Now that his third book, "The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records," has been published, I'm sure of one thing about Ashley Kahn. He, along with food writer Korby Kummer, would certainly be on my dinner party invite list if I had their addresses.
Kahn, who is often heard on NPR, is the author of books about the making of John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" LP and Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue." His new volume is an eclectic portrait of one of the most eclectic labels in jazz history, Creed Taylor's Impulse!.
Eclectic is the best word to describe a label that released, side by side, the absolutely free form (Coltrane's "Ascension," for example), alongside accessible soul jazz (think organist Shirley Scott), straight ahead hard bop (Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers), the orchestral jazz hybrids of Oliver Nelson and the retro-tastic mid-'60s work of the great Earl Hines. Somehow, even Hines' work feels cutting edge 40 years on.
In fact, it's almost hard to imagine that the label that issued some of the most challenging and engaging jazz records ever was launched by a top 10 pop hit by Ray Charles.
With such a subject, the savvy Kahn was smart enough to avoid straight narrative. Instead, with that narrative, he intersperses album profiles, mini-features on sessions that serve to illustrate key trends and moments in Impulse's history.
Kahn explains how Impulse was a rarity in that it was born fully mature. He says that while labels like Blue Note had to grow into their greatness, Impulse was there from the start and quickly found its "standard-bearer" in John Coltrane, whose works for the label are the culmination of all of his previous experience and his experimental spirit fueled the label.
There are tons of great photos and a complete discography means that this great read is also a great reference for jazz fans. The fact that the spine of the book mimics the inimitable orange and black spine of the original gatefold LPs only serves to bring further joy to geeks like me.
"The House That Trane Built" is published June 6 by W.W. Norton. A companion CD with the same title has been issued by Impulse and features nine stellar performances by Nelson, Blakey, Charles Mingus, Coltrane, Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler, Hines, Alice Coltrane and John Handy.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
