Ashley Kahn

Ashley Kahn is an American music historian, journalist, and producer. He is also a visiting professor at New York University (NYU), teaching various courses for the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music in NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and at 92nd Street Y in Manhattan. In 2014, Kahn co-authored the autobiography of Carlos Santana, titled The Universal Tone: Bringing My Story To Light. To date, his most critically acclaimed books have been on two major jazz albums, Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and A Love Supreme by John Coltrane. He pens articles, interviews and other features on music, and is a prolific liner note writer for a variety of music labels, and for which he has earned three ASCAP/Deems Taylor awards, and three Grammy nominations. In 2015, he was awarded a Grammy for his album notes to the John Coltrane release Offering: Live at Temple University. His contributions as a journalist have appeared in The New York Times, Down Beat, Jazz Times, Rolling Stone in the USA, Mojo and New Statesman in the UK, GQ in Japan, among others. Kahn has played a variety of roles in the musical realm, including deejay, video producer, freelance writer, road manager, concert producer, and television music editor (for VH1). As a road manager, he has toured with jazz musicians Henry Threadgill, Cassandra Wilson, Greg Osby, and, under the direction of George Wein's office, with The George Shearing Quintet; as well as with African artists Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Hugh Masekela, and Lucky Dube; with rock artists Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel; and such pop stars as Britney Spears.