Kahn, Ashley

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Kahn, Ashley

PERSONAL:

Male.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Fort Lee, NJ.

CAREER:

Journalist, radio essayist, music historian. Has worked as a deejay, video producer, road manager for jazz, pop, and rock musicians, concert producer, television music editor for VH1, and freelance music journalist; regular music commentator for National Public Radio.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Holly George-Warren and Shawn Dahl) Rolling Stone: The Seventies, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1998.

Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece, foreword by Jimmy Cobb, Da Capo Press (New York, NY), 2000.

A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album, Viking (New York, NY), 2002.

The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 2006.

(Author of text and introduction) The Color of Jazz, photographs by Pete Turner, foreword by Quincy Jones, afterword by Creed Taylor, Rizzoli (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including the New York Times, Downbeat, Jazz Times, Rolling Stone, Mojo, and New Statesman.

SIDELIGHTS:

Ashley Kahn is a journalist, radio essayist, and historian with a colorful background. Over the course of his career, he has held a number of positions, all related to the music industry. Among his jobs, he has worked as a deejay and a video producer, served as a music editor for VH1, and written numerous stories for print and radio as a freelance journalist. Kahn has also worked as a road manager, touring with an eclectic assortment of musicians, ranging from jazz artists Henry Threadgill, Cassandra Wilson, and Greg Osby to pop star Britney Spears, rock legends Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel, and African musicians such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo. In addition to providing regular commentary on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, he has contributed to numerous industry periodicals, including the New York Times, Downbeat, Jazz Times, Rolling Stone, Mojo, and New Statesman, as well as the Japanese edition of GQ.

Although Kahn loves music in general, his fondness for jazz is apparent in the subject matter he has chosen for his books. Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece, which was released in 2000 with a foreword written by jazz drummer Jimmy Cobb, pays homage to Davis's 1959 album. Kahn provides readers with an in-depth look at the two recording sessions that were involved in the making of the album. He sat through hours of master tapes that were recorded during the process, and accumulated whatever else he could find in the way of notes, memos, and stories that had been stored in the archives at Columbia Records. In addition, he met with musicians who had some sort of link to the band members who recorded with Davis for the album, whether they knew them or simply felt the music itself affected them in some way. Kahn also includes a wealth of information about Davis and the progress of his career. In a review for Booklist, Bonnie Smothers remarked that, "with the enthusiasm of a jazz fanatic, this is a great tribute and a fine book." William G. Kenz, writing for Library Journal, called Kahn's effort a "fascinating look into the minds of master musicians and the creation of exceptional, timeless music." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly praised the book, declaring that "Kahn's insightful interpretation will propel veterans to reexamine the music they've been listening to for years."

A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album, Kahn's next offering, does for Coltrane what Kind of Blue did for Miles Davis. Kahn looks at the recording of the jazz great's album and the process of recording it in December, 1964. Coltrane worked with pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones on the recording at a studio in New Jersey, producing a record that took his career to the next level. It enabled him to finally rise from his previous position as one of Davis's band members and to stand in the spotlight on his own merits. Kahn discusses how Coltrane became a major figure in jazz music and looks at the arc of his career from then on. He also includes an analysis of Rudy Van Gelder, the recording engineer on the album, as well as discussing Impulse! Records, and he goes into details about the single live performance of the songs. Ray Olson remarked in Booklist that "Kahn winds up writing the great saxophonist's biography again, more lucidly, if in less detail, than anyone has before." In Library Journal Kenz asserted that "jazz writing appears to be moving toward high art, with Kahn leading the way." Kenz praised the book, particularly for explicating "less obvious aspects of Coltrane's album." Curtis Stephen, writing for the Black Issues Book Review, concluded that "Kahn places the landmark recording under a microscope and, in the process, sheds further light upon the musician and the man," adding that the book is "a fitting tribute to Coltrane."

The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records is a history of the record label that distributed the music of John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, and Keith Jarrett, among many others. Impulse! Records was responsible for releasing the music of each of these greats, and Kahn gives credit to the label for it's willingness to back Coltrane any musical experiment that inspired him, allowing him to record at will until his untimely death from cancer in 1967. Booklist critic Ray Olson noted that many details were taken from "interviews, mostly original, with virtually everyone of significance before and behind the microphones." A contributor to Kirkus Reviews commented that "Kahn covers all the aesthetic, business, social and historical bases with crisp economy," concluding that the book is, "generally speaking, a swinging read." A reviewer for the Economist remarked of The House That Trane Built: "Kahn offers a fascinating insider's view of the sessions that produced not only Coltrane's classics but also top-grade albums by both fiery radicals and such timeless stars as Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Music, summer, 2004, Johan Ahr, review of Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece.

American Visions, August, 2000, review of Kind of Blue, p. 32.

Black Issues Book Review, May 1, 2003, Curtis Stephen, review of A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album, p. 29.

Booklist, August, 2000, Bonnie Smothers, review of Kind of Blue, p. 2071; February 15, 2001, Brad Hooper, review of Kind of Blue, p. 1099; November 1, 2002, Ray Olson, review of A Love Supreme, p. 466; February 15, 2003, review of A Love Supreme, p. 1041; May 1, 2006, Ray Olson, review of The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records, p. 62.

Bookseller, July 26, 2002, review of A Love Supreme, p. 30; September 6, 2002, review of A Love Supreme, p. 10.

Bulletin with Newsweek, March 23, 2004, "Sax Appeal," p. 81.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, May, 2003, C.M. Weisenberg, review of A Love Supreme, p. 1559; December, 2006, T.E. Buehrer, review of The House That Trane Built, p. 655.

Coda Magazine, July 1, 2006, Kurt Gottschalk, review of The House That Trane Built, p. 22.

Down Beat, April, 2003, John Janowiak, review of A Love Supreme, p. 73; October, 2006, Forrest Bryant, review of The House That Trane Built, p. 87.

Economist, March 3, 2001, review of Kind of Blue, p. 116; March 3, 2001, "Still Blue," p. 6; September 30, 2006, "Before, and After, the Birth of the Cool: Jazz," review of The House That Trane Built, p. 93.

Entertainment Weekly, October 12, 2001, review of Kind of Blue, p. 81; June 23, 2006, Larry Blumenfeld, review of The House That Trane Built, p. 74.

Esquire, September, 2000, review of Kind of Blue, p. 120.

Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2006, review of The House That Trane Built, p. 392.

Library Journal, October 15, 2000, William G. Kenz, review of Kind of Blue, p. 73; December, 2002, William G. Kenz, review of A Love Supreme, p. 130.

New Yorker, December 4, 2000, Francis Davis, review of Kind of Blue, p. 98.

New York Times Book Review, November 19, 2000, Ben Ratliff, review of Kind of Blue, p. 75; December 16, 2001, review of Kind of Blue, p. 24.

People, January 11, 1999, review of Rolling Stone: The Seventies, p. 47; December 18, 2000, review of Kind of Blue, p. 49.

Publishers Weekly, August 14, 2000, review of Kind of Blue, p. 334; March 27, 2006, review of The House That Trane Built, p. 73; July 23, 2007, "Jazz History," p. 8.

Times Literary Supplement, May 4, 2001, Richard Williams, review of Kind of Blue, p. 12.