John Coltrane left an indelible mark on the world, but what was the essence of his achievement that makes him so prized forty years after his death? What were the factors that helped Coltrane become who he was? And what would a John Coltrane look like now--or are we looking for the wrong signs?

In this deftly written, riveting study, New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff answers these questions and examines the life of Coltrane, the acclaimed band leader and deeply spiritual man who changed the face of jazz music. Ratliff places jazz among other art forms and within the...

"The Jazz Ear will be a permanent part of learning how to listen inside the musicians playing."--Nat Hentoff, Jazz Times

Jazz is conducted almost wordlessly: John Coltrane rarely told his quartet what to do, and Miles Davis famously gave his group only the barest instructions before recording his masterpiece Kind of Blue. Musicians often avoid discussing their craft for fear of destroying its improvisational essence, rendering jazz among the most ephemeral and least transparent of the performing arts.

In The Jazz Ear, acclaimed music critic...

A remarkable new book . . . Ratliff] goes leaping from Beethoven to Big Black, from Morton Feldman to Curtis Mayfield, identifying continuities while delighting in contrasts. ---Alex Ross, The New Yorker

What does it mean to listen in the digital era? Today, we can listen to nearly anything, at any time, from Detroit techno to jam bands to baroque opera. The possibilities in this new age of listening overturn old assumptions about what it means to properly appreciate music---to be an educated listener.
In Every Song Ever, veteran New York Times music...