Living Space: John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Free Jazz, from Analog to Digital

Examines John Coltrane’s ＂late period＂ and Miles Davis’s ＂Lost Quintet＂ through the prisms of digital architecture and experimental photography

Living Space: John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Free Jazz, from Analog to Digital fuses biography and style history in order to illuminate the music of two jazz icons, while drawing on the discourses of photography and digital architecture to fashion musical insights that may not be available through the traditional language of jazz analysis. The book follows the controversial trajectories of two jazz legends, emerging from the 1959 album Kind of Blue. Coltrane’s odyssey through what became known as ＂free jazz＂ brought stylistic (r)evolution and chaos in equal measure. Davis’s spearheading of ＂jazz-rock fusion＂ opened a door through which jazz’s ongoing dialogue with the popular tradition could be regenerated, engaging both high and low ideas of creativity, community, and commerce. Includes 42 illustrations.

MICHAEL E. VEAL (New York, NY) is Henry L. and Lucy G. Moses Professor of Music at Yale University. His books include Fela: The Life and Times of an African Musical Icon, Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae and Tony Allen: Master Drummer of Afrobeat.