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

the issue for me so far in that clip is just that don cheadle's presence just has a hesitant insecurity that is very un-Miles

― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Saturday, October 10, 2015 1:17 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea very much so

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"

― intheblanks, Saturday, October 10, 2015 1:30 AM (3 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol this movie looks like it somehow manages to accomplish both

this looks like a rainier wolfcastle version of the miles davis story.

so this... was pretty daft. thought Don Cheadle was actually okay in this. ewan mcgregor was truly awful.

Yeah, I lost all interest after watching the trailer.

Music biopics are generally awful. Do we have a thread about them?

Anti-Miles memories from the founder of JazzFM (not a recommendation from this UK listener). Interesting because from my limited contact w. the British JazzSNOB world a not untypical mindset of the way jazz appreciation developed here, and the anecdote at the end is p funny despite the author:

https://12barblog.com/category/miles-davis/

ok lol classic Miles anecdote

lol

haha the author is such a prick way 2 go miles

heh, miles otm

Yeah, striking intuitive perception on miles part there.

Hahaha. I got as far as 'famous comedian Bill Oddie' and wanted to kill everyone. Miles otm.

Bill Oddie:
You won't believe the musical pretensions that went on in my head. I listened to a lot of jazz and a lot of funk, and that period of the '70s for me was fantastic - it was really the era when fusion started. The people I liked were Sly Stone and early Parliament, and I listened to what was happening in jazz at the time, when Miles Davis was coming up with some very interesting hybrid music. With 'Funky Gibbon', I started off - it's almost unbelievable considering how stupid the song is - trying to get the feel of a Miles Davis track, I can't remember which, probably just after Bitches Brew and that sort of era: some really choppy Miles Davis-type rhythm, again with a Sly Stone influence.
http://www.alwynwturner.com/glitter/funky_gibbon.html

what in the ever lovin fuck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAmx_XdQky8

forget it shakey its britishtown

That was like a nakh afl post filtered through Garrison Keilor.

RE: Funky Gibbon - "You know, for kids". One of the first singles I ever owned. Growing up in the 1970s, the Goodies were definitely a gateway for kids into Monty Python. Oddie was one of the regulars on the proto-Python radio series I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again at the same time that Derek Bailey was in the house band.

Oddie was also a regular customer when I worked in the jazz dept of a massive chain record shop, and absolutely no trouble at all. This is him answering questions on 'American Jazz' on Celebrity Mastermind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyTD4j1Wcso

American here who loves Miles and loved The Goodies as a kid when it aired on NYC Public Television. So Oddie's cool with me.

Love the Miles anecdote but I feel bad for Red Rodney going thru all that trouble lol.

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.

Peak dumbassery really, I don't think anyone thinks that and it mostly suggests he hasn't heard the records MD made with Parker etc or can't hear the frequent mistakes Davis makes on them. It's good, just super embryonic type stuff. Which I thought was a p much universally held opinion. I don't remember his playing being as tentative on BOTC but that's obv way more of an ensemble thing. Anyway there're pre-fusion periods one could make an argument like that for, but choosing that one seems kinda random/uninformed.

I honestly can't tell if this sentence is satire or just ignorance: "the very exclusive Getzen company in Wisconsin, who make only the finest hand crafted trumpets"

Getzen horns are not exclusive in the slightest and are basically middle of the road as far as being considered "fine"

Peak dumbassery really, I don't think anyone thinks that and it mostly suggests he hasn't heard the records MD made with Parker etc or can't hear the frequent mistakes Davis makes on them. It's good, just super embryonic type stuff. Which I thought was a p much universally held opinion. I don't remember his playing being as tentative on BOTC but that's obv way more of an ensemble thing. Anyway there're pre-fusion periods one could make an argument like that for, but choosing that one seems kinda random/uninformed.

yeah I've actually never heard ANYONE suggest that his peak playing was with Parker or BOTC. Not only is it the standard wisdom on him that he was never a "player's player," but his concepts really weren't well-formed yet when he played with Parker.

I mean I thought even straight-ahead curmudgeons preferred the Riverside/early Columbia era.

sry meant to say Prestige

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