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

So is this 1-22-75 set on HiHat worth buying? Amazon prices for it are ok; mainly wondering about sound quality, since it's FM broadcast (like a home tape?)

of course would also be nice if the performances are distinctively good

Is it worth getting if you've already got Agharta and Pangaea? (I've got 80s Japanese imports of Dark Magus and Black Beauty, for that matter; not lacking for this era of Miles, but could use some more, if it's good)

Everything from that era is good, for Pete Cosey as much as (if not more than, sometimes) for Miles. I have that concert under the title Another Unity.

First clip from the Cheadle bio-pic:
http://www.indiewire.com/article/don-cheadle-tries-to-hit-the-right-notes-in-new-clip-from-nyff-closer-miles-ahead-20151008

I'm already ia at seeing an AKG d112 bass drum microphone being used to mic a trumpet section (and several decades before that model of mic existed).

https://media4.giphy.com/media/TbGwrJaWc9fLG/200_s.gif

I hope somebody got fired for that blunder.

lol, they probably wanted that vintage ribbon mic look and that was the closest thing they had lying around.

I can't tell a whole lot from that clip, but I can't say it looks bad.

The casting still bugs me; Cheadle looks more like Sammy Davis Jr. than he does Miles. I would have preferred to see Michael Wright as Miles. But I guess it's Cheadle's project, so...

idg why anyone makes these movies, they're so pointless

I'm not big on insisting on the actor who looks the most like the subject, but Cheadle's presence/bravado might be a bit lacking.

I'd rather just watch some stock footage of real miles myself. actors playing musicians have mainly been mediocre to absolute shite in recent history.

yeah it's not exactly a rich tradition. Kurt Russell did a good Elvis and Kilmer is v funny as Jimbo but ... yeah that's all I got

Angela Bassett did a good Tina Turner

Movies about fictional musicians are nearly always superior to movies about real ones, probably because the writers can't fall back on "and THAT was the moment where THAT THING happened!" and the actors can't fall back on trying to do an impression.

the writers can't fall back on "and THAT was the moment where THAT THING happened!"

I hated this so much about that recent Brian Wilson movie

I'm not crazy about big sweeping trying-to-be-accurate biopics; much prefer either an idiosyncratic approach or a focus on a specific short time period. Not that those kinds of films don't often suck too (last days eg)

Or that horrific vh1 movie where Lennon and McCartney hang out circa mid 1970s

Whereas Five Heartbeats, the Commitments, That Thing You Do, Crazy Heart all come to mind as examples of at least decent fictional musician movies.

Movies about fictional musicians are nearly always superior to movies about real ones, probably because the writers can't fall back on "and THAT was the moment where THAT THING happened!" and the actors can't fall back on trying to do an impression.

― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Friday, October 9, 2015 4:01 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm not crazy about big sweeping trying-to-be-accurate biopics; much prefer either an idiosyncratic approach or a focus on a specific short time period. Not that those kinds of films don't often suck too (last days eg)

― brimstead, Friday, October 9, 2015 4:05 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

isn't this film focusing on a barely-covered period of miles' life?

nah I hate all those movies too (well, Crazy Heart was okay)

did you not like Eddie and the Cruisers

xp

isn't this film focusing on a barely-covered period of miles' life?

that clip is clearly not from the late 70s

I assume that was either from Miles Ahead or Sketches of Spain? I haven't listened to either in a while but I assume the guy at the piano is supposed to be Gil Evans.

I would guess Miles Ahead since that's also the title of the film. And it doesn't sound like Birth of the Cool.

no its porgy & bess smfh fake ass fans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9qRk0ftySY

that clip is clearly not from the late 70s

― Οὖτις, Friday, October 9, 2015 4:15 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

right...but movies are usually ~ 2 hours long

the movie is set in the late 70s when miles was retired, but there are flashbacks to the glory days, or something.

but movies are usually ~ 2 hours long

Miles would be better served by a 45 minute movie comprised of a single scene of him sitting in his penthouse suite with the curtains drawn snorting coke and making abusive phonecalls to his ex-wives

no its porgy & bess smfh fake ass fans

Oh. The Gil Evans records are probably the Miles I've spent the least time with other than maybe 80s Miles.

i wonder where this will rank on the jazz instrument miming scale, where Bird is on the bottom, Whiplash is very near the bottom, and Mo' Better Blues is near the top. Round Midnight has to be at the top for actually having live performances (did Kansas City as well? can't remember).

I'm not crazy about big sweeping trying-to-be-accurate biopics; much prefer either an idiosyncratic approach or a focus on a specific short time period. Not that those kinds of films don't often suck too (last days eg)

― brimstead, Friday, October 9, 2015 4:05 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

isn't this film focusing on a barely-covered period of miles' life?

― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Friday, October 9, 2015 2:15 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i was just talking in general, i don't have an opinion on the miles movie

but i mean, yeah, that was one of the things that made me intrigued to see it

Was Round Midnight based on Bud powell or Dexter Gordon? I can't remember. It did seem like a half decent movie.

Bud Powell I guess, but Dexter Gordon starred in it.

huh never even heard of that before

i wonder where this will rank on the jazz instrument miming scale,

Cheadle actually played the trumpet in years past (no idea how serious his studies were), and he looks very convincing in the clip. Also, far more astute Miles aficionados than I have told me that Cheadle is holding the horn exactly as Miles did.

round midnight has some good performances in it, but it's not a great movie imo

Yeah it did star Dexter Gordon, didn't even notice that when i watched it recently! The real story of Bud Powell is very sad, quite similar to his pal Monk really :(

Just heard something from Ascenseur pour l'échafaudin a Lincoln ad. Ugh.

the movie is set in the late 70s when miles was retired, but there are flashbacks to the glory days, or something.

― tylerw, Friday, October 9, 2015 2:23 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i hope i'm wrong, but i wouldn't be shocked if the late 70s thing is just a framing device, in the same way the Folsom Prison show was in Walk the Line

I'd much rather see Cheadle play temporarily retired Miles at a "low point" in his life for a whole movie than the standard "Down-and-out late-70s Miles looks at a trumpet--cut to a young Miles Davis in East St. Louis seeing a trumpet for the first time"

^prescient post, i'm sure

haha definitely

The casting still bugs me; Cheadle looks more like Sammy Davis Jr. than he does Miles. I would have preferred to see Michael Wright as Miles. But I guess it's Cheadle's project, so...

― the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Friday, October 9, 2015 4:39 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

idg why anyone makes these movies, they're so pointless

― Οὖτις, Friday, October 9, 2015 4:41 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm not big on insisting on the actor who looks the most like the subject, but Cheadle's presence/bravado might be a bit lacking.

― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Friday, October 9, 2015 4:42 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agree with all these posts ^

Xpost. yeah that sounds about right.

Don't know that the 70s retirement period would make that watchable film, in his autobio he claims he was doing coke and sleeping with beautiful women but wasn't it the case that he was just getting fucked up on down for like 5 years? I mean it would be a pretty dark and narratively narrow film ha.

A second clip is released...aaaaand I'm out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zZXi6UGMs0

cheadle sounds like he's doing an snl voice or smth

I'm not crazy about big sweeping trying-to-be-accurate biopics; much prefer either an idiosyncratic approach or a focus on a specific short time period. Not that those kinds of films don't often suck too (last days eg)

― brimstead, Friday, October 9, 2015 5:05 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I remember The Hours and Times being really good; probably the exception that proves the rule, though.

This smelled bad from the get go.