Miles Davis centennial marked by new biography and album reissue

The centennial of jazz legend Miles Davis is being marked by new biographical works and high-fidelity musical reissues.

In Germany, music journalist Stefan Hentze has released a new biography titled ‘Miles Davis. Sound eines Lebens’ (Miles Davis. Sound of a Life). The book explores the duality of Davis’s artistic genius and his personal complexities. To promote the work, Hentze is conducting live readings, including a scheduled event at St. Petri Church in Hamburg.

In the United States, Craft Recordings is celebrating the centenary with an all-analog (AAA) vinyl reissue of ‘Cookin’, With The Miles Davis Quintet’ as part of its Original Jazz Classics series. The album features the definitive first great quintet, including John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. The reissue utilizes mastering from the original tapes to preserve the sound of the sessions recorded between the ‘Birth of the Cool’ and ‘Kind of Blue’ eras.