Shamelessly copying the idea of the What are you currently listening to? thread here.
Are you reading anything music-related at the moment? Or have you read something interesting/boring/surprising before? We could discuss these books/articles here.
One of the most important books of this kind for me is Miles Davisā autobiography called, funnily enough, Miles: The Autobiography. I first read it in 2009 or 2010 in Hungarian and I was floored, partly because the translation of the various profanities was quite creative. Then I bought and read the original last year. Somehow the whole book had a different tone in English, more serious, and I was happy to find that I liked it the second time around, too.
There are are some hilarious stories, like Miles trying to dissuade Coltrane from getting false teeth in the front, fearing for his sound. Of course, Trane got the false teeth made, and his sound wasnāt hurt by them.
Having read other accounts about Miles, Iām not sure Iād like to be in the same room with him (even if he were close to 100 years by now), but it would be a tremendous privilege.
Currently, Iām reading Notes and Tones: Musician-to-Musician Interviews by the drummer Arthur Taylor. Itās a collection of interviews with about two dozen jazz musicians, and it was among the first projects of its kind (a musician interviewing his peers). Here, the people interviewed are free to speak their minds, so it feels as if I was part of the discussion.
There are some recurring questions reflecting the era, like opinions on the situation of black people in America, attitudes towards āfreeā playing, amplified instruments, etc. The book makes me feel as if I can take a look ābehind the scenesā and get to know a bit more about what these people needed to succeed in their profession. I recommend it to anyone interested in musicians talking about themselves and their music more freely than in interviews made by non-musicians.