For Louis Armstrong, Ellington-Strayhorn, and now Miles Dewey Davis, there are now five-foot shelves of books describing their lives and legacies from every conceivable aspect. Some of these books are just hagiographic—the jazz equivalents of “lives of the saints.” More are conventional biographies—what happened and when, but with little explanation of why or how, from a musical point of view. Only a few accounts (can you think of any?) provide in-depth, musically knowledgeable analyses of a major jazz figure's total body of recorded work, and the circumstances of its creation.

This book by Richard Cook, a British music writer, critic, and producer, is of this third, rare sort. He uncovers and explains Miles' beginnings, his development as a player and leader, his greatest recorded contributions to jazz art, and, toward the end, the leaching away of his talent and his importance in the music. All this provides a valuable new understanding of Miles—his style, his people, his legacy—for both musicians and fans.

Cook describes the circumstances surrounding all the Davis recordings that most musicians and fans would consider essential. He gives fine-grained attention, within each key recording, of the interplay of the musicians involved—and of the important, less-understood significance of composers, recording engineers, agents, and venue managers. He shows convincingly how all these people, factors, and influences contribute to the Miles legacy, both as an artist and as a cultural icon.

Coming at the Miles Davis story from the angle of the recorded oeuvre focuses attention on the essentials of his role and legacy in jazz history. Now one can dispense with much else on the five-foot Miles bookshelf—such as his ghosted, cliché-ridden, obscenity-laced, “don't-touch-me-I'm-a-star” autobiography. Cook provides biographical details only when needed to explain the importance of the artistic result—of a gig, a given musical collaboration, or a recording. Using his explanations of what happened and why on each record date, you can hear with greater understanding and interest whatever Miles recordings you hear.

The book as a whole is ingeniously structured and skillfully crafted. You get a good feel for what happened at each stage in Miles' career, and why. Each section of the book is organized around a cluster of recordings that marks a stage in Miles' artistic development, or his changing approach to the music. For example, the chapter So What? – 1958-59 , focuses strongly on the world-renowned, still best-selling recording Kind of Blue , but includes discussion of what led up to and followed this Milestone—an archive, by the way, that's still available on vinyl or CD.

Equally informative is the description of recordings from Chicago 's Plugged Nickel club (for more on that gig and its importance, see the review, in this issue, of a recent Wayne Shorter biography). Cook suggests listening to these Plugged Nickel recordings—some eight CDs—in chronological order. “It's the most comprehensive and authentic recording of [what it's like on] a gig, all night long, for several nights.”

From 1980 until his passing, Miles played and recorded ever less adequately (because of poor health, substance abuse, and ennui), yet became ever more an icon, musically and culturally. Cook properly deplores this, as well as the posthumous Miles cult that has been pandered to and exploited by issuance of multi-CD packages of meaningless outtakes and redundant reissues. (This also has befallen the recorded legacy of Armstrong and Ellington.)

With this skillfully designed, conscientiously crafted, elegant study, Richard Cook greatly nourishes and sustains the continuing huge interest in and admiration for what Miles Davis, along with his compatriots and collaborators, continue to contribute to the world of music.

—Charlton Price

Bird's Horn & Other Poems
Kevin Rabas
Introduction by Dan Jaffe
Coal City Review Press, 2007

Last Road Trip (CD)
Kevin Rabas
Personnel: Kevin Rabas , poems, drums; Josh Sclar, tenor sax

Tracks: Birds Horn; Don't Wait; Last Road Trip; Clothes Left in Washer; Magic; The Moon; Love at Once; Poem on a Line by Issa; First Evening; Obvious Child (P. Simon) ; Central Kansas Blues; Night Firing; Calling You Back; Peonies; Evening Fishing; Eden or Lucas, Kansas; Reseed; Jackhammer Man; Jackhammer Man #2; Other Loves; One Pink Balloon; Byrntof; Indescretion; Break, Break, Break (Tennyson).

Kevin Rabas , English Professor at Emporia State University, drummer, recent PhD, and long-time contributor to JAM ( have you caught his reviews?), has released a collection of poetry, Bird's Horn & Other Poems, and a CD of jazz poetry with accompaniment.

Being a drummer just good enough to know I wasn't good enough, and a writer who can't wax poetic, I was eager to review this two-fer from Kevin. How does he come across in each medium? I wanted to find out. Not to persuade you to accept my views, but to encourage you to discover for yourself what you think Kevin is trying to do by telling his story both in print and aloud. As Lester Young is said to have murmured softly to star saxman Sonny Stitt, “That's very pretty, Lady Stitt, but what's your story?”

For sure Rabas is telling a story, especially in his readings on the CD. As you hear the voice you pay ever-closer attention. What he lays on a printed page is intensely personal. But upon hearing his readings I came to sense how personal that story is.

Many memorable poems can take the poet, a reader, or a listener to moods and musings unforeseen. Where does this take you?

Bird's Horn
in the spirit of Jimmy “Little Bird” Heath, bop saxophonist

Nights, I lent him my horn.
Afternoons, I wrapped my hands
around the horn Bird blew.
This was not unusual. Bird was often
without a horn. He'd blow into town, and everyone
would offer him one. He'd play anything.
Played a plastic saxophone, especially made,
just above the level of a toy in Toronto , I'm told.
They kept it. Put it in a museum.
Piece of plastic, played once, full of only
his spit. I didn't learn a damn thing from him,
except to keep my hands
on my horn, keep my
hands on my horn
whatever horn I had.
— Kevin Rabas , from Bird's Horn and Other Poems

The title poem is from the first of four groupings of poems, “The Sound of it All” (jazz themed), “Against Gravity”, “Address Unknown”, and “ A Thousand Ways of Holding”. The jazz-themed poems include his “At the Jam”, a jamming story set in Jardine's, and poems for fellow drummers Artt Frank, Art Blakey, and Todd Strait .

So is it best to read or to listen? Perhaps we must read rather than listen, as hearing a poem in our head and in our own ‘voice' can make it our own. Kevin's volume is successful in reaching that end. But hearing Kevin's voice made it possible to get closer to his meaning. Whether read or heard, the volume is a remarkable achievement.

The book and CD are available from Kevin at www.kevinrabas.com , or email him at krabas@emporia.edu.

—Charlton Price

RETURN TO AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2007 MAIN INDEX


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