The myth of the ’60s depends on the 1950s being the “before times” of conformity, segregation and straightness. This all carries some truth, but it does nothing to explain how, in 1959, America’s great indigenous art form, jazz, reached the height of its power and popularity, thanks to a number of Black geniuses so legendary they go by one name --- Monk, Mingus, Rollins, Coltrane and, above all, Miles. 1959 saw Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and more come together to record what is widely considered the greatest jazz album of all time, and certainly the bestselling: Kind of Blue. 3 SHADES OF BLUE is James Kaplan’s magnificent account of the paths of the three giants to the mountaintop of 1959 and beyond.

In 2010's FRANK: THE VOICE, James Kaplan told the story of Frank Sinatra's meteoric rise to fame, subsequent failures, and reinvention as a star of live performance and screen. The story of "Ol' Blue Eyes" continues with SINATRA: THE CHAIRMAN, picking up the day after Frank claimed his Academy Award in 1954. In between recording albums and singles, he often shot four or five movies a year; did TV show and nightclub appearances; started his own label, Reprise; and juggled his considerable commercial ventures alongside his famous and sometimes notorious social activities and commitments.

Despite his mammoth fame, Frank Sinatra the man has remained an enigma. Now James Kaplan brings deeper insight than ever before to the complex psyche and turbulent life behind that incomparable voice, from Sinatra’s humble beginning in Hoboken to his fall from grace and Oscar-winning return in From Here to Eternity. Here at last is the biographer who makes the reader feel what it was really like to be Frank Sinatra --- as man, as musician, as tortured genius.