Miles Davis: The Definitive Biography »

Ian Carr was born in Scotland and educated at Kings College, Newcastle. He is a professional musician who has done regular jazz broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and has written for the BBC Music Magazine. He is the author of Music Outside (1973) and Keith Jarrett, the Man and his Music (1991).

This exhaustively researched, revised edition of Ian Carr's classic biography throws new light on Davis' life and career: from the early days in New York with Charlie Parker; to the Birth of Cool; through his drug addiction in the early 1950s and the years of extraordinary achievements (1954-1960), during which he signed with Columbia and collaborated with such unequaled talents as John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly and Cannonball Adderly. Carr also explores Davis' dark, reclusive period (1975-1980), offering firsthand accounts of his descent into addiction, as well as his dramatic return to life and music.

Carr has talked with the people who knew Miles and his music best including Bill Evans, Joe Zawinul, Keith Jarrett, and Jack DeJohnette, and has conducted interviews with Ron Carter, Max Roach, John Scofield and others.

Library Journal

Carr has not merely updated but substantially overhauled and enhanced his earlier life story of musician Miles Davis (Miles Davis: A Biography, LJ 9/1/82), already a fine biography. This new work charts Davis's musical career up to his death in 1991 and includes new interviews with jazz greats such as Max Roach and Bill Evans. Using a mixture of lay and technical terms, this often-riveting examination provides a balanced assessment of the importance of Davis to the world of music, particularly jazz. Carr's discussion of Davis's numerous recordings inexplicably treats those of 1974-75 offhandedly, particularly in comparison to all the space devoted to Davis's final ten years of recordings; there is a shade too much praise for these later documents. Carr redeems himself by concluding the book with his thoughtful obituary, originally published at the time of Davis's passing. Recommended for public, academic, and music libraries.--William Kenz, Moorhead State Univ. Lib., MN Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.