For the Artists: Critical Writing, Volume 2

While For the Artists, Volume 1, issued earlier this year, focused on visual artists, this second volume gathers together a number of reviews and essays I've written for various publications and websites critiquing books and music. – essays and reviews examine Wordsworth's great neglected poem The Prelude to Gertrude Stein and William Carlos Williams to celebrations of bassist/composer Charlie Haden and rock group Animal Logic and a number of extended essays examine the so-called "electric period" of Miles Davis. More than a jazz musician, I attest repeatedly, Miles Davis' innovations – incorporating influences from outside the traditional jazz realm – exploded narrow confines and opened musical development to incorporate influences from every region and idea on the planet into an ever-evolving amalgam of aural delight and provocative emotional journeys.