Saturday 31 January 2015

PSYCHEDELIC JAZZ: Let's Get High...On MILES DAVIS!

Preamble - BLACK HISTORY MONTH

We Remember MILES DAVIS...

Music more often than not, offers a veritable platform to trace the changes in CULTURE and SOCIETY OVERALL.

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                                        He was OUR MUSIC MAN,

                                        Leaning back, blowing OUT HIS HORN,

                                        Out of his soul.


                                        All the beauty

                                        And pain and sadness

                                        And determination and WISHFUL LONGING,

                                        - Of Our Own Lives -


                                        He would growl HIS INDEPENDENCE

                                        - And Ours -

                                        Out of his horn.


                                        And sometimes by turning his back

                                        As he played A SOLITARY SONG,

                                        He would let us HEAR HIM

                                        Talking to GOD.

                                                                              (Rev. Jesse Jackson)





You wanna know what the fuss is about? Begin with the SOUNDZ of JAZZ...by Mr MILES DAVIS.

Remix the soundz... 

Rock and Mainstream jazz. Funk. Mish-mash. Hip hop. 'Electric' Jazz Hybrid. 

Fusion...

"Don't play what's there, play what's not there!", cries Miles Davis.

You wanna hear the New Music?

My gosh! It's a Revolution...

"Jazz is the Big Brotha of Revolution", Miles reminds us once again, as we celebrate Black History Month.

Now this is the real...real...Miles Davis:

Avant-garde Jazz. Spiritual.

Flava in ya ear!


Enters the honey man [ or horn-y man ]…Miles Dewey Davis III.

There are no sure things in Life or as a matter of fact, Art:

But this Music is human...and this Man is larger than life!

"For me, Music and Life are all about STYLE. I know what I've done for music, but don't call me a legend. Just CALL ME MILES DAVIS."

                                        

                                      

                                        Master the instrument,

                                        Master the music;

                                        Forget about all that sh*t,

                                        And PLAY.

                                                  (Charlie Parker)



THE MAN called Miles Davis Jr...was a multitude of men.

An enigma.

Miles Davis' jazz was...a different kind of jazz. It was profoundly lyrical:

Highly intensive chords, deeply emotional sounds-

Trumpet...and Bass...and Sax...and Keyboard...and much later, the electric guitar...all at once!

Electric soundz, done in eclectic style, by a maverick polymath:

A Musical Genius.

Right from the outset, Miles Davis was obsessed with the IDEA that A SINGLE NOTE could convey all the beats...of Music.

"The best thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas?", he reasons.

When Davis put his mouth to the trumpet, what you heard was NOT just the original be-bop...

But hard bop...and rock n roll...and classical...and hip hop, even flamenco...and Arab...and Indian acoustic elements.

"Music is a funny thing when you come to THINK of it", realizes Davis.

Everything you ever itched to hear was all there!

The outcome was very eloquent as well as elegant. It was beautiful to hear, and powerful, and deep.


Miles played jazz...that NOT only made you LISTEN, but made you THINK:

Think NOT only about jazz...but think about music to 'the nines'.

The entire works!

From Charlie 'Bird' Parker...to George Benson...to James Brown...to Jimi Hendrix...to rapper Easy Mo Bee.

From Run DMC...to Mos def...to even Craig Mark!

Miles Davis Jr. was JAZZ...a different kind of Jazz:

Always undulating, always improvising, always changing faces...and changing men;

ALWAYS LOOKING AHEAD!

[© Miles Ahead (1957) ]

"I am THINKING about CREATING. My Future starts when I wake up in the morning and I See the Light...Then I'm grateful", he says.


MILES DAVIS does NOT...stand alone;he stands with...many men!

He is rightly called the Bob Dylan of jazz. 

And his hero was Louis 'Satchmo' Armstrong:

"You can't play nothing on the modern trumpet that doesn't come from him, not even modern sh*t...

"He had GREAT FEELING UP IN HIS PLAYING and he always played on the beat.

"I just loved the way he played and sang", Miles ruminates.

He was also fascinated with the notion of "The Boxer As Black Male Hero", like the Culture Critic, Gerald Early.

And his Boxing idol was Joe Louis, while his Style icon was Sugar Ray Robinson.

"Boxing's got style, like music's got style, enthuses Miles.

"Joe Louis had style, Ezzard Charles had style, Henry Armstrong had style, Johnny Bratton had style, and Sugar Ray Robinson had his style - as did Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Marvellous Marvin Hagler, Michael Spinks, and Mike Tyson later.

Little wonder that Miles Davis starred in the boxing documentary based on the Life of Jack Johnson, entitled: 'Breaking Barriers'.

[© A Tribute To Jack Johnson (1971) ]

# HEAVY & THICK is a track in that album; a tribute to his boxing heroes.

"Boxing is like Music. You keep adding to it", he tells Dan Morgenstern from Drum Beat magazine.

#  YESTER-NOW is another favourite number in that album.

Every now and then, the memory of Sugar Ray Robinson hunted Miles Davis:

"I ALWAYS loved boxing, but I REALLY loved and respected Sugar Ray because he was A GREAT FIGHTER with a lot of CLASS, and cleaner than a motherf*cker.

"Ray looked like a socialite when you'd see him in the papers getting out of limousines, with fine women on his arms, SHARP AS A TACK.

"BUT...when he got into the ring with someone to fight, he never smiled like he did in those pictures [ that ] everybody saw of him. 

"When he was in the ring, he was serious, ALL BUSINESS.

"I REALLY kicked my habit [ of heroin ] because of the example of Sugar Ray Robinson; I figured if he could be as DISCIPLINED as he was, then I could do it too.

"...BUT you've got to have STYLE in whatever you do - Writing, Music, Painting, Fashion, Boxing, ANYTHING!"

With that kind of image in MIND, Miles Davis went back to New York to face his Music Career.


SOMETIME AGO, Ornette Coleman mused about: 'The SHAPE of JAZZ' (1959).

Then too, John Coltrane sang: 'GIANT STEPS' (1959).

Miles Davis was NOT only a sideman, but a bandleader.

He was NOT only a trumpet player...but a multi-instrumentalist.

He was NOT just for jazz...but for music:

As a whole.

The soundz...the instrumentz...the playerz!

To critics and fans alike, Miles was FAR MORE than just a musician;

He was the Ultimate Artist...the Showbiz Man, par excellence.

The CULTURAL ICON.

"I believe there is a New Music in the air, A TOTAL ART, which knows NO BOUNDARIES or categories, observes Lester Bangs ( Rolling Stone ).

"A New School run by geniuses, indifferent to fashion", he concludes.


THE 20TH CENTURY PHENOM called Miles Dewey Davis III, dexterously combined the VIRTUAL ARTS with JAZZ.

He made you SEE and he made you HEAR:

A RANGE of SIGHTZ and SOUNDZ...that enraptured your SOUL!

He was Soulful...and he was Rich...and he was BLACK.

An African-American destined for the Ages!

"For some of us coming from the African-centric tip, Miles Davis was the Black Aesthetic.

"He does NOT represent jazz, he defines it...

"Miles is the MODEL and the MEASURE of how black your sh*t is", affirms writer Greg Tate ( The Village Voice ).


ONCE UPON A TIME, in 1957.

At the Five Spot Cafe, New York City -

The Big Apple.

Thelonious Monk, the 'Count Basie' of Jazz, was in the house -

 As a band leader.

With John Coltrane, Wilbur Ware, and Philly Jones -

As sidemen.

A Jazz Orchestra. A fine Quartet.

Monk was an imposing figure, a unique showman in his own right. A Pianist.

Hey! But that night, ONLY ONE PERSON seemed to be watching:

Miles Davis.

[© Quiet Nights (1963) ]

A man of exact timing. A man of restraint. A man who understood the use of perfect silence, even in his solos.

[© In A Silent Way (1969) ]

A man deeply introspective and ruminative. An ear for music.

Miles Davis was watching Monk that 'quiet night'; all ears, 'in a silent way'.

[© The Man I Love (1954) ]

AND EVERY OTHER MEMBER of that audience, including collegians, were all busy;

STARING...AT MILES!

[© We Want Miles (1991) ]

In vintage thespian art ( or acting ), they call it 'Presence'.

In prime-time hollywood, an alternative name is 'Star Quality'.

And you couldn't miss it, even from a thousand miles!

"He was like a sponge. He absorbed EVERYTHING around him. He was young, talented, and beautiful and I believed that he'd be famous", reminisces his first wife.

Miles was arguably the MOST PHOTOGRAPHED Jazz Musical Act in the WORLD, at the time.

He captured the attention and imagination of that section of the music-loving public to which he most appealed: 

Perhaps like Borgerton or better still, Frank Sinatra.

In fact, what any audience could see was Miles Davis 'Projecting the IMAGE'!

Attitude. The RIGHT Attitude.

To sound. To jazz. To Music.

"Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The ATTITUDE of the motherf*cker who plays it is 80 percent", Miles charges us.


MILES CAME FROM a wealthy parental background. But f*ck it!, he'd say.

He drove fast, sporty cars: Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Forget about it, too.

He wore Brook Brothers Suits and Penny Loafers. But that was not it, anyway.

[© Aura (1990) ]

Flamboyant public persona. Stage charisma!

Volatile. Maybe sometimes arrogant. So What ?

And all of these he put aside when it came to jazz.

When it came to the question of 'Attitude', Miles Davis was fiercely uncompromising.

Davis brought his focussed Eye, and his attentive Ear, and his Skilful Hand to bear;

Whenever the occasion was Jazz...and Music...and Art.

He came looking for the prodigious talent, straining to hear the novel sound;

To play that instrument, to try that new techno device - 

Just to ADD another dimension...and value to jazz.

And beyond jazz,...Music.

And beyond music,...Art.

He moved with a certain ease through the corridors of jazz, suggesting to any ardent observer that he must have assimilated almost the entire history of American Music and Art.

In his heyday, Miles would make any onlooker's head spin!


MILES DAVIS played in bands:

Quartets. Quintets. Sextets. Octets. Nonets. Name it.

And he also played Solo.

His language was Music. His medium was Jazz. 

And his first love was the Trumpet.

"Miles Davis was the sound of his trumpet. It was A SOUND THAT WAS  DEEPLY PERSONAL TO HIM, and almost mystical in source and power", notes John Swzed, a Yale Professor and Jazz Scholar.

For Miles, it was unwise to detract from the audience...by distracting their attention, unnecessarily.

He would rather they followed his notes, and his renditions.

He was of the strict opinion that his trumpet notes and compositions - studio recordings and live performances -SHOULD do the talking! 

He explored the limits of JAZZ; experimenting with talented men, and intricate sounds, and diverse musical instruments.

Miles Davis created what has been hailed as FUSION JAZZ:

Jazz-Rock...Jazz-Funk...Jazz- Hip hop.

Or Modal Jazz, if you like.

Miles toyed creatively with the boundaries of SOUNDZ, defying the listener and the critic alike.

He steered away from being boxed into a corner: be it jazz or music or social living.

"It's not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating, they have to be ABOUT CHANGE", he emphasizes.

With enriched, ensemble pieces he touched the farther reaches of Jazz Rythym - 

And produced Sound Harmony.

His Life is a deliberate, expressive painting of vivid pictures on the canvas of the Human MIND -

Hinting at, if not outrightly emphasizing the diverse POTENTIAL that is MAN.

His playboy appearance notwithstanding, there was a particular yearning in his music that came from deep within himself, and spoke to a similar condition that most people felt in the 1950's and 60's.

[© Miles In The Sky (1967) ]

Miles obviously has all it takes to win:

# STUFF  and   # PARAPHERNALIA.

"When you're creating your own sh*t, man, even the Sky ain't the limit!", dreams Miles Davis.


BORN ON 26 May,1926 to Miles Dewey Davis II, an affluent dental surgeon then living in Alton, Illinois.

Miles grew up in East St. Louis. On the other side, across the Mississippi River, was St. Louis, Missouri.

His father bought him a trumpet at age 13.

"Some of my father's importance was carried over to his kids...they expected us to make SOMETHING IMPORTANT of ourselves...

"I guess this kind of special treatment helped us have a POSITIVE ATTITUDE about ourselves", notes Davis.

At age 15, Miles secured his music union card to enable him play freely around the city.

By day, he played Classical Music at the Juilliard School of Music, a world-renowned music conservatory in New York (1944).

By night, he played Jazz at the New York clubs, like the one on 52nd Street and Harlem.

He once performed as a sideman to Charlie 'Bird' Parker ( saxophone alto ).

Later he played as a band leader to men like John Coltrane ( saxophone tenor ) in the 50s; and Herbie Hancock ( piano ) in the 60s.

"That was my GIFT...having the ability to put certain guys together that would CREATE A CHEMISTRY and then letting them go;

"Letting them play what they knew, and above it", declares Miles.

After mastering the 'harmonic vocabulary' of be-bop, so to say, he began to forge his own 'solo' style.

"Do not fear mistakes, there are none. Sometimes, you have to play a long time to be able to PLAY LIKE YOURSELF", he laughs.

Davis also worked in concert with arrangers like Gil Evans ( mostly ), and John Lewis and Gary Mulligan.

He gained Rock flavour playing with George Benson ( guitar ) as well as Prince.

And he drew Funk rhythms from James Brown and Sly Stone.

Much later, he added Electro-sonic tones from playing with Jimi Hendrix.

"KNOWLEDGE is freedom, and ignorance is slavery", says Davis.

Many musicians including Bill Evans ( saxophone tenor ), John McLaughlin ( guitar ), Ron Carter ( double bass );

Tony Williams ( drums ); Wayne Shorter ( saxophone soprano ), Billy Coblin ( percussion ) began their careers with Miles.

"Miles Davis is A HUGELY SIGNIFICANT FIGURE, perhaps one of the most important musicians and cultural figures OF THE 20TH CENTURY", agrees Todd Boyd, a professor of Critical Studies of Race and Culture, University of South Carolina.

And according to the Rolling Stone magazine:

"Miles Davis is the MOST REVERED JAZZ TRUMPETER of ALL TIME."

[© The Man With The Horn (1981) ]

He enjoyed playing his 'horn' - the trumpet or flugelhorn or much later, the stemless hamon mute.

Miles could set fire to THE TRUMPET when he chose. Wow, did he command his audience!

He loved playing in a laid-back manner, and allowed his listeners to drift along in this MID-TEMPO cloud whilst he played.

"I ALWAYS wanted to play with a light sound, because I could THINK BETTER when I played that way", stated Miles.

According to him, it was the way he had heard music whilst growing up in the midst of - the voices - of old men and women; and he longed to re-create those very sounds. 

"It has ALWAYS been A GIFT with me, hearing music the way I do. I don't know where it comes from, it's just been there and I didn't question it", he obliges.


IRONICALLY, for a man who was labelled as having a rebellious streak as well as a 'chip on his shoulder', Miles Davis was fascinatingly collaborative, on a deeper level.

[© Star People (1983) ]

But more importantly, he spurred his sidemen to find their own independent musical voices; whilst he was in turn inspired by them.

[© Miles Smiles (1967) ]

#FOOTPRINTS & CIRCLE is a track in that album;

#FREEDOM JAZZ DANCE is another.

They will also keep you smiling from ear to ear, like Miles.

He really was, the Ultimate Team Player!

And in the process, he created whole new jazz forms: 

Contemporary, Cool, and Fusion.

His innovations, or 'modulated jazz' ( Modal Jazz ) began taking shape with the "Birth of the Cool" sessions around 1949.

[© Round About Midnight (1957) ]

This album had a song titled 'Bye-bye to Blackbird', which was about synonymous with bidding Charlie 'bird' Parker and old school be-bop jazz, bye-bye!

In a career that saw close to 50 years of jazz, Miles Davis concentrated and eventually became well-grounded in 'the blues'.

And the result was a bomb! 

Miles formally 'dropped', as they now call it in the musical underground, a lasting chart-buster:

[© Kind of Blue (1959) ]

This is his signature, his creative mark on the field of jazz. It is acclaimed to be one of his greatest jazz albums ever!

" 'So What' or 'Kind of Blue' was done in that era, the right hour, the right day. It's over; IT'S ON RECORD", states Miles Davis.

About ten years later, he dropped another signature album:

[© Bitches Brew (1969) ]

It is also an equivalent of 'a blockbuster', using a hollywood lingo.

If you remember, some smart fellow with an eye for talent once nicknamed Miles "the Scorsese and the Coppola of Jazz".

The script, soundz, position, etc, etc he managed so well; he could blend them all to perfection like a seasoned director!

He may just as well be...for Scorsese and Coppola:

'The Godfather of Jazz'!

That aside, 'Bitches Brew' is regarded as the STANDARD for the nascent Jazz Fusion Movement:

Jazz + Rock + Funk...etc...etc

The definitive 'fusion' record!

"He was just such a great ARTIST. People would just come to see him. 

"Three notes from him were often enough for people to say 'We Heard MILES DAVIS', and it was because it was so damn good...

"For me, Miles is the GREATEST", Joe Zawinul opines (2007; All About JAZZ).


"WAR LORD OF THE WEEJUNS" was a thumbs-up accolade.

It was a respect, an honour that Jazz Critic and Esquire magazine Style Writer, George Frazier once paid Miles Davis.

And I guess Miles' reply to any other critic would have been:

"So What" ?

Well, I do not know if Miles Davis was good;

BUT most of us know now, that Miles Davis was great!

Why?

He was one of the playerz who made it to 'jazz extra-ordinaire'.

He was one of those who made jazz music more reminiscent, more celebrated...the world over.

And Miles Davis...was BLACK.

And Miles Davis...was COOL.

He was a Black American who popularized Cool Jazz, and engraved in our memories f-o-r-e-v-e-r, what it meant to be 'black' and what it meant to be 'cool'!

Miles Davis is u*n*f*o*r*g*e*t*t*a*b*l*e.

He makes you remember his hero, Louis 'Satchmo' Armstrong on the trumpet:

Playing: " THE UNFORGETTABLE".


THE MILES with the Cool Poise lost his cool in the face of injustice.

Many a time he lost it.

In the 50's and 60's, the air in America was thick with racial discrimination.

It was the period of upsurge of the Civil Rights protests, and the memorable strides toward black empowerment.

The world was changing, especially with the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy.

Racism wore an ugly face, and an ingratiating conscience too.

And it rubbed any decent man, and every blackman the wrong way.

It was a tough call for Miles Davis: the very concept of White Supremacy made his skin crawl!

It made him confront the white establishment with 'a chip on his shoulder'.

# On one occasion in his youth, he was chased down a white neighbourhood where they lived, by a police man holding a short-gun:

The predator called him a 'nigga'.

"I don't think Miles, a sensitive boy, ever forgot it or our troubles", his father recalls.

# At another occasion, Miles was assaulted by a white police officer after he escorted a white lady into a taxi.

This time, he refused to be treated as 'a boy' and 'a nigga': he fought back as a man!

Hell, he barely managed to look cool, sporting a blood-splattered white khaki jacket!

The judiciary later dropped hearing on the case, leaving him with an interminable sense of cynicism.

This incident which occurred in Birdland, New York City (1959), sent ripples through his career and the entire musical world, within and outside the USA.

Davis would later learn the import of this particular incident on meeting Hugh Masekela, a well-known South African trumpet player:

"He told me that I had been a hero of his and other blacks in South Africa, when I stood up to that police man outside Birdland that time, and I remember being surprised that he even knew about that kind of thing, over there in Africa", Miles recalls.

Confronted with racism, Miles Davis was a different man.

He became volatile, and burst out with a mouthful of expletives, protesting his independence and dignity:

F*ck you!  It's all bullsh*t!

At such times, his detractors labelled him bitter; some even called him the 'prince of darkness'.

For Davis, well, "so what"?

# Another interesting incident, a bit more covert, occurred during his visit to1600 Pennsylvania Avenue:

The address of the U.S President.

The First Lady, Nancy Reagan asked Miles how he had made it there, in the first place.

Miles' reply was compelled to be a rather egotistical and sarcastic one:

"Well, I have changed the course of music five or six times; what have you done except f*ck the President?"

[© Live-Evil (1971)]

His defiant attitude, even as a musician, has been viewed as the HEART 'N' SOUL of the relationship between MUSIC 'N' POLITICS.

According to his fellow jazz act, John Coltrane:

"All of the technique doesn't matter...ONLY IF the feeling is right.

"When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good FOR PEOPLE."

His target audience was oppressed African-Americans. His quest was to bring Power and Truth to the Black Community.

Noteworthy too, from the standpoint of being a musician, Miles Davis also recalls instances of racial bias early on, while still a high school student. 

Every musical contest he had entered for, left him losing out to his white counterparts - and this he believed was loaded with skin-colour undertones. 

Nonetheless, this perceived prejudice turned out to be a tonic for his fledgling career. 

"If I hadn't met that prejudice, I probably wouldn't have had as much drive in my work. 

[© Milestones (1958) ]

Thereafter, Miles strove against racism but rather 'creatively'; by repeatedly changing the status quo. 

It was his way of expressing defiance to established traditional roles or themes ; using the soundz of the trumpet as his medium.

"I was getting interested in seeing black sound develop and that's where my head was moving toward, more rhythmic stuff, more funk rather than White Rock." 

[© Sorcerer (1967) ]

Traditionally, jazz is an elitist music: with a more affluent white audience. By defying the expectations of mainstream jazz, and 'shifting' sounds to the ears of blackfolk, Miles became the Voice of the Black Community:

Expressing their collective disapproval against stereotypical or expected roles.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

"It's like, how did Columbus discover America when the Indians were there? What kind of sh*t is that, but white people's sh*t?", he puts it bitingly.

All at once, the genius of Miles Davis made him the American "Bad Boy of Jazz", says Gerald Early.

According to him, Miles was simultaneously the "Huckleberry Finn" to Whitefolk, and "Home Boy" to Blackfolk.

"Keith, how does it feel to be a genius?", Davis once asked.

At the end, take it or leave it, he spoke to the conscience in every race: including whites and blacks, and all.

SPEAKS MILES: 

"I don't care if a dude is purple with green breath, as long as he can swing".

[© Big Fun (1974) ]

"If you SACRIFICE YOUR ART for some woman, or some man, or for some COLOR, or for some wealth, you CAN'T BE TRUSTED", he admonishes.


MILES DAVIS BLEW HIS TRUMPET in public, but kept his 'linen' in his private closet.

When it came to the female folk, his controversy again loomed large.

His love life appeared two-faced or bipolar in retrospect: here was the same man beating women in New York, and yet seen flirting heartily in Paris.

Juliette Greco was his French hearthrob.

"I caught a glimpse of Miles in profile: a real Giacometti, with a face of great beauty", recollects Juliette (2006).

Davis was freer in Paris than he ever was in New York, or way back in East St. Louis.

"This is my first trip out of the country. It changed the way I looked at things forever...

"I loved being in Paris and I loved the way I was treated. Paris was where I understood that all white people were not the same; that some were not prejudiced", confirms Miles in his autobiography.

There he made the acquaintance of Pablo Picasso ( painter ), and Jean-Paul Satire ( philosopher & playwright ); both world-famous figures.

In the company of his girlfriend Juliette, Davis explored Paris and enjoyed the company of these Frenchmen.

They visited clubs, sat at hotels, and hung out in cafes.

They talked in broken French, and broken English, and even sign language!

Walking hand-in-hand with Greco, they skirted the banks of the Seine River, drank Cognac, and relaxed with music.

"Good music is good, no matter the kind of music", relishes Miles.

He was so proud of and touched by the fact that in France, JAZZ was considered to be very important music.

"The French were in love with Miles and treated him like a god. He liked that because it was a form of RESPECT, which he didn't get in his own country", observed Rolf de Heen, an Australian film director.

Miles was presented with the Grande Medaille de Vermeil (1989) by the Mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac who later became President of France.

A major MILES DAVIS EXHIBITION was opened in France (1991), posthumously.

{ •R.I.P: Miles passed on September 28, 1991 in Santa Monica, California. }

His memorabilia: music, scores, instruments, photos and other items were on display @ the Museum of Music.

He was even conferred with the Knighthood of the Legion of Honour, one of France's highest cultural awards (1994), by the Culture Minister -

Who described Miles as "the PICASSO of JAZZ".

"Miles ALWAYS had a little different approach in a way of speaking. He was a little bit MORE THOUGHTFUL, a little bit MORE NUANCED. I always liked that about him", agrees Sonny Rollins.

When Miles returned back from France to the U.S, the contrast was heart-breaking and unbearable. And the ensuing disappointment was enough to derail him into a heroin habit: 

"A four-year horror show", he said regrettably.

According to a French Museum and Exhibition Curator, Vincent Bessiere:

"Paris was Special to Miles; Miles was Special to Paris."


TELLING THE MILES DAVIS STORY has never been easy. Even for Hollywood.

Former Columbia Records Chief, Walter Yetnikoff had announced a scheduled biopic (1993), which was to star Wesley Snipes.

Though it fell through, the title was befitting for Miles:

'Million Dollar Lips' !

"He would just take the horn [ረ ] from his mouth until he heard something great, then he'd play it.

"It's a really beautiful way to make music", acknowledges Marcus Miller.

Nevertheless, on a more cheery note Don Cheadle, a longtime fan of Miles Davis' has been able to pull off what had eluded industry experts for more than two decades.

He has served up a beffiting Big Screen Tale of A JAZZ GREAT, eponymously titled:

'Miles Ahead'

"There is not a day that goes by that I don't THINK ABOUT MILES. My mentor and friend who taught me to ALWAYS LOOK MUSICALLY FORWARD and never backward", Jason Miles pays tribute.

It is an ode to a master horn player.

The Life and Times of Miles Davis is more than just a biopic; it is a tale of adventure, drama, and true Love.

It looks NOT ONLY at the musician, but somehow captures the core of the Human Story or experience.

Nobody played the trumpet like Miles. Nobody.

And nobody dressed up 'dandified' like him, either. Nobody.

He was an African-American TRAILBLAZZER!

Ever at the fore-front of jazz's major developments, Miles was a style cameleon, ever changing his colours.

From dress codes, to musical notes, to attitude, to on-stage behaviour, Miles exhibited the extra-ordinary ability to PROJECT IDEAS about Jazz and its Future.

"Then I saw Miles....Miles was SO GREAT. He played so good. He was so amazing:

"Physically, to see him in 1957 when he looked so good and strong. He had SO MUCH CHARISMA. You'd look at him all the time. 

"Even when he wasn't playing, EVERYBODY KEPT LOOKING AT MILES. He was attracting the eyes of everybody.

"Me too. I was fascinated...That night I said wow, I MUST TRY TO PLAY THIS INSTRUMENT...

"I got a hold of this trumpet and I learned it by myself, JUST LISTENING TO MILES' RECORD", reflects Enrico Ravie.

He is credited as the one who put all the various band theories to work.

To measure his greatness was to take due cognizance of the various number of lives - Artists and Listeners - that he touched.

"Hearing THAT SOUND was A TURNING POINT FOR ME in my listening to JAZZ and in understanding what jazz could BE , where it could GO, and what it could EMBRACE, confesses Mark Ishan, a jazz trumpeter and composer.


MILES DEWEY DAVIS III. Maestro.

His Horn. His Jazz. His Music.

The Man.

'Miles Ahead'...is A Self-Portrait.

"You don't sweat to make Davis the Monarch of Jazz. He did it himself", hails John Swzed.


[ረ] A Real Metaphor: A jazz fan dies and he goes to a clubhouse. Together with St. Peter, he recognizes the other regulars as Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker.

Then suddenly, the guy sights a man with his back toward the rest of the crowd, sitting at the far end of the bar. 

He asks St. Peter: "Who's that?"

"Oh, that's God; but he thinks he's Miles Davis", retorts Peter. 

Ha! Ha! Ha!


[ረ] In the 60's, Miles was booked to play @ the Village Vanguard in New York. After rendering A SINGLE NOTE in blues, he walked off, to A STANDING OVATION!

"Why are they clapping if he played ONLY ONE NOTE?", a member of the audience asked the management.

"You don't pay [ just ] to see him PLAY. You pay to see him THINK", came the reply.


For a man in a generation that was raised on Motown, 'Kind of Blue' mesmerizes your mind.

And in 'Bitches Brew', with its cutting-edge electronic pomp, he re-wrote the rulebook of jazz forever.

There's no question; Miles Davis deeply enriched the LEXICON of JAZZ.

Forget his heroin habit; welcome to seminal jazz, if you wish.

Psychedelic Jazz!

Miles would probably have lost with "Witches Brew", as an album title.

BUT for the Love of A Lady, Betty Mabry, he seemed to have gained the WORLD with "Bitches Brew"!

It is A Love Re-mix, so to say, for his bestselling album of ALL TIME.

"Bitches Brew" is the Miles Davis' way of giving a complimentory nod to LOVE!

"You can 'hear' it in the writing: MILES IN THE SKY, says Tom Harrel.

                       

  I miss him dearly...

       Yes I was there.

            Yes I had a great time.

                I look forward to seeing         

                     Miles upstairs in the SKY,

                          TRYIN' IT AGAIN.

                                             (Ron Carter)


                                          

                                               A legend is an old man...

                                                      Known for what he used to do.

                                                            I'M STILL DOIN' IT!

                                                                                      (Miles Davis)