Miles Davis?

aydee

Platinum Member
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So, I just got done reading Miles biography, and even though I'm quite familiar with his music, at the end of the book, I was taken aback by how much of jazz history is wrapped around this one single musician.

From the giants he played with to the giants that he created through his bands, the list is mindboggling not only in its size but also by the diversity of the artists involved.


I dont want to list them here because it'll take forever, but it starts with Charlie Parker and via Dizzy, Coltrane, Monk,ends with Kenny Garrett and covers everything including the kitchen sink in between the 4 decades of his playing days.

Furthermore, so many the guys from his bands have spawned other subsets and styles of music and created jazz history of their own. Thats heck of a credential, IMO.

To me he comes across as the single most influencial figure in the history of jazz.

Any thoughts? Anyone else come to mind?

PS- Here's a short ( incomplete ) list of his drummers just to keep the thread in context of this forum:
Max Roach, Art Blakey, Philly Joe Jones, Art Taylor, Kenny Clarke, Jimmy Cobb, Elvin Jones, Tony Willians, Jack De Johnette, Billy Cobham, Al Foster...


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Maybe only outdone by Louis Armstrong, who was a big influence on Miles. But yeah, all those drummers he's played with!
 
Wasn't he the guy who turned his back to the audience when he played? Maybe I'm thinking of someone else.
 
Wasn't he the guy who turned his back to the audience when he played? Maybe I'm thinking of someone else.

That was him. His view was that the only thing important on stage was the music coming out of his horn therefore he never really was an 'entertainer' in that sense. Dizzy, who was one of his big inspirations felt that it was because Miles was shy.

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Art Blakey's "Messengers" was another breeding pool for top notch musicians and band leaders.


Yup, you're right. Clifford Brown was his find right? I guess the mid 50s all these guys were playing with each other in New York, so band wise it was all quite incestous.

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Did Miles ever play with Jaco? He wrote a song in his honour but I don't think I've ever heard them play together - that'd be a dream team.

I dont think so Pol, but he was a huge fan. Narada Michael Walden introduced Jaco to Zawinul who auditioned him for the Black Market album. I understand that entire first conversation was about Miles.
 
I dont think so Pol, but he was a huge fan. Narada Michael Walden introduced Jaco to Zawinul who auditioned him for the Black Market album. I understand that entire first conversation was about Miles.

That's different - try out for a band and spend the time gossiping about someone not in the band :)

Jazzers are quirky buggers. Like when Hal Galper played with Dizzy and all Diz talked about was rhythm. Funny thing, I've listened to jazz for donkey's years and all that time I've never known squat about it - I just liked the energy, sounds and textures.
 
Wasn't he the guy who turned his back to the audience when he played? Maybe I'm thinking of someone else.

He mostly did it at white clubs because he hated white people. He said in a interview that the only decent white people in the world were Gill Evans and Bill Evans.

I definitely agree that Miles Davis is the most influencial figure in modern jazz and one of the most influencial in all of music. He is often over looked by popular culture, but in his prime, he pulled everyone in his musical wake from Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, to Donny Hathaway.. just to name a few off the top of my head.

I haven't read the bio, but i think I recall that it mentions Jimi Hendrix and Miles planned to do an album together, before Jimi died. Oh what a gem that would have been.
 
He mostly did it at white clubs because he hated white people. He said in a interview that the only decent white people in the world were Gill Evans and Bill Evans.

I definitely agree that Miles Davis is the most influencial figure in modern jazz and one of the most influencial in all of music. He is often over looked by popular culture, but in his prime, he pulled everyone in his musical wake from Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, to Donny Hathaway.. just to name a few off the top of my head.

I haven't read the bio, but i think I recall that it mentions Jimi Hendrix and Miles planned to do an album together, before Jimi died. Oh what a gem that would have been.

Miles didn't turn his back to the audience because they were white; he did it because the only thing that mattered to him in his live performances was for the music to be played right (Miles' right that is) and he could only make that happen by constantly watching and correcting the band.

I also remember him naming in his autobiography (where I get the info above as well) people he thought beautiful, not in the literal sense, and including white people as well as black.

You are correct though about the planned collaboration between Miles and Jimi that eventually didn't take place, as Jimi passed away just before they were about to hit the studio.
 
The list of great bandleaders who passed through his groups blows me away: Coltrane, Cannonball, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea, John Scofield, John McLoughlin... that's without even thinking about it. He's massively influential- I think of him as America's Picasso.

He mostly did it at white clubs because he hated white people.

Hmmm, that's maybe a tad simplistic? Here's something from the Alex Haley interview:

White people have certain things that they expect from black musicians. It goes all the way back to slavery days. That’s when Uncle Toming got started because white people demanded it. Every little black child grew up seeing that getting along with white people, meant grinning and acting like a clown. It helped white people to feel easy about what they had done to blacks, and it’s still going on today. When it comes to black musicians, white people want you to do more than play your instrument. They want you to entertain them with grinning and dancing. I’m not an entertainer, and I damn sure aint no Uncle Tom. I won’t do it.
 
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I think both of you are right. Miles did believe that all that mattered was the music and everything else was extranous. Even though he was a big Dizzy fan, he hated Dizzy's chatter and big smiley face on stage. He thought that was 'Uncle Tomming' and detested all the black performers who did it it. He did have very strong views on white people and was widely accused as being racist, but he denys it complelety.

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Miles didn't turn his back to the audience because they were white; he did it because the only thing that mattered to him in his live performances was for the music to be played right (Miles' right that is) and he could only make that happen by constantly watching and correcting the band.

I also remember him naming in his autobiography (where I get the info above as well) people he thought beautiful, not in the literal sense, and including white people as well as black.

You are correct though about the planned collaboration between Miles and Jimi that eventually didn't take place, as Jimi passed away just before they were about to hit the studio.

Ok... Mabye thats an urban legend, but I swear there's a clip of a interview on youtube that at least indirectly confirms this. Some of this may be quoted from before or after the book was written. I'm sure his opinion of white people changed from 1950 to 1990... Like I said, I haven't read the book, so I'll believe you over hearsay, but I have friends who have read it, and who are Miles freaks, and I get all my info from them.
 
That book's got the craziest stories in it, it was super entertaining as well as informative. Also, talk about using swear words as punctuation. A couple of stories that are especially memorable to me are the one about him riding in a car with Charlie Parker, some chicken and a...lady, and the one about parking his car in the middle of a street, running into a building and taking an elevator ride. Crazy stuff. The parade of legendary names that were casually flung about was also pretty impressive.
 
Yup, you're right. Clifford Brown was his find right? I guess the mid 50s all these guys were playing with each other in New York, so band wise it was all quite incestous.

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Wynton started with the Messengers. :p Are you going to hold that against Art.

I heard an interview with Art back in 85. He called his group the jazz University. Keith Jarrett also started there. Freddie Hubbard, Horace Silver and Stanley Clarke played with Art. In the later 1960s, Clarke played with everyone. I was surprised when I read that; but it just showed how fertile NYC was as a training ground for jazz back in the 1950 and 60s.
 
Wynton started with the Messengers. :p Are you going to hold that against Art.

I heard an interview with Art back in 85. He called his group the jazz University. Keith Jarrett also started there. Freddie Hubbard, Horace Silver and Stanley Clarke played with Art. In the later 1960s, Clarke played with everyone. I was surprised when I read that; but it just showed how fertile NYC was as a training ground for jazz back in the 1950 and 60s.

Sure was. Minton's Playhouse up in Harlem, Birdland, 3 Deuces and all the others on 52nd st and some places down on Bleeker. Vanguard came up a little bit later I think...

It is amazing to me that people like Parker, Coltrane, Eddie Davis, Monk, Roach, Sonny Rollins, Bud Powell, were running around the city playing each other's gigs in these handful of hot clubs back then. Would have loved ot be a fly on those walls.. Yeah Keith Jarrett...even Kieth Jarrett played with him...Fender Rhodes!!!!

PS- Wynton was Art's boy? I guess everyones allowed one mistake..


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That book's got the craziest stories in it, it was super entertaining as well as informative. Also, talk about using swear words as punctuation. A couple of stories that are especially memorable to me are the one about him riding in a car with Charlie Parker, some chicken and a...lady,

ahahahaaha.....


and the one about parking his car in the middle of a street, running into a building and taking an elevator ride. Crazy stuff. The parade of legendary names that were casually flung about was also pretty impressive.

I think the only person who didnt do heroin of all the people Miles played with was Bill Evans.

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Wasn't he the guy who turned his back to the audience when he played? Maybe I'm thinking of someone else.
That was Elvis.

(Yeah, yeah, Miles too. I remember being too young to really get that.)

E certainly acknowledged the audience - he was Elvis, after all - but even in his Vegas days he played as much to the band as to the crowd. The crowd got his patented sneer. The band got the smile.
 
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