Ian Carr's Miles Davis

[GA Russell]

The eBook of Miles Davis: The Definitive Biography by Ian Carr is on sale today for $2.99.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001R4CO48

[felser]

11 hours ago, GA Russell said:

The eBook of Miles Davis: The Definitive Biography by Ian Carr is on sale today for $2.99.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001R4CO48

How good is the book?  No shortage of Miles Davis books on my shelves.

[JSngry]

It's good 

[Guy Berger]

I am not a big fan.  Like a lot of Davis’s biographers, Carr lets his opinions as a fan get the better of him.

[Rooster_Ties]

8 hours ago, Guy Berger said:

I am not a big fan.  Like a lot of Davis’s biographers, Carr lets his opinions as a fan get the better of him.

How about John Szwed’s Miles bio?

[clifford_thornton]

Don't forget that Carr was a hugely important musician and composer on the British jazz scene, so his lens on Miles is quite interesting, especially as his music evolved along not-dissimilar lines. Not a total acolyte, but there are some obvious parallels for sure. I like the book though it has been a very long time since I read it.

[JSngry]

Carr's book was highly lauded in its day.

I liked it. He knew what he was talking about, musically.

[colinmce]

On 11/9/2025 at 9:48 PM, Guy Berger said:

I am not a big fan.  Like a lot of Davis’s biographers, Carr lets his opinions as a fan get the better of him.

Haven't read the Carr, but I do like Jack Chambers' bio quite a bit. It does however have a bit of the opposite problem wherein Chambers is unrelentingly critical of the music, not unlike Gunther Schuller in his early jazz and swing books. You'll learn just about everything you need to know about Miles' day to day but come away with the conclusion he only recorded a small handful of truly successful pieces. That said, an interesting perspective that's worth hearing out.  

[medjuck]

1 hour ago, colinmce said:

Haven't read the Carr, but I do like Jack Chambers' bio quite a bit. It does however have a bit of the opposite problem wherein Chambers is unrelentingly critical of the music, not unlike Gunther Schuller in his early jazz and swing books. You'll learn just about everything you need to know about Miles' day to day but come away with the conclusion he only recorded a small handful of truly successful pieces. That said, an interesting perspective that's worth hearing out.  

Miles seems to have had Chambers' book in hand when he did his "autobiography".

[JSngry]

20 minutes ago, medjuck said:

Miles seems to have had Chambers' book in hand when he did his "autobiography".

Or Quincy Troupe...

[T.D.]

1 hour ago, medjuck said:

Miles seems to have had Chambers' book in hand when he did his "autobiography".

That's long been rumored and I think it's plausible. I read Davis/Troupe first, then Chambers.

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Or Quincy Troupe...

Yeah, Troupe is the guy who should take the rap for any plagiarism, sloppiness, etc.

[colinmce]

In a later edition there's a short forward by Chambers explaining the whole thing. 

[Rooster_Ties]

On 11/10/2025 at 6:19 AM, Rooster_Ties said:

How about John Szwed’s Miles bio?

Answering myself, though it’s been a decade since I’ve read it — I especially recall Szwed’s Miles bio as being really wonderfully written.

Been as many or more years since I’ve read his Sun Ra bio too — but I specifically remembering coming away from reading So What thinking just was a truly great example of writing it was (a joy to read, iirc, its use of language, etc. — not necessarily overly flowery or anything, but it was just a really well-told story, in addition to however good the content was).  And also, how it seemed to cover areas of Miles’ life that I hadn’t read about as often as I had in the 3 or 4 (or 5?) other Miles bios I’d read prior.

[Guy Berger]

9 hours ago, colinmce said:

Haven't read the Carr, but I do like Jack Chambers' bio quite a bit. It does however have a bit of the opposite problem wherein Chambers is unrelentingly critical of the music, not unlike Gunther Schuller in his early jazz and swing books. You'll learn just about everything you need to know about Miles' day to day but come away with the conclusion he only recorded a small handful of truly successful pieces. That said, an interesting perspective that's worth hearing out.  

I think Chambers has some pluses and considerable minuses.

 

The pluses - it’s comprehensive as far ans official recordings go and he mines a lot of secondary sources.

However, he has serious blind spots / cluelessness on Miles’s music starting in the mid 1960s that get worse and worse the later you go.  His coverage of the electric era is mostly a waste (except to get a flavor of how that music went over many jazz listeners’ heads).  There are also some discography errors that suggest he wasn’t a close listener.

I also think it’s unfortunate that he didn’t do any primary research when nearly all the musicians who played with Miles were still alive.  None of the other, better biographers had that luxury.

I think Carr’s bio is better, as is Tingen’s.  I haven’t read Szwed’s yet!

[JSngry]

14 minutes ago, Guy Berger said:

I think Chambers has some pluses and considerable minuses.

 

The pluses - it’s comprehensive as far ans official recordings go and he mines a lot of secondary sources.

However, he has serious blind spots / cluelessness on Miles’s music starting in the mid 1960s that get worse and worse the later you go.  His coverage of the electric era is mostly a waste (except to get a flavor of how that music went over many jazz listeners’ heads).  There are also some discography errors that suggest he wasn’t a close listener.

I also think it’s unfortunate that he didn’t do any primary research when nearly all the musicians who played with Miles were still alive.  None of the other, better biographers had that luxury.

I think Carr’s bio is better, as is Tingen’s.  I haven’t read Szwed’s yet!

This.