Biographies like "Milestones" for other artists?

[nmorin]

I love Jack Chambers' biography of Miles, "Milestones". It does a great job of being equal parts narrative on Miles' life and a nice "musical biography" of essentially all his studio sessions through '83 (though Chambers is more critical of Miles' electric years than I would be by a good bit).

Are there any biographies of other major jazz artists that do such a nice job of pulling double duty as narrative and musical biographies?

[Guy Berger]

I think Chambers is alright (and there aren't many good alternatives), but it's riddled with errors and it would have been nice to have primary sources.

Porter's biography of John Coltrane is excellent though he doesn't discuss every session. Some parts are a little technical.

Guy

[Rooster_Ties]

I'm not sure this is what you're looking for (and perhaps it isn't), but allow me to wholeheartedly recommend the single most interesting jazz bio I've read in years, and that's John Szwed's recent book "So What: The Life of Miles Davis" -- one of the best written books of any kind, that I've ever read.

Though I certainly liked Szwed's bio of Sun Ra as well (and not just cuz my name appears in the “thanks” section in the intro B-) ), I don't remember it being as engaging as the Miles book. Having recently re-read his bio of Miles, I'm eager to revisit the Sun Ra book sometime soon.

Side question: Has anybody read Szwed's recent general jazz guide/book: "Jazz 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Jazz"?? Any thoughts??

[bertrand]

If you want a book just like Milestones, pick up the Miles autobiography - a lot of quotes attributed to Miles are actually lifted verbatim from Chambers' narrative (i.e., Miles did not actually say things like 'Wayne was the catalyst, the idea man').

I flipped through jazz 101 once but was turned off by statements such as 'the standard organ trio is organ, bass and drums'. That's not the standard trio - that's a Shirley-Scottesque fluke.

Bertrand.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

I don't see what is so special about the format of Milestones. Basically, the format that it uses is very common. Jazz biographies tell the life of the subject in chronological sequence, with particular attention paid to the historical documents (the recordings). So, with some exceptions, we're talking about pretty much every jazz biography. There have been some good recommendations so far, but it comes down to the author, I think - whether he or she has done the necessary research and whether this research is presented clearly and compellingly.

The one thing that is different about Milestones is that it actually has bits of discography placed in with the text. Personally I find this annoying and would have preferred a discography section (I still prefer the Ian Carr book to the Chambers. I own but haven't read the Szwed, but I liked the little I did look at). If in fact that's what you're looking for, I can't think of another example.

Mike