miles
funny that my sweetie 'n' i were talking about him earlier, because sunday will mark the 17th anniversary of a world without miles davis in it -- a strange notion.
miles really went his own way starting from the very beginning, this rich kid from east st. louis, illinois, whose dentist dad sent him to nyc in 1944 to attend juillard, which he bagged within a semester to be charlie parker's trumpet player. he took shit early on for not having dizzy gillespie's chops, but his own voice on trumpet would be more about silence and space than dazzling displays of virtuosity (although his _sound_ was always immaculate). he's all over the parker savoys and dials.
next he formed a nonet with unusual instrumentation (including french horn and tuba), playing arrangements by gil evans, gerry mulligan, and john lewis -- a sort of chamber jazz that his label, capitol, dubbed "the birth of the cool." got strung out on "h" in the early '50s and much mystique surrounds his going home to his father's house to kick, but he struggled with addiction(s) intermittently for the rest of his life. in 1954, he turned around and cut "bags groove," "blue 'n' boogie," and "walkin'" for prestige, which started the ball rolling for the "soul jazz" and hard bop movements that were essentially a reaction against the west coast "cool" school that his earlier recordings had kicked off.
formed his first classic quintet in 1955 with a still-addicted but exploratory john coltrane (ts), dallasite red garland (pno), paul lawrence dunbar chambers (bs), and philly joe jones (ds). signed with columbia for round about midnight, then broke his prestige contract by recording four albums (essentially his band's entahr repertoire) in two days: the classic relaxin', workin', steamin', and cookin'.
miles broke up the quintet in '57 because coltrane, chambers, and jones were strung out, and started a series of recordings with a big band arranged by his "best friend," gil evans: miles ahead, porgy and bess, sketches of spain. the two never worked together again after columbia released quiet nights against their wishes in 1962, but rumors persist of evans' involvement in 1968's filles de kilimanjaro. the recordings with evans also mark the start of miles' association with producer teo macero.
meanwhile, he'd reformed the classic quintet in 1958 and added julian "cannonball" adderley on alto. they cut milestones, the title track to which was miles' first venture into modal (scale-, rather than chord-based) improvisation. the following year, miles replaced garland and jones with bill evans and jimmy cobb. evans was replaced in turn by wynton kelly, but miles called him back to record kind of blue, based on skeletal structures that the musicians saw for the first time in the studio on the day of recording. having just made what would become the best-selling jazz album of all time, miles got the shit beat out of him by a nyc cop for standing outside birdland, where he had a gig, with a white woman.
miles struggled to find new sidemen when first coltrane, then the rhythm section left him. in 1963, he found ron carter (bs), herbie hancock (pno), and a teenage titan from boston, tony williams (ds). memphis tenorman george coleman got shitcanned for practicing his solos in the hotel ("i pay you to practice on the bandstand," miles reputedly said), and williams' fellow boston avant-gardist sam rivers only lasted a single tour of japan. the group was complete when art blakey's musical director, wayne shorter (ts) from newark, agreed to join. besides his voice on tenor, shorter also contributed compositions like "footprints" and "nefertiti" that defined the second classic quartet's sound (although live, as mentioned in another post, they mainly played miles' standard repertoire at breakneck pace).
like everyone else with ears in 1968, miles was affected by the music of james brown, jimi hendrix, and sly stone, and he started adding electric bass, piano, and guitar to the mix, replacing carter and hancock with englishman dave holland and chick corea. for in a silent way, he used hancock, corea, and josef zawinul on electronic keyboards and added another brit, john mclaughlin, on guitar. tony williams quit after that session and formed lifetime with mclaughlin; his replacement in miles' band was jack dejohnette. while the woodstock festival was taking place in upstate new york, miles and an expanded group cut the dark, dense bitches brew, which like in a silent way was pieced together from multiple takes, like a rock record. miles took his new music on the road to the rock dungeons and festivals, where it could be heard by hundreds or thousands (rather than dozens) of people. (his performance from the 1970 isle of wight festival is worth viewing on dvd.)
yet another brit, cellist-arranger paul buckmaster, pulled miles' coat to stockhausen, and miles started using electronic effects on his trumpet. he hired stevie wonder's bassplayer, michael henderson, and cut his most rock-like record yet, a tribute to jack johnson, with mclaughlin, hancock, and drummer billy cobham, and his funkiest one, the much-maligned, highly textured on the corner. his last great band included henderson, percussionist mtume, drummer al foster, guitarists reggie lucas (future producer of madonna) and pete cosey (a chess records sessionman and aacm member from chicago), and first dave liebman, then sonny fortune on reeds. miles was now playing organ as often as trumpet onstage. this lineup is heard to best advantage on get up with it (especially "he loved him madly" and "calypso frelimo") and the live albums agharta and pangaea.
by this time, miles' health was deteriorating: he suffered from osteoarthritis, sickle-cell anemia, depression, bursitis, and heroin addiction. he retired from music from 1975 until 1979, when he resumed recording. during the '80s, he frequently collaborated with bassist marcus miller (whose composition "hannibal" you can see him playing below). his last great recording was aura, a davis tribute composed by danish trumpeter palle mikkelborg and recorded in 1984.
miles left the planet september 28, 1991, from respiratory failure following a stroke and pneumonia. he changed the way music sounded, not once, not twice, but a handful of times. how many musicians can claim that?
miles really went his own way starting from the very beginning, this rich kid from east st. louis, illinois, whose dentist dad sent him to nyc in 1944 to attend juillard, which he bagged within a semester to be charlie parker's trumpet player. he took shit early on for not having dizzy gillespie's chops, but his own voice on trumpet would be more about silence and space than dazzling displays of virtuosity (although his _sound_ was always immaculate). he's all over the parker savoys and dials.
next he formed a nonet with unusual instrumentation (including french horn and tuba), playing arrangements by gil evans, gerry mulligan, and john lewis -- a sort of chamber jazz that his label, capitol, dubbed "the birth of the cool." got strung out on "h" in the early '50s and much mystique surrounds his going home to his father's house to kick, but he struggled with addiction(s) intermittently for the rest of his life. in 1954, he turned around and cut "bags groove," "blue 'n' boogie," and "walkin'" for prestige, which started the ball rolling for the "soul jazz" and hard bop movements that were essentially a reaction against the west coast "cool" school that his earlier recordings had kicked off.
formed his first classic quintet in 1955 with a still-addicted but exploratory john coltrane (ts), dallasite red garland (pno), paul lawrence dunbar chambers (bs), and philly joe jones (ds). signed with columbia for round about midnight, then broke his prestige contract by recording four albums (essentially his band's entahr repertoire) in two days: the classic relaxin', workin', steamin', and cookin'.
miles broke up the quintet in '57 because coltrane, chambers, and jones were strung out, and started a series of recordings with a big band arranged by his "best friend," gil evans: miles ahead, porgy and bess, sketches of spain. the two never worked together again after columbia released quiet nights against their wishes in 1962, but rumors persist of evans' involvement in 1968's filles de kilimanjaro. the recordings with evans also mark the start of miles' association with producer teo macero.
meanwhile, he'd reformed the classic quintet in 1958 and added julian "cannonball" adderley on alto. they cut milestones, the title track to which was miles' first venture into modal (scale-, rather than chord-based) improvisation. the following year, miles replaced garland and jones with bill evans and jimmy cobb. evans was replaced in turn by wynton kelly, but miles called him back to record kind of blue, based on skeletal structures that the musicians saw for the first time in the studio on the day of recording. having just made what would become the best-selling jazz album of all time, miles got the shit beat out of him by a nyc cop for standing outside birdland, where he had a gig, with a white woman.
miles struggled to find new sidemen when first coltrane, then the rhythm section left him. in 1963, he found ron carter (bs), herbie hancock (pno), and a teenage titan from boston, tony williams (ds). memphis tenorman george coleman got shitcanned for practicing his solos in the hotel ("i pay you to practice on the bandstand," miles reputedly said), and williams' fellow boston avant-gardist sam rivers only lasted a single tour of japan. the group was complete when art blakey's musical director, wayne shorter (ts) from newark, agreed to join. besides his voice on tenor, shorter also contributed compositions like "footprints" and "nefertiti" that defined the second classic quartet's sound (although live, as mentioned in another post, they mainly played miles' standard repertoire at breakneck pace).
like everyone else with ears in 1968, miles was affected by the music of james brown, jimi hendrix, and sly stone, and he started adding electric bass, piano, and guitar to the mix, replacing carter and hancock with englishman dave holland and chick corea. for in a silent way, he used hancock, corea, and josef zawinul on electronic keyboards and added another brit, john mclaughlin, on guitar. tony williams quit after that session and formed lifetime with mclaughlin; his replacement in miles' band was jack dejohnette. while the woodstock festival was taking place in upstate new york, miles and an expanded group cut the dark, dense bitches brew, which like in a silent way was pieced together from multiple takes, like a rock record. miles took his new music on the road to the rock dungeons and festivals, where it could be heard by hundreds or thousands (rather than dozens) of people. (his performance from the 1970 isle of wight festival is worth viewing on dvd.)
yet another brit, cellist-arranger paul buckmaster, pulled miles' coat to stockhausen, and miles started using electronic effects on his trumpet. he hired stevie wonder's bassplayer, michael henderson, and cut his most rock-like record yet, a tribute to jack johnson, with mclaughlin, hancock, and drummer billy cobham, and his funkiest one, the much-maligned, highly textured on the corner. his last great band included henderson, percussionist mtume, drummer al foster, guitarists reggie lucas (future producer of madonna) and pete cosey (a chess records sessionman and aacm member from chicago), and first dave liebman, then sonny fortune on reeds. miles was now playing organ as often as trumpet onstage. this lineup is heard to best advantage on get up with it (especially "he loved him madly" and "calypso frelimo") and the live albums agharta and pangaea.
by this time, miles' health was deteriorating: he suffered from osteoarthritis, sickle-cell anemia, depression, bursitis, and heroin addiction. he retired from music from 1975 until 1979, when he resumed recording. during the '80s, he frequently collaborated with bassist marcus miller (whose composition "hannibal" you can see him playing below). his last great recording was aura, a davis tribute composed by danish trumpeter palle mikkelborg and recorded in 1984.
miles left the planet september 28, 1991, from respiratory failure following a stroke and pneumonia. he changed the way music sounded, not once, not twice, but a handful of times. how many musicians can claim that?
posted by stashdauber at 1:09 AM
1 Comments:
I love Miles. Let me see, in the order I discovered his albums:
Jack Johnson,Tutu,Aura,Bitches Brew,Kind of Blue,Silent Way,then all those crazy live things from early 70's Dark Magus, Pangaea, etc.
All his other periods I never had a taste for but can appreciate their importance and musicality.
Kavin
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