Discusses how jazz legend Miles Davis's seminal album "Kind of Blue" has changed both music and culture since its release in 1959, and explains how it influenced diverse artists such as Steve Reich and the Velvet Underground.
Argues (against the increasing refusal of mainstream historians to use empirical databases) that the history community still has a lot to learn from economic historians; and, simultaneously, that narrow, economically based explanations of the Great European Migration leave out many of the most important aspects of the whole complex transaction.
Palmer's extraordinary knowledge and boundless love of music were evident in all his writing. He was an authority on rock & roll, blues, jazz, punk, avant-garde, and world music—often discovering new artists and trends years (even decades) before they hit the mainstream. Now, noted music writer Anthony ...
