New book focuses on Miles Davis' mid-1960s music

As one of the most influential and important jazz musicians of all time, Miles Davis has already been the subject of a number of biographies, a book-length look at his most famous single recording, and various other tomes examining different aspects of his life and music. Now the trumpeter's mid-1960s quintet is the subject of Miles Davis, Miles Smiles and the Invention of Post Bop, a new book from Indiana University Press written by Jeremy Yudkin, a musicologist, jazz expert and professor of music at Boston University.

Focusing largely on the album Miles Smiles, the book "examines Miles Davis's often overlooked music of the mid-1960s with a behind-the-scenes study of the evolution of a new, post bop style. It spotlights Davis during an extraordinarily creative period when the artist struggled with personal and musical reinvention and emerged the leader of a new wave in contemporary music."

Though the book's "official" release isn't until December, copies seem to be on sale already at several online retailers. Should you choose to use this link to purchase it via the St. Louis Jazz Notes Emporium and the fine folks at Amazon.com, a few pennies will eventually wind their way toward this Web site, helping to keep yr. humble editor supplied with bandwidth, tacos, Dr. Pepper and other essentials of jazz blogging.

(Edited 10/25/07 to un-garble the book's title.)