Clawing at the Limits of Cool

“This marvelous book constitutes a much-needed paradigm shift in the story of jazz—a shift that skillfully fuses cultural and music criticism with a rich historical sensibility that highlights black genius as an artistic exploration and an existential adventure against the backdrop of our flawed democratic experiment called America. Griffin and Washington are preeminent critics of our time!”—Cornel West, author of Race Matters

“Griffin and Washington explore the lives of two of the geniuses of twentieth-century music and follow them as their paths crossed to form what Amiri Baraka once called the ‘all-time classical hydrogen bomb and switchblade band.’ Though neither Miles Davis nor John Coltrane were wont to elaborate on their work in words, their lives and their music nonetheless still speak to us. This lucid and graceful book situates these two men in their times, listens closely to what they played, and the result is a social and musical history that is rich and always illuminating.”—John Szwed, author of So What: The Life of Miles Davis

“Griffin and saxophonist and jazz educator Washington examine two giants of modern jazz, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, both from a musical and a historical/social perspective. The authors' division of labor sometimes causes a slight disruption of the chronology so that time periods and recordings that are addressed in terms of African American social history reappear in discussions of the complicated development of their musical relationship. Biographical detail in the early chapters will be familiar to many, but following the two lives as they run parallel, converge, and diverge amid the turbulent background of the 1950s and 1960s offers a fresh focus. The authors rely on interviews with those who knew both men, particularly Davis's protégé Wallace Roney, who offers insightful personal and musical observations. The discography is valuable, and readers will want to seek out recordings after encountering the perceptive analyses in the text. This is a readable and important addition to the growing body of literature on these key figures.”—Mark Woodhouse, Library Journal

“Griffin and saxophonist/composer Washington pull readers into the world of Miles Davis and John Coltrane during their collaborations between 1955 and 1960, addressing the prescient dialogue their music engaged with the African-American experience and American culture as a whole. The authors bring the music to life with clarity, passion and detail, rarely straying into hyperbole or undue superlative. Largely avoiding technical pedantry or dull description, they put forth a cogent synthesis of musicological and cultural analysis. They offer admirably complete individual discussions of Davis's and Coltrane's personal histories to contextualize this historically unique musical partnership. The focus at times skews more toward Davis, whose public and private personality became part of celebrity culture in a way that cult-figure Coltrane never would. Indeed, the book's greatest strengths emerge during the authors' close study of Davis. Griffin and Washington's sonic definition of ‘cool’ embraces not only the trumpeter's highly individualized musical sound, but his personal style, behavior and performance mannerisms as well. Fresh hearings of Kind of Blue and Milestones would assist readers with some of the more specific musical discussions. An artfully crafted reminder that, at its best, jazz was and is as much a cultural mode as a musical genre.”—Kirkus Reviews

“For a few years following 1955, John Coltrane performed in a band led by Miles Davis; it was during this period, Griffin and Washington remind us, that Coltrane came into his own as a saxophonist and a jazz innovator. Washington's own jazz background leads to some intricately detailed musical analysis—so detailed that without the recordings at hand, untrained readers may well find themselves at a loss. Beyond that, the thesis is thin, relying on biographical recaps that emphasize the experiential gap between Davis, whose sound was hitting its first mature phase, and Coltrane, who was still in the process of finding himself as a musician (and simultaneously struggling with drug addiction). Where Ben Ratliff's recent Coltrane: The Story of a Sound probed, this study appears to glide on its subjects' reputations. The connection between Davis and Coltrane's musical awakenings and the rise of the civil rights movement seems obvious, but is largely suggested rather than demonstrated. Similarly, a hasty closing proposition, which likens the pair to trickster gods conducting ‘an epic and heroic spiritual battle,’ falls flat.”—Publishers Weekly