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Miles Davis

By Brian Morton

(Haus, 176pp., £10.99)

miles-davisThis book is presumably aimed at the Ashley Kahn market (he wrote the studies of Kind of Blue and A Love Supreme): those wishing to dip their toe in the jazz world.

Morton can never be anything but lucid and pithy, and this short study lays out all the major areas of contention and controversy surrounding the great man, runs briskly but perceptively through all his recorded output, and sets his life firmly in its cultural and social context. It may not contain much that the aficionado doesn’t know already, and it does, it must be said, contain more than its fair share of misprints and misspellings (most seriously, Thelonius instead of Thelonious), but for those wishing to introduce themselves to the life and work of one of jazz’s most celebrated practitioners, it’s ideal.