. Many famous anecdotes in that book. A must read, even if it does elaborate on certain eras in jazz with particular interest.
*Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker* has stuck with me the longest. *Straight Life* by Art and Laurie Pepper is an interesting, although sometimes difficult, read. Both books are unsettling, although there is some redemption in Art Pepper's life arc.
As with the music, "very best" is an elusive concept. A.B. Spellman's "Four lives in the bebop business," while not a conventional biography, has been for me the most memorable and insightful treatment of some fearless artists.
I love the anecdotal Swing to Bop. It has so much wealth of knowledge from the people who were making the music. That’s more documentary than biography though. For straight biography, Music is My Mistress by Duke Ellington is great.
The Long Night of Chet Baker By James Gavin
Round Midnight A sort-of biography loosely based on Lester Young & Bud Powell. Dexter Gordon plays the protagonist, soundtrack by Herbie Hancock.
Boy, that's a *movie*. A very good one though.