Influence and curiosity

Bill and Miles and Eric and Ernie

Whenever I read a non-fiction book about the arts - a book about a great album, the biography of a director or a writer - there is always something that makes me put the book down for a moment and think about my own work. I would say there’s perhaps even more chance of that happening if I’m reading about something outside my professional field. The differences are a given - playing in a band, say, is really not like writing a book - so the similarities can seem even more striking.

I have just finished James Kaplan’s 3 Shades Of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans And The Lost Empire Of Cool. It’s an absorbing, deeply musical and sad account of what led up to their collision on Kind Of Blue, and how they proceeded to wreck themselves, at their own speeds, afterwards. Different times, different artistic problems, hard drugs hugely influential on all three of them…And yet there was much to learn about writing in it.