The Unassailable Miles Davis, or, To Know Him Is To Love Him

As far as his 80's output, it's not his greatest work, but check out "Aura".

Maybe Miles is so great because of what Scott said -- he never made the same record twice (this could be going a bit far, though -- those mid-50s Presige albums are all pretty similar. All very good, too.) If you like lyricism, you got the Presige records, if you like sophisitcated arrangements, there's Sketchs & Miles Ahead, if you like funk, there's On The Corner, etc. He's the Neil Young of the jazz world, only Miles was such a major talent he could do all these things well.

Sundar - could you elaborate on that hatred a little, or are you just trying to play Devil's Advocate? I seem to remember a certain Kraftwerk thread in which you assumed the very same role... ;-)

Now: the Neil Young of jazz? I don't think so! That would mean he never changed his style ;)

Bill

free stuff aside, i love ed bickert's sound and playing, though he often works with lame musicians or plays on lame pieces. i even remember quite enjoying some cbc concerts by oliver jones and marian mcpartland, though i don't play them much. i've even liked some lenny breau, though again it's not something i play much and it was a long time ago that i liked it.

going back, i've liked things by dizzy gillespie, as well as duke ellington. some django reinhardt even - i think i just like guitarists. but i'll be honest - it's the free records that i pull out.

i've just been unable to listen to kind of blue without wanting to pass out by the third track or so. (outkast's aquemini, comparably, takes maybe six tracks. but it has shorter tracks, i think.) i'm not sure i can really elaborate much further without having the cd around to play. it just didn't grab or retain my interest. didn't seem like anything more than "pleasant," "tasteful," and "perfectly executed." my friend (who likes the album) once described it as "almost like ambient music," which goes a long way towards explaining things for me.

my dislike for bb and iasw comes partly from my distaste for john mclaughlin's noodling. and the laid-back wing-tip funk keyboards just aren't to my taste. i have no interest in herbie hancock or chick corea. i didn't think the rock side of md's jazz- rock fusions was cream-of-the-crop rock at all.

i don't think i quite hated round about midnight but i couldn't imagine wanting to hear it either.

clarke: what are you referring to? i really liked the mix, didn't care that much for radio-activity, liked some other things i'd heard from trans-europe express. i don't think i have ever said otherwise. outside of ilm, it has hardly been my experience that kraftwerk is so universally and uncritically acclaimed. do you think i pine away at night, secretly regretting that i sold radio-activity two years ago?

... do you think i pine away at night, secretly regretting that i sold radio-activity two years ago?

Well I should certainly hope so!

This is probably my favorite piece of music writing ever: http://www.ivy-style.com/the-warlord-of-the-weejuns.html

All I’m trying to say, really, is that most boutique customers should be lined up before a firing squad at dawn and that there should be a minute of silence to thank God for the existence of people like Miles Davis

There is something beautiful about this sentence.

US Postal Service to issue Miles Davis stamp

And it's the cover of Jack Johnson!

nice!

I will buy these stamps!

WTF challops shit was I on??

Squeaky door sounds just like Bitches Brew.

And I just saw Stanley Crouch run down there with a can of WD-40.

http://tsutpen.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-gunslinger-guide-to-miles-davis-7.html

Always glad to be reminded of "The Warlord Of The Weejuns"

Don Cheadle is playing Miles in a new movie

http://i.imgur.com/CWoPQiI.jpg

way too much muscle imo, unless it's a miles superhero movie

And especially because the movie centers around his coke-heavy never-leaving-the-house non-playing years. Don Cheadle's Miles weighs about triple what Miles did during that time.

why

i also heard that wayne shorter was now taller instead

miles davis: the man with the brawn

i guess setting it in the late '70s is a good way to get around the whole 'filming realistic performances' thing. although they could just have him play with his back to the camera.

Don Cheadle learned to play trumpet:

With the music—I know you mentioned that you play the saxophone—will you be playing the trumpet in the movie?
Yeah.

You will? You’ll be playing his songs yourself?
No. I’m not going to be, we’re going to be using Miles Davis playing. [Laughs] We’re not going to do a movie with the rights to his music and not have him playing.

We’re going to use his recordings. I’ve learned how to play. There will be elements of me playing the movie but when it comes to the pieces that are Miles Davis playing, it will be Miles Davis.

Good to read that it'll mostly focus on the intense gym routines he enjoyed in his later years and will heavily feature music from his early albums Workin', Steamin', Liftin' and Pumpin'.

Not to mention Stretches of Spain.

Kind of blew out my arms during that epic lift sesh

The idea of a miles biopic that concentrates exclusively on 1975-1979 is amazing. No flashbacks, just a dark house and occasional visits from Herbie Hancock and Lester Bowie.

you guys are tripping. Miles used to box

he def had biceps.

also this must be based on eric nisiensen's stories, in part.

http://www.amazon.com/Round-About-Midnight-Portrait-Miles/dp/0306806843

this was the first Miles bio I read .. he used to hang out w/ Miles all the time during that era

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J2i_zouRBH8/T-dKD592yLI/AAAAAAAAGfs/MoX-ypwdfek/s1600/Arnaud+Baumann+~+Miles+Davis,+ca.+1980.jpg

Miles, late 70s/v. early 80s

Actually, that photo is from somewhere around 1989-90; it's from the same photo session that yielded the album cover of Doo-Bop, which was released in 1991. This is a picture of Miles in the late '60s/early '70s:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jd80_x84iUE/TqSYqpD-UhI/AAAAAAAAAjU/SVSe7pWG5xU/s1600/miles-davis3.jpg

Based on the sunglasses, I'd guess that photo is '73/'74; he's wearing the same glasses on the cover of Get Up With It.

lol thought he looked old, Google lied to me

i guess he does have muscles on the cover of jack johnson too, but he sure looks like a skinny motherfucker in a bunch of photos from later in the decade

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Observer/Pix/pictures/2010/9/2/1283425873645/Miles-Davis-Muhammad-Ali-006.jpg

ok fuck this biopic shit and let's change the subject:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IJDi1gQZu8

I ran across this at my local library:

http://www.amazon.com/Live-Europe-1969-Bootleg-Series/dp/B008YCMM2A
MD Quintet live in Europe 1969.

It is as awesome as you would expect with generally good-to-very-good sounding recordings.
Also the dvd is a nice bonus.

lol
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CLu5mk4VAAAJ0nW.png:large

who is spc

To the jazz cognoscenti, Miles Davis’s peak playing years were when he was playing with Charlie Parker right up to when he made the series of recordings collated under the title “Birth of the Cool”.

Peak snobbery.

― Austin, Thursday, June 23, 2016 11:22 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol yea it took some effort for me to read past that first line, i was just like "wha?????"

like what jazz cognoscenti

second great quintet pretty universally adored too right

wasn't that era wynton marsalis's greatest inspiration

It seems like in the last 10-15 years even most people who hated the electric period either died or went into hiding. But I've literally never heard anyone suggest that he peaked at BOTC.

The Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool documentary on BBC2 tonight. A++

Also now on Netflix in North America btw.

yes it was good. horrific stuff with his wife. i didn't realise she was going to be in the west side story movie.

made me want to hang out with lenny white. 'and it just moved, like an amoeba... every now and again something sticking out, just all moving along together'

I ffwd through most of this tbh

not much there that was new but i ate up actually seeing everyone tell those stories.

Missed this, but may still be on PBS.org and/or re-broadcast for fundraisers etc.:

American Masters, starting Tues.:
Discover the man behind the legend. With full access to the Miles Davis Estate, the film features never-before-seen footage, including studio outtakes from his recording sessions, rare photos and new interviews.
https://aptv.org/schedule/detail.php?epid=2378952

― dow, Saturday, February 22, 2020

This was pretty boilerplate but a fun watch. The “never-before-seen/heard” stuff wasn’t a big deal imo. Like abt 98% of music docs, I just wished it had more actual uninterrupted music and performance.

Yup

Carlos Santana was funny

Was that West Side Story thing movie or Broadway show? I think film was a translation of a theatre thing to the screen.
Yeah, seriously nasty. Glad she was around to tell the tale. Her and Juliette Greco.

I think I'd seen most of the performance video stuff cos a lot of its been around on bootleg for the last decade at least.
Not sure about the 'In Performance ' set they used to illustrate On The Corner with the Indian percussion stuff.
& I think they used a clip of the band around 1969 with Dave Holland on electric bass to illustrate something a bit later. But not sure.

Quite enjoyed it though.

& had just caught a Fairport Convention doc on Sky Arts before that was mainly good. Missed the start though.
Also saw that ZZ Top Little Old Band From Texas thing on Sky Arts the night before. So great week for biodocs.

I liked when Stanley Crouch was like “it just didn’t sound good”

Wasn’t surprised to hear Crouch say that. Although some of the stuff in the doc I wasn’t that familiar with, so it was worth seeing for me.

Crouch is right. It didnt sound good, it sounded AMAZING

go tell that shit to your new leader, Sting

All the Complete sessions are being reissued and are available from his store: https://www.milesdavisstore.com/store/

I'm mulling over "The Complete On The Corner Sessions".

They gotta reissue the trumpet case!

https://www.popsike.com/pix/20180121/173113313489.jpg

i’m mulling over a “bitches brew” 50th anniversary coffee mug

the tshirt with the sketches of spain graphic is tite

I need physical copies of the 1965-68 quintet box and the In A Silent Way Sessions box. Thanks for the tip!

suprised they don't have VOTE FOR MILES shirts or buttons

All the Complete sessions are being reissued and are available from his store: https://www.milesdavisstore.com/store🕸/

I'm mulling over "The Complete On The Corner Sessions".

That’d be Newton Free, GMBB.

Thanks for the heads up! I think I might have to get On the Corner, it's the only one I want that I don't already have. (although I'm kinda tempted to swap out my Jack Johnson set since I only have the long box version that doesn't match the others)

That trumpet case is such a flex--just went through my old CD-Rs a couple nights ago and was v glad to find my burned copies on the Complete On The Corner; going to find some quarantime to put in the work

That’d be Newton Free, GMBB.

Hah, we borrowed the same copy! I made a playlist of my favorite bonus bits from the box, still not sure I need it all, my picks:
One And One (unedited master) - not the same song!
Jabali
The Hen
Peace
Mr. Foster
Hip-Skip
What They Do

It makes a perfect companion to OTC with a similar feel.

Thanks for the revive, this is great news. Would love to get the 65-68 box (and maybe the OTC one too).

Is it all of them? I don’t see Cellar Door in there (which is another I’d consider).

Why the fuck did they wait for a global pandemic/economic meltdown to do this?

no plugged nickle from what i can see

i just got the Bitches Brew box set last year (the long tall one). for some reason i was under the impression that OtC was the only OOP studio box? maybe just because i don't think i ever saw it in an actual physical store

in a silent way box i listen to all the frickin time

The Cellar Door and Plugged Nickel boxes have never been reissued since they came out.

The On The Corner box was the only one of the Complete ... Sessions sets they allowed to go out of print.

Yeah, I think the other ones can be picked up p easily in used CD shops across the country

the 65-68 second great quintet box is fantastic — though it does throw into relief how well sequenced the original albums actually were.

Plugged Nickel comes in 7 and 8 disc versions - the latter has an extra gig?

Listening to Workin' today, and it's beautiful and perfect

Plugged Nickel comes in 7 and 8 disc versions - the latter has an extra gig?

Nope; it was a Japan-only release in 1992 and several tracks were edited by two or three minutes so that the second set would fit on a single CD. In the 8CD box, it's split across two discs.

quality discographical info, thanks

Is the 15% discount applying for anyone ordering one of the Complete Sessions? It's saying it's applied but I'm not seeing it deduct anything and there is a caveat that "Some exclusions may apply including media" ...

Welp, sounds like pre-orders aren't eligible for some reason according to the email. Boo.

Can someone help me out by identifying this woman? This is from near the end of the American Masters documentary. I need her name for something. I'm sure she's identified earlier in the film, but I don't want to rewatch the whole thing right now.

https://phildellio.tripod.com/birth.JPG

(Terribly photographed with a camera, because you can't take screenshots from Netflix.)

Is it Frances Taylor? I feel like she was interviewed quite a bit in that.

She is, but it's not her (she appears directly after that scene and is identified). I think I'll have to watch the film again--my friend, who interviewed Davis in the late '80s, wasn't sure either. They must identify her earlier in the film.

Marguerite Cantu

Yes! Many thanks.

"Bess, You Is My Woman Now," right now on local station: arrangement briefly intros Miles and then disappears, staying out of his way (thanks, Gil). Living breathing solo.

Or I should say the melodic statement is the solo, and vice versa. Wow.