«Don’t call me a legend. Call me Miles Davis.»
Trumpeter-bandleader Miles Davis (1926-1991) was a catalyst for the major innovations in post-bop, cool jazz, hard-bop, and jazz-fusion, and his wispy and emotional trumpet tones were some of the most evocative sounds ever heard. He was also one of the most identifiable and misunderstood pop icons of the 20th century.
Read the three opening paragraphs of . . .
◊ Miles Davis + Quincy Troupe: MILES – The Autobiography [1989]
The very first thing I remember in my early childhood is a flame, a blue flame jumping off a gas stove somebody lit. It might have been me playing around with the stove. I don’t remember who it was. Anyway, I remember being shocked by the whoosh of the blue flame jumping off the burner, the suddenness of it. That’s as far as I can remember; any further back than this is just fog, you know, just mystery. But that stove flame is as clear as music in my mind. I was three years old.
I saw that flame and felt that hotness of it close to my face. I felt fear, real fear, for the first time in my life. But I remember it also like some kind of adventure, some kind of weird job, too. I guess that experience took me someplace in my head I hadn’t been before. To some frontier, the edge, maybe, of everything possible. I don’t know; I never tried to analyze it before. The fear I had was almost like an invitation, a challenge to go forward into something I knew nothing about. That’s where I think my personal philosophy of life and my commitment to everything I believe in started, with that moment. I don’t know, but I think it might be true. Who knows? What the fuck did I know about anything back then? In my mind I have always believed and thought since then that my motion had to be forward, away from the heat of that flame.
Looking back, I don’t remember much of my first years – I never liked to look back much anyway. But one thing I do know is that the year after I was born a bad tornado hit St. Louis and tore it all up. Seems like I remember something about that – something in the bottom of my memory. Maybe that’s why I have such a bad temper sometimes; that tornado left some of its violent creativity in me. Maybe it left some of its strong winds. You know, you need strong wind to play the trumpet. I do believe in mystery and the supernatural and a tornado sure enough is mysterious and supernatural.
⇓ ‘It Never Entered My Mind’_1951
with beautiful pics ↑ of folks Miles played with.
•→Stockholm_1963 ⇐
•→Milano 1964 ⇐
◊ ‘Boplicity’ ⇓ [«The Birth Of The Cool»_1957]
◊ ‘Mystery’ ↓
∇ ‘Fall’ ⇓ [artwork by Rafael Olbinski]
|
ft. samples from «Summer Madness» by Kool & the Gang and «La Di Da Di« by Doug E. Fresh & Slick Rick
Seems to me his musics gonna be around for a long while
Cuz he’s a multi-talented and gifted musician who can play any position
It’s no mystery that you’re no risk to me
Cuz I’m a lover and tell your girl to throw a kiss to me
And jump in bed and have a fight with the pillows
Turn off the lights and let the J give it to ya
And let the trumpet blow as I kick this
Cuz rap is fundamental and Miles sounds so wicked
A little taste of be-bop sound with the backdrop
Of doo-wop and this is why we can call it the doo-bop
You know it’s gonna be
I hate to cut the throats of mcs up in
Front of me
When blows makes the A want to sing
My rhymes be shining on brothers
Like they flippin’ on they high beams
And when I just come through
You think you bad cuz somebody seen you
Climbing the tree like Jack-Be-Nimble
Yo, Miles blow the trumpet off the symbol
Miles Davis style is different, you cant
Describe it as pacific
He rip, rage and roar, no time for watchin’
Andy Griffith
You can(whistle)all you want, go head
While he take to doo-wop and mix it with be-bop
Just like a maker in the shoe shop, Easy Mo
Bee will cream you
Like the nougat
And usually we doo-wop but since Miles Wanna cool out
You can do that Miles, blow your trumpet,
Show the people
Just what it’s to do
∇ ‘Little Church’ ⇓ [artwork by Mati Klarwein]
♦→ ‘Human Nature’ ⇓
÷ ÷ ÷ ÷
¤ Charles Mingus
♥ Mingus with his daughter in his New York loft ↓ plays some piano & bass.
∇ Charlie Mingus 1968 ↓ [a verité portrait by Thomas Reichman]
American jazz composer Charles Mingus played bass and piano in ways that defied categorization. He forged his own brand of jazz, combining hard bop and black gospel. The Mingus composition most frequently recorded by others is “Goodbye, Porkpie Hat,” a tribute to Lester Young, and his most frequently cited extended work is “Pithecanthropus Erectus,” a musical interpretation of human evolution.
◊ ‘Goodbye Pork Pie Hat’ ↓ [Live at Montreux 1975]
C. M. [b] Don Pullen [p] George Adams [s] Gerry Mulligen [bs] Benny Bailey [t] Danny Richmond [d]
◊ Faubus Fables ↓
«Original Faubus Fables» performed by Charles Mingus. Taken from the 1960 «Charles Mingus presents Charles Mingus» record. It was written as a direct protest against Arkansas governor Orval E. Faubus, who in 1957 sent out the National Guard to prevent the integration of Little Rock Central High School by nine African American teenagers. This composition was also released a year earlier on the «Mingus Ah Um» record as «Fables Of Faubus» but only instrumental as record company Columbia refused the lyrics.
Charles Mingus: Bass; Ted Curson: Trumpet; Eric Dolphy: Alto saxophone; Dannie Richmond: Drums
Oh, Lord, don’t let ‘em shoot us!
Oh, Lord, don’t let ‘em stab us!
Oh, Lord, don’t let ‘em tar and feather us!
Oh, Lord, no more swastikas!
Oh, Lord, no more Ku Klux Klan!
Name me someone who’s ridiculous, Dannie.
Governor Faubus!
Why is he so sick and ridiculous?
He won’t permit integrated schools.
Then he’s a fool! Boo! Nazi Fascist supremists!
Boo! Ku Klux Klan (with your Jim Crow plan)
Name me a handful that’s ridiculous, Dannie Richmond.
Faubus, Rockefeller, Eisenhower
Why are they so sick and ridiculous?
Two, four, six, eight:
They brainwash and teach you hate.
H-E-L-L-O, Hello.
♦ ‘When You Coming Home Eric?’ ↓ [Stockholm_1964]
C Mingus -Bass; Jaki Byard –Piano; Eric Dolphy -Alto Sax, Flute & Bass Clarinet; Clifford Jordan -Tenor Sax; Dannie Richmond -Drums
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