Days of Miracle and Wonder

Ashley Kahn’s Days of Miracle And Wonder-like its subject, Paul Simon’s Graceland-represents a pinnacle of its form: a syncretic work of art that shows its author’s mastery of all of popular music’s moving parts: the musical, the technological, the historical, the socio-political, the commercial, the biographical. Like its subject, it delivers nuance and provocation. In the midst of larger struggles for rights, it asks what rights artists themselves have. And it shows that great art has unintended consequences beyond the conceptions and intentions of its creators * Dan Charnas *A great American songwriter, a joyful South African music, a repressive government, international protests and 1980s attitudes produced a clash of art and ethics thoroughly documented by Ashley Kahn * Nelson George *Graceland remains one of the most intriguing (and misunderstood) of the blockbuster 1980s albums. It is immediately accessible, universally adored and likely to endure forever. Ashley Kahn asks every question - political, musical and aesthetic - that you might want answered about the record, its reception and its legacy, with sensitive attention to detail, nuance and the artistic process * Matt Thorne *

Ashley Kahn is a Grammy Award-winning music historian, author, and producer. He cowrote Carlos Santana’s autobiography The Universal Tone, and has written books on such legendary recordings as Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and A Love Supreme by John Coltrane. He was a member of the Graceland tour production team, and tour manager for Ladysmith Black Mambazo. He teaches at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute for Recorded Music.

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