Studio 360

American Icons

Miles Davis' groundbreaking album became the symbol for everything jazz could be: avant-garde,hip, and soulful.

Kind of Blue was just a blip in the jazz world when it was released in 1959, but as Ave Carrillo explains, it eventually became the archetypical jazz record.

Voices in the Story

Jimmy Cobb

Drummer and last surviving performer from the Kind of Blue recording session

Ashley Kahn

Music historian, producer, and author of Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece

Buy Ashley Kahn's book Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece

Terry Teachout

Music critic for Commentary magazine

Terry Teachout's blog About Last Night

Gerald Early

Professor of Modern Letters at Washington University in St. Louis

Buy Gerald Early's book Miles Davis and American Culture

Pearl Cleage

Atlanta-based writer and author of Mad at Miles

Studio 360's American Icons is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: great ideas brought to life.

Studio 360 is a co-production of Public Radio International and WNYC New York Public Radio, and is funded in part by Ken and Lucy Lehman, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. Studio 360's American Icons series is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Our series on creativity and science is supported in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Our series on Underground Heroes is supported in part by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.