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The many musical faces of Mr. Miles Davis?

It was in the late 80's; I was in a funereal limousine, in Mr. Davis's hometown, and someone mentioned his name. An elderly lady chimed in, "I remember Miles, he was the little dark skinned kid who used to always try to blow the trumpet". There was total silence, a very long silence I might add. Since she was the most grieved in the limo, there was no point in trying to bring her up to date. Mr. Davis's name was not mentioned the rest of the day.
Miles music has many faces, which one do you prefer.
orpheus10
fishboat
245 posts
 
Viridian,

I'd agree. I recently finished reading his autobiography...he was hard on women in general..and not overly kind to himself, his body at least.

IMHO he was something special. I have somewhere around 20-25 of his cds. He was a product of his environment (40-50's America) and of himself. Much of his mental & physical pain was self-inflicted..but attributed by him to others. Overall he changed the world in a good way.
orpheus10 OP
8,668 posts
 
Miles has as many facets as a brilliant diamond. It's not until after you have seen them all can you appreciate his genious.
coltrane1's avatar
coltrane1
739 posts
 
You got to give it to the man. He was in perfect position to have done a more commercially viable thing, ala Wes Montgomery, during the 60's. Miles Davis could have easily out Botti'ed Chris Botti during those radical 60's producing hot cool commercially successful records, but no, Miles remained utterly honest and true to himself, whilst continually reinventing himself. And for many in the black community Miles was an Icon, especially throughout the radical 60's for he represented the face of an angry black man that took no gruff from no white folk. Well, that's simply how it was 50 years ago. It's almost impossible to speak about Miles or his music without recognizing his anger. No one messed with Miles. In any event, Miles Davis, and others deserve a lot of credit for having endured it all, without selling out.
soundfan's avatar
soundfan
24 posts
 
My fave Miles is his work with the 2 great quintets he had.I'm leaning towards the prestige albums as my fave output from him, but can't get into Bitches Brew. I find it all over the shop and much prefer A Tribute To Jack Johnson to that work.

Chris
orpheus10 OP
8,668 posts
 


A little Miles Davis trivia: At the beginning of this thread, I mentioned an elderly lady who remembered Miles as "The little dark sinned kid who was always trying to blow the trumpet"

Miles grew up three block from where that lady lived in a large house with an extended family which included a music teacher and a musician.

Miles, from my "kid point of view", was strange; where ever he could learn something about music, that's where he went; consequently, that lady saw an awful lot of the little kid trying to blow the trumpet.

Believe it or not, she knew next to nothing about
"Miles the jazz giant".
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