James Kaplan
The Wall Street Journal recently reviewed 3 Shades of Blue and included it in their “17 Books We Read This Week” roundup.
“Mr. Kaplan does a wonderful job synthesizing sources to produce a compelling narrative history. His own interviews add a lot as well. His technical descriptions of the music are accessible and useful.” – Gerald Early, The Wall Street Journal
3 Shades is officially out. Purchase it now from Bookshop.org or Kaplan’s publisher Penguin.
“Fascinating, detailed and comprehensive . . . Kaplan—who also penned the two-volume definitive look at the life of one Francis Albert Sinatra—goes into similar depth here . . . 3 Shades of Blue—like the best of music books—just sends you back to the source.” —Houston Press
“Elegant and elegiac, 3 Shades of Blue tells stories of ambition and anxiety, collaborations and clashes, musical innovation and racial discrimination.” —The Minneapolis Star Tribune
“[Kaplan] writes like a dream . . . As an overview of musical magnificence, this book cannot be bettered.” — Jazz Journal
Publications that have gotten their hands on early copies of 3 Shades of Blue have great things to say. Order the book now from Bookshop.org or Kaplan’s publisher Penguin.
Read an excerpt from author James Kaplan’s newest book 3 Shades of Blue ahead of its publishing date on March 5th 2024 via Esquire Magazine. 3 Shades of Blue is available now from Bookshop.org and Kaplan’s publisher Penguin.
3 SHADES OF BLUE interview by Brett McKay, host of The Art of Manliness Podcast — RELEASE DATE TK
3 SHADES OF BLUE interview by Gary R. Zidek, Arts/Public Affairs Director for Chicago jazz stations WDCB 90.9 FM & WRTE 90.7 FM theartssection.org — AIR DATE TK
3 SHADES OF BLUE interview by Lee Mergner, Associate Producer, Editorial Content for Newark, N.J. jazz station WBGO, 88.3 FM & www.wbgo.org — AIR DATE TK
The rights to 3 Shades of Blue have now been sold around the world in Brazil and South Korea. Check back soon for the cover art from these different countries!
Below is a gallery of images selected from the book. James Kaplan and his team conducted extensive research to bring these images together and there is a wider selection in the book. Click on the image to see it full screen.
Please note these images are copyright their respective owners and not for reproduction. If you are interested in using any of these images (these and more appear in the book) please contact the publisher.
(© Sony Music Entertainment.)
(© The National Library of Norway.)
(© The National Library of Norway.)
(© The National Library of Norway.)
Elvin Jones of the John Coltrane Classic Quartet, October 23, 1963. Photos: Randi Hultin.
(© The National Library of Norway.)
THE LOST EMPIRE OF COOL
“Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself.”
– Miles Davis
“A superb book…[Kaplan is] a master biographer, a dogged researcher and shaper of narrative, and this is his most ambitious book to date.”
—Los Angeles Times
(© Chris Cameron 1986.)
From the author of the definitive biography of Frank Sinatra, the story of how jazz arrived at the pinnacle of American culture in 1959, told through the journey of three towering artists–Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Bill Evans–who came together to create the most famous and bestselling jazz album of all time, Kind of Blue.
The myth of the 60s depends on the 1950s being the before times of conformity, segregation, straightness–The Lonely Crowd and The Organization Man. This all carries some truth, but it does nothing to explain how, in 1959, the great indigenous art form, jazz, reached the height of its power and popularity, led there by a number of Black geniuses so iconic they go by one name–Monk, Mingus, Rollins, Coltrane, and above all, Miles. 1959 saw Miles, Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the other members of Miles’s sextet come together to record what is widely considered the greatest jazz album of all time, and certainly the best-selling: Kind of Blue.
3 Shades of Blue is James Kaplan’s magnificent account of the paths of the three giants Miles, Coltrane and Evans to the mountaintop of 1959 and their path on from there. It’s a book about music, and business, and race, and heroin, and the towns that gave jazz its home, from New York and LA to Philadelphia, Chicago and Kansas City. It’s an astonishing meditation on creativity and the strange hothouses that can produce its full flowering.
It’s a book about the great forebears of this golden age, particularly Charlie Parker, and the people, like Ornette Coleman, who would take the music down strange new paths. And it’s about why this period has never been replicated, why the world of jazz most people visit is a museum to it.But above all this is a book about three very different men–their struggles, their choices, their tragedies, their greatness. Bill Evans had a gruesome downward spiral, John Coltrane took the mystic’s path into a space far away from mainstream concerns. Miles had three or four sea changes in him before the end. The tapestry of their lives is, in Kaplan’s hands, an American Odyssey, with no direction home. It is also a masterpiece, a book about jazz that is as big as America.
MILES DAVIS
JOHN COLTRANE
(© The National Library of Norway.)
BILL EVANS
(© Jan Persson/ CTSIMAGES.)
The Photos used on this page are just a selection from those you can see in 3 Shades of Blue. You can also visit the photo gallery on this site.
James Kaplan’s 3 Shades of Blue Playlists
Click on the button below to open the Apple Music playlist in a new window so you can listen to the recordings while you browse the site.
Below is the Spotify playlist for 3 Shades of Blue. You can play it directly on this site, or add it to your own Spotify account.