On and off (mostly off) for the past 20+ years I’ve been working on a book about Downbeat‘s Blindfold Tests. It started as my master’s thesis and has never receded from my consciousness and is now fully off of the back burner. During the early covid years, when nobody was gigging or touring I was able to interview a couple of dozen musicians ranging from Sonny Rollins, Randy Brecker, and James Carter to Mary Halvorson, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Terri Lyne Carrington, and Vijay Iyer. About two-thirds of the book is written, and a great deal of it is based on the personal papers of the test’s creator, Leonard Feather. I had access his archives as a graduate student at the University of Idaho, which houses his papers and has a very extensive collection of archival materials. Both personal papers, and things like Al Grey’s teeth, Conte Candoli’s trumpet, and Lionel Hampton’s vibes. But I digress. As of this moment I am currently midway through writing the chapter on Miles Davis’s legendary quartet of Blindfold Tests.
Jazz historian and saxophonist Loren Schoenberg created a single video containing all the music from Davis’s first test, which was published in the September 21, 1955 issue. To aid me in writing the chapter, I created YouTube playlists for Davis’s other three tests, which I have found to be quite entertaining and informative. I figured now that they are made, why not share them. I hope readers will find them useful in some way. Now that I am in full steam ahead mode (when I can given the demands of my day gig) I will post more good nuggety bits from the book.
September 21, 1955
August 7, 1958
June 18, 1964
June 13 and 27, 1968 (compared to Davis’s first three tests, the fourth was quite verbose and it stretched across two issues)
The Turnaround 
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