![]() ![]() In a music that has known more great players than great bandleaders, Davis set standards for ensemble style and interaction again and again. Many people remember the moment they first heard one Miles album or another the way they remember the Kennedy or Lennon assassinations - as turning points in history and in their own lives. His albums - from Birth of the Cool (recorded in 19) to Kind of Blue (1959) and Sketches of Spain (1960), through the electric maelstroms of Bitches Brew (1970) and Pangaea (1975) and on to such recent releases as Tutu (a Grammy winner in 1987) - are more than superb recordings. He was one of the most personal, gifted and influential trumpet players to grace the second half of our now-waning century. But “changing music” isn’t the only thing Davis will be remembered for. Miles’ off-the-cuff self-assessment seems right on the mark now that this indomitable spirit has left us. “Well,” he said, “I’ve changed music five or six times.” Rattled, the woman asked him, “What have you done that’s so important in your life?”Īgain, Davis had a ready answer. “Jazz is ignored here because the white man likes to win everything,” Davis responded with his usual asperity. But trouble seemed inevitable.Īccording to Davis’ account, he was sitting at a table with a woman he described as “a politician’s wife” when she asked him an apparently well-meant question about America’s neglect of jazz. In his frank, fearless autobiography, Miles, he wrote that Cicely Tyson, one of the many women in his life, had invited him and that he went out of respect for one of the award recipients, Ray Charles. It was uncharacteristic for a man who had always been bluntly honest, about himself and about others, to even show up for such an occasion. Miles Davis - the celebrated trumpeter and musical innovator who died September 28th at the age of 65 - reluctantly agreed to attend an awards dinner at the Reagan White House back in 1987. ![]()
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