Comments on: The Genius of Miles Davis: Explained!

By: The Hepcat Geezer

The Hepcat Geezer — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 03:41:14 +0000

August 17, 2009 marks exactly fifty years from the day Columbia Records released the Miles Davis album, “Kind of Blue”. “So What?” one might ask. Well, there are many great albums from the Age of Vinyl, but “All Blues” are not the same. Some music has the horsepower to affect and alter it’s listeners, to move them mentally and emotionally, and to transform them.
One afternoon on the sidelines of the soccer pitch, at least fifteen years ago, I was talking to the son of a friend of mine. Though this young fellow was in college at the time, I had known him since he was in grade school. Beside refereeing youth soccer games, he had been in a garage rock band since high school. “My Dad told me you listened to jazz a lot,” he says, “but I don’t know much about it. People say it’s pretty deep. What should I listen to so I can get into it?” “Get a copy of the CD “Kind of Blue” by Miles Davis,” I told him. “It’s easy to find. They probably have it at Wal-Mart. Drink two glasses of wine and sit in the dark with headphones on, at one o’clock in the morning. Listen to Miles talk on trumpet, Cannonball Adderley on alto sax, John Coltrane on tenor sax, and Bill Evans on piano. Do this three times. You will be turned on to the music.”
I knew this because that’s how I got hooked on jazz. (Well…I didn’t have the wine.) The Columbia Record Club sent me a copy of the “Kind of Blue” album when I was thirteen years old. As I lay in bed listening to it in 1960, the music transported my mind from suburban New Jersey to a smokey jazz club in Greenwich Village, where I could hang out with Maynard G. Krebs, and talk to girls with blonde ponytails, wearing black turtleneck sweaters. From that point on, I began to construct an aura, a shell, of iconoclastic coolness, or so I imagined.
Anyway, about six months after my conversation with this young guy, I ran into his father, Claude, who tells me a tale of woe about how their oldest son is driving both his wife and him nuts. (I knew this to be a very short ride.) “That crazy kid,” he told me, “changed his major at the University, from Business Administration to Music. He says he wants to become a jazz musician!” Shaking his head and rolling his eyes, Claude went on to ask, “Do they still have those?? I thought they were all dead by now!! Where does he get these crazy ideas???
What could I say? I didn’t tell him. Two years later I heard Claude Jr. was playing bass on weekends in a piano trio, in a bar just off the expressway. It wasn’t me, or what I had said to him. It was Miles. Like the Pied Piper in the fairy tale, his recorded sound (particularly in his golden period from 1955 to 1965) kidnaps the listener’s ear. Looking back from a fifty year view, the “Kind of Blue” album remains a masterpiece of the twentieth century.

By: Marko

Marko — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:51:40 +0000

Here’s the “So what” video that is missing in this post:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlIU-2N7WY4

By: Ares Vista

Ares Vista — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:26:00 +0000

Miles Davis is the king! All of his music was full of soul, and you got to know him through his expression through music. A true artist, his timelessness makes him a legend.

By: DCG

DCG — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:53:00 +0000

Agreed. Skipping over his legendary 1960s quintet is silly – especially when, in giving an example of Miles circa 1955, you show him with Shorter, Hancock, Williams and Carter in 1967. Mainstream Jazz has been exploring the modal paradigm laid down by that group for 40+ years. And jazz, rock and R&B are still learning the lessons of Bitches Brew, On the Corner, et al.

By: Oleary1599

Oleary1599 — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 09:18:33 +0000

Miles changed the face of music 4 or 5 times…any reason why you only mention the first two?….skipping from 1960 to 1985 somehow misses most of the reasons why Miles ruled the roost. We can’t just love the genius when he takes the roads we like. Try Drak Magus one more time and then we can chat.

By: CV

CV — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:27:54 +0000

I’ve been stuck on the 1970’s Miles Davis for almost a year now. He assembled some of the funkiest groups of musicians ever.

By: Matt Rogers

Matt Rogers — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 19:44:12 +0000

Davis’ On the corner with it’s tape loops and dissonant hard funk still sounds fresh and relevant today, and kind of blue while pretty, not so much. Mile’s later stuff is always given sort shrift unfairly in these sorts of articles IMO.

By: Don

Don — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 19:25:39 +0000

This kind of article is why I love Mental_Floss

By: tylor

tylor — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 19:56:42 +0000

“Some jazz purists felt that Miles went from birthing the cool to chasing it — they point to his final album, You’re Under Arrest…”

This implies that You’re Under Arrest was his final album. Wasn’t Doo-Bop his final album, released just after he died?

By: Sebu

Sebu — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:27:40 +0000

@kstephens

I second to that. Bitches Brew is THE album, a pinnacle if you may, that Miles’ pioneering work is best renowned for. It is the album that once and for all redefined a new kind of a fusion sound, that would later influence almost all similar pieces of music to come.

It is my favorite Miles album, and one of my most favorite albums in general, and it should definitely be mentioned on this list.