3 Shades of Blue

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

By: James Kaplan

Narrated by: Dion Graham

The National Bestseller • One of The Minneapolis Star Tribune's Best Books of the Year

“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 three towering artists—Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Bill Evans—and how they came together to create the most iconic jazz album of all time, Kind of Blue

In 1959, America’s great indigenous art form, jazz, reached the height of its power and popularity. James Kaplan’s magnificent 3 Shades of Blue captures how that golden era came to be, and its pinnacle with the recording of Kind of Blue. It’s a book about music, and business, and race, and heroin, and the cities that gave jazz its home, and the Black geniuses behind its rise. It’s an astonishing meditation on creativity and the strange environments where it can flourish most. It’s a book about the great forebears and founders of a lost era, and the disrupters 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—the greatness and varied fortunes of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Bill Evans. The tapestry of their lives is, in Kaplan’s hands, a national 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

“[Kaplan is] a master biographer, a dogged researcher and shaper of narrative, and this is his most ambitious book to date . . . he shows his instinct for juggling and connecting multiple stories and characters without taking his eye off the big picture . . . a compulsively readable work of fine synthesis and perspective . . . a superb book.”—Los Angeles Times

“James Kaplan’s new effort, 3 Shades of Blue, raises the bar . . . At a time when jazz is reemergent and viral, seeping into virtually every musical genre (and vice versa), we are fortunate that the author has conjured this hothouse flower of a book—as rarified, intricate, and haunting as an orchid.”—David Friend, Vanity Fair

“‘This is the story of the three geniuses who joined forces to create one of the great classics in Western music,’ Mr. Kaplan writes . . . Kaplan does a wonderful job synthesizing sources to produce a compelling narrative history. His own interviews add a lot as well. His technical descriptions of the music are accessible and useful.”—Wall Street Journal

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.

Terrific interesting view of important era

This compelling narrative is a treasure trove of stories and biography of artists on the move. It also illuminates the sad history of lives of great artists ruined by drug abuse.

The history of 3 jazz greats

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

Captivating story

You don’t have to be a lover of jazz music to appreciate the story about three of the most influential artists of the genre. Highly recommended

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.

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!

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.

Three immortals who lived very mortal lives.

A great journey through the lives of three musical geniuses. There is a lot of legendary that has accrued to classic jazz and its most famous players, and this book deftly navigates through the mythology to deliver well-rounded portraits of its subjects. The various jazz players who knew these men through the years are well represented through quotes and interviews, and they help build a full picture of three lives restlessly spent questing for new sounds and developing their artistry, but also succumbing to the rigors of substance abuse that shortened those lives. Their work is immortal, even if they were not. The audiobook is expertly and perfectly performed by Dion Graham.

A fresh look at three jazz giants

I deeply enjoyed this three part biography. It gave a fresh and unique look at the three giants of jazz. Most attention was spent on Miles, with perhaps too little on Evans. The treatment of Coltrane did not yield much new insights, but given the private nature of the man, the author should not be faulted for that. The story seemed to end too abruptly. Also, I was left longing for more knowledge of a link between then and now, or even whether one exists. The author often left the impression that the jazz art form is dead or almost so. I was left wondering if he had written a similar treatment of say Bach, Beethoven, etc would he also say that classical music is dead? Why must we always return to this proclamation about jazz? Certainly it has something to do with society’s radicalized treatment of the art form and musicians. Nevertheless, I learned much in this book about the epochs of the music and its leading practitioners. I have recommended it highly to my friends. Thanks much to the author for the incredible and tedious hard work putting this together. It deserves a serious read by the lovers of jazz and music art forms.