Miles Davis: The Complete Illustrated History PDF
Preview Miles Davis: The Complete Illustrated History
000011--006677__0044554499_.inCd2d.i n d1d 1 JJoobb::0044554499 TTiittllee:: ##119944776688 MMiilleess DDaavviiss ((MMBBII)) 77//3203//1122 59::0077 PAMM PPaaggee::11 000011--006677__0044554499..iinndddd 22 JJoobb::0044554499 TTiittllee:: ##119944776688 MMiilleess DDaavviiss ((MMBBII)) 77//2233//1122 99::0077 AAMM PPaaggee::22 MILES DAVIS the complete illustrated history Sonny RollinS, Bill CoSBy, HeRBie HanCoCk, Ron CaRteR, ClaRk teRRy, lenny WHite, GReG tate, with aSHley kaHn, RoBin D. G. kelley, FRanCiS DaviS, GeoRGe Wein, vinCent BeSSièReS, GeRalD eaRly, nate CHinen, nalini JoneS, Dave lieBman, GaRtH CaRtWRiGHt, kaRl HaGStRom milleR and Photographs from the archives of Francis Wolff, William Gottlieb, Bob Willoughby, William “PoPsie” Randolph, Lynn Goldsmith, and more 000011--006677__0044554499__CC22..iinndddd 33 TEXT JJoobb::0044554499 TTiittllee:: ##119944776688 MMiilleess DDaavviiss ((MMBBII)) 77//3300//1122 55::0022 PPMM PPaaggee::33 Shaw Artists agency promotional portrait, circa 1955. 000011--006677__0044554499..iinndddd 44 TEXT JJoobb::0044554499 TTiittllee:: ##119944776688 MMiilleess DDaavviiss ((MMBBII)) 77//2233//1122 99::0077 AAMM PPaaggee::44 Contents IntRoductIon Running the Voodoo Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 chaPteR 1 the YounG aRtIst 1926–1948 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Beginnings by Ashley Kahn There Was a Time . . . by Clark Terry chaPteR 2 BIRth oF the cooL 1949–1953 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Miles in the 1940s and Early 1950s by Sonny Rollins Miles and Style by Bill Cosby chaPteR 3 haRd BoP 1954–1958 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68 Miles in France by Vincent Bessières Love for Sale by Robin D. G. Kelley chaPteR 4 KInd oF BLue 1958–1963 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94 Miles, Newport, and the Business of Jazz by George Wein chaPteR 5 a neW eneRGY 1964–1968 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Miles and the 1960s Quintet by Ron Carter and Herbie Hancock Miles and the Ballads by Francis Davis chaPteR 6 Bitches Brew and BeYond 1969–1974 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Miles, Tony Williams, and the Road to Bitches Brew by Lenny White Miles Goes Acoustic by Karl Hagstrom Miller chaPteR 7 hIatus and RecoveRY 1975–1985 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Miles and Women by Nalini Jones Miles Davis in the Ring by Gerald Early chaPteR 8 tutu and FaReWeLL 1986–1991 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Miles in the 1980s by Greg Tate Timing by Dave Liebman aFteRWoRd Miles in the Afterlife by Nate Chinen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 Shaw Artists agency promotional portrait, circa 1955. 000011--006677__0044554499..iinndddd 55 TEXT JJoobb::0044554499 TTiittllee:: ##119944776688 MMiilleess DDaavviiss ((MMBBII)) 77//2233//1122 99::0077 AAMM PPaaggee::55 000011--006677__0044554499_.inCd2d.i n d6d 6 JJoobb::0044554499 TTiittllee:: ##119944776688 MMiilleess DDaavviiss ((MMBBII)) 77//3203//1122 59::0037 PAMM PPaaggee::66 Introduction Running the Voodoo Down MoRe than tWentY YeaRs sInce MILes davIs Passed aWaY, this most maverick of musicians remains a huge force in the world’s sonic and cultural landscape. Whether it’s the casual fan who purchases Kind of Blue because they’ve been told it’s good make-out music or the hardcore jazz fan who searches the globe for bootleg concert and studio recordings of Davis with certain ensembles, every listener responds to what the man with the horn brings to proceedings. Miles Davis’ place in the twentieth century artistic pantheon has long been assured. He is one of those rare individuals whose fame supersedes him. Indeed, to many in the general public, Miles is jazz—not because they listen to him above all others, but that he is the name they associate with a genre of (largely) African American, (largely) instrumental music in the same way that Leonardo da Vinci gets cited most often when the public are asked to name a famous painter. That Miles never had a hit record in the manner of Louis Armstrong or Herbie Hancock (even Kind of Blue’s domination of the back catalog album sales list is a relatively recent phenomenon) only goes to emphasize how huge a shadow he casts across jazz. If this shadow consisted only of Miles’ music then we could wonder at how his playing touched so many people. And, of course, it did touch—and continues to touch—millions of listeners across the world. But Miles’ fame was based on much more than just music. For a small man Miles Davis cast a huge shadow, his very presence embodying all kinds of notions of “cool” and “blackness” when both those concepts were fresh and fraught. His supreme self-possession and disdain for what seemed like pretty much everyone else created an id of sorts than many others have since (unfortunately) emulated. His fearlessness when challenging the white American establishment—whether New York City police, record company executives, or racists who loathed seeing French beauty Juliette Gréco reclining in his arms—made him an icon of Black Power even if Davis was, for the most part, uninterested in politics, Miles being all about Miles. Even his serial descents into hard drug addiction only added a rather louche glamour to his public persona—journalists normally only interested in the travails of Keith Richards or Iggy Pop Miles jests, 1955. Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy celebrated Miles as a trumpet-wielding “badass” junkie. 7 000011--006677__0044554499..iinndddd 77 TEXT JJoobb::0044554499 TTiittllee:: ##119944776688 MMiilleess DDaavviiss ((MMBBII)) 77//2233//1122 99::0077 AAMM PPaaggee::77 Miles became the stuff of myth while he was still alive. ability to constantly reinvent and start afresh and create what All kinds of titles were bestowed upon him both by had never existed before. And, in his arrogance and excesses, observers and fellow musicians—“the Picasso of he also embodied the nation’s worst qualities. Critical as he Jazz” and “the Prince of Darkness” being notably memorable. was of American hypocrisies, Miles was very much an artist in Trying to describe Miles and the sonic voodoo he created is like the American grain. trying to hold flowing water. No matter, language will always I never got to meet Miles or see him in concert. All I have struggle to suggest what music conveys. There were those is the recordings, and they have fascinated me ever since I who knew him personally and thus described not the music first came across a vinyl copy of Kind of Blue, its then cover but the behavior. His son Gregory Davis wrote a trashy memoir featuring Miles blowing, biceps pumping out of a white singlet. about his father called Dark Magus and, undoubtedly, Miles It was a reissue cover fitting for the era of Rambo, but when did act like a monster at times. Yet whatever acts of ugliness I put the needle to vinyl the music that flowed out displayed he committed, the music of Miles Davis remains a testament to such tender blues and soulful intelligence I’ve never stopped human imagination, emotion, and beauty. This does not mean listening. Who, I wanted to know, could make such music? that every note Miles played has artistic resonance—far from Where did he come from? Where is he going to? it: the forty-plus years he spent playing jazz are littered with Almost thirty years on I’m still asking those same questions. misfires, second-rate performances, and some coldly cynical As, I believe, are all those who love to listen to Miles. This book efforts. Yet the great body of Davis’ then is a map of sorts to finding your way work continues to fascinate and around the beauty, brutality, and brilliance repay further listening. of Miles Dewey Davis III. For Miles Davis never simply rested on his laurels. Across his GaRth caRtWRIGht is an award- life, he pursued a relentless desire winning journalist and critic who regularly to challenge himself (and his contributes to the Guardian, the Sunday listeners), and with his fierce vision Times, fRoots, and the BBC’s website. He and ability to surround himself with is the author of Princes Amongst Men: gifted young musicians he did so Journeys with Gypsy Musicians and More time and time again. In many ways Miles Than Money: Journeys Through he embodied the finest ideals of the American Music. United States—its energies and 8 • INTRODUCTION 000011--006677__0044554499_.inCd2d.i n d8d 8 TEXT JJoobb::0044554499 TTiittllee:: ##119944776688 MMiilleess DDaavviiss ((MMBBII)) 77//3203//1122 59::2017 PAMM PPaaggee::88
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