An Impression of Miles Davis

Better than a lot of the real Miles Davis.

 

Have you written a Will and settled your affairs?

 

And I hoped the exciting title meant we would be watching your rendition of Freddie Freeloader Tony!

 

It's in the dorian mode of the key of eflat - I have the album.

 

That’s even better than Miles Davis’ impression of the Doors.

 

I have happily taken stick for my opinions about Miles Davis and (some of) his music for well over half a century.

He was excellent when it came to picking superb sidemen and arrangers.

He was saturated with sexism (judged by his behaviour).

His ability as a trumpeter drops into the shadows compared with great trumpeters.... Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard and many others. Arguably he is not even not in the same class.

Thats my opinion. Now shoot me down...I'm well used to it.

 

As much as I like Miles Davis he wasn’t the best of players but he didn’t need to be; he served his music.

 

The most technically proficient trumpeters in past came from Cuba. Raphel Mendez is one, though as far as I know, he did not play jazz. He ran technical rings around everyone else I have heard.

A modern example of a trumpet 'genious' is Wynton Marsalis. His (blindingly great) technique is never used to show off- and always compliments the music. So many young trumpeters I have heard are outstanding, and show great promise.

Miles, on the other hand, decided to (as they say) 'lay out' (i.e. not blow his horn) when he realised that his techincal ability was too challenged. Credit to him in this respect.

 

Wynton Marsalis has a very, very fixed view on what 'Jazz' is. Luckily, it is not a view shared by everyone.

 

Comparing Wynton Marsalis to Miles is a bit like comparing Bobby Crush to Thelonious Monk

 

I saw him at the Usher Hall a couple of years ago. It was OK but the inclusion of Nicola Benedetti on violin was excellent.

I suppose that Miles' private life was the polar opposite of that of Marsalis. I do like the first Marsalis CD though, not the rest.

 

The fact that this thread has lasted for over 48 hrs and 15 posts outside of the music section perhaps says something!

 

No contest - Thelonious couldn't even do that number with a piano *and* a typewriter and smile.

 

?
I don't know about that. I rather dug the Bobster's hard bop and modal excursions.
The cat was a cool one.

 

[QUOTE... herb
...
I suppose that Miles' private life was the polar opposite of that of Marsalis. I do like the first Marsalis CD though, not the rest.[/QUOTE]

I am unclear about whether it is OK on pfm to quote only part of a quote when replying. Now that I have seen Tony L do it I will do so more often, because I think it leads more effectively to the point (or points) that one wishes to reply to.

Have you heard the Marsalis CD 'Live at the House of Tribes'? I think this is likely to become a classic. One of the finest small band performances I have ever heard.

I don't own and have never owned a CD player. I ordered 'House of Tribes' CD in the British Library Listening Rooms. Hearing it made me (almost) buy a CD player so that I could listen to it at home incessantly- night and day. Luckily I didn't buy one, so my overclogged room with (frightfully overcrowded) LPs does not get even more claustrobulbic and I still have enough space to write my Will and tidy up my affairs without being prevented from writing my Will and tidying up my affairs even more claustrobulbically by a CD player.

 

Thanks I looked in on YouTube and found this playing of a Monk tune at the House of Tribes. It is well done and rather like some of what I saw in the Usher Hall.

GREEN CHIMNEYS PT. 1 - YouTube

 

Did the Crusher have a beard? Did he wear a hat? Did Eric Dolphy write a tune about him referencing the above? I rest my case.