Blue in Green

A timely meditation on the psychological impact of police brutality, through the lens of a day in the life of Miles Davis

Now in paperback, Blue in Green--the latest work from the veteran novelist called "one hell of a writer" by James Baldwin--narrates one evening in August 1959, when, weeks after the release of his landmark album Kind of Blue, Miles Davis was assaulted by a New York City cop outside Birdland. In the aftermath, we enter the strained relationship between Davis and his future wife, Frances Taylor. Frances, who is increasingly subject to Davis' temper--fueled by his professional envy and substance abuse--reckons with her strict upbringing and, through a fateful meeting with Lena Horne, the conflicting demands of motherhood and artistic vocation. Meanwhile, Miles speeds across Manhattan in his sports car. Racing alongside him are recollections of a young John Coltrane, a combative Charlie Parker and the stilted world of the Black middle class he's left behind. Wesley Brown (born 1945) is the author of Tragic Magic. In the early 1970s he spent over a year in prison for refusing to serve in the Vietnam War. During that time, he drafted his first novel, which was edited by Toni Morrison. He is professor emeritus of English at Rutgers University and lives in Lawrenceville, Georgia.