1962 Miles Davis interview
Link: Playboy interviews Miles in ‘62 (SFW), and the first question they ask is about his temper and whether or not it’s true that he’s rude to his audiences. Miles has a lot to say about racial equality in society and particularly in the music industry. He says what he thinks, and generally, he paints an unapologetically bleak picture or racial relations. Despite this, Miles himself, in his day-to-day actions is extremely fair to his white musician colleagues, even to the periodic outrage of the black musical community.
I read Miles’ autobiography. I’ve listened to his music extensively, and studied parts of it in considerable depth, and I take every opportunity to learn more about him, especially when it’s presented in his own words. I still don’t feel I understand Miles’ off-stage public persona.
Was he trying to agitate for societal change? I don’t think so; I haven’t seen where he actually did anything other than gripe about racial inequality. Was he angry about the treatment of black people in America? Certainly. Would he have given me a shot, if I had been in the right place at the right time, or would I have just been another ofay trying to capitalize on the music black Americans had invented?
I think Miles was misunderstood by people in general, and I’m convinced he was often mis-characterized by the media of the day. The only thing about Miles that I know for sure is that he was and is one of the most important musicians in the history of American music. Miles is the only player I know of who consistently innovated over the course of his entire career. He categorically eschewed his earlier works in favor of what he saw as the new thing. Once he released a few “cool” albums, he was done with that. He moved on to post-bop, and then to fusion, and is generally credited as having been the guy who convinced Herbie and Chick to try out the Fender Rhodes piano. Later, with Bitches’ Brew and some others he experimented with overdubs and post-production composition, splicing together un-related material from hours of random studio exploration, and toward the end of his life was planning to work with Jimmi Hendrix on an album. He did all this even though it’s likely he could have made more money sticking with straight ahead jazz. The only time Miles reprised earlier material was in 1991, specifically in tribute to his long-time friend and collaborator Gil Evans who had died in ‘88.
February is Black History Month. The history (and future) of the music to which I’ve dedicated the next four years (and the rest) of my life are inseparable. I think I’ll use this space to highlight some black American musical history, the origins and development of jazz, and also the role of jazz and jazz musicians in the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s.