Miles Ahead: The Restless Genius Who Remade Jazz Five Times Over
From bebop prodigy to electric provocateur, Miles Davis never stopped reinventing the music
A Love Supreme: Coltrane's Spiritual Peak
John Coltrane recorded A Love Supreme in a single session on December 9, 1964. He was thirty-eight years old. He never made another record quite like it.
Albert Ayler and the Scream
Albert Ayler's saxophone was the most extreme thing jazz had heard. It was also rooted in gospel and folk melody. Both came from the same place.
Bitches Brew and the Birth of Fusion
Miles Davis recorded Bitches Brew in August 1969 with no written parts. He invented a genre in three days. He did not ask for permission.
"The music is the teacher. You have to be willing to be the student every single time you sit down to play."— Wayne Shorter
Ornette Coleman: The Shape of Jazz to Come
Ornette Coleman's 1959 debut on Atlantic doesn't sound like what people say free jazz sounds like. That's the first thing worth knowing about it.
Irreversible Entanglements: Soundscapes from the Edge of Now
There is no irony in Irreversible Entanglements. Their urgency is total, their fury earned, their tenderness genuinely tender.
