The groundbreaking music of Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, and Cecil Taylor -- three African-Americans known to a broad-based audience by their first names alone -- have impacted successive waves of musicians, not only in jazz but across the musical spectrum. Born within four years of each other, but with dissimilar family backgrounds and distinctly different personal temperaments, Miles, Ornette, and Cecil are individually and collectively American originals. They've inspired creative talents as disparate as Leonard Bernstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Thomas Pynchon, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Lou Reed; they've become gods or gurus to generations. Each has transcended the musical field to influence African-American and American culture. This book explores their innovative and radical musical lives, based on original interviews with all three musicians, as well as decades of following their careers. It promises to be a milestone in jazz literature.