Miles Davis and the Influence of the Cool

Commentator Gerald Early reflects on what would have been the 70th birthday of trumpeter Miles Davis.

Drummer Arthur Taylor. He's played with Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk and he's put together a new expanded collection of interviews he's done with fellow musicians: "Notes and Tones: Musician-to-Musician Interviews," (Da Capo Press). It's one of the few books about black jazz musicians by a black man, and because of that Taylor's subjects were able to talk freely about the role of black artists in white society.

Jazz trumpeter Red Rodney. Rodney's played with the greats...Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Charlie Parker, among many others. He has a new album, called "Code Red," on the Continuum label.

Decades after he changed modern music as member of Miles Davis' 1960s quintet, and then as co-founder of the band Weather Report, Shorter continues to break ground with a new triple album.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead remembers jazz great Miles Davis, who died this weekend at age 65.