Miles ahead!
Socialist Outlook newspaper1990sPaul ClarkeTranscribed or corrected by hand from the printed page.
Miles Davis (1936-91)
TWO trumpeters towered over the post-war jazz scene – Miles Davis, who died on 27 September, and Dizzy Gillespie.
Dizzy has always been the musicians' favourite; the 'complete' trumpeter of astonishing range and virtuosity. But for impact on the direction of jazz and on the public imagination, Miles was way ahead.
Miles pioneered a unique style which is instantly recognisable; clipped, haunting, almost desolate phrasing of intense emotional power.
A mite pretentiously, the theatre critic Kenneth Tynan used the Spanish adjective duende about him. It means the ability to transmit powerfully felt emotion with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of restraint.
Improvisation
The facts about Miles Davis' musical career are well known. His formative period was several years in the late 'forties and early 'fifties with Charlie Parker; the period of the 'be-bop' revolution which stressed small-group improvisation against the formal predictability of Swing.
His emergence as a leading jazz innovator was marked by the series of nonet recordings Birth of the Cool (1953).
Probably his establishment as the leading jazz figure of the period was his band of the late 'fifties and early 'sixties, and his record Kind of Blue (1959).
Around this time he made a series of recordings with a Gil Evans orchestra which are classics, most notably Sketches of Spain and Miles Ahead.
His bands of this period are a roll-call of jazz greats – Bill Evans, Philly Joe Jones, Cannonball Adderley, Ron Carter and above all tenor saxophonist John Coltrane.
It was under Davis' tutelage that Coltrane began to assume the mantle of the most innovative and important jazz saxophonist since the war. Coltrane's experience with Miles led directly to his legendary recording A Love Supreme (1964).
Image
Miles was always concerned, compulsively, about his image. Like a famous woman singer sometimes mentioned on these pages, he periodically re-invented himself. His music and image of the 'fifties and early sixties captured the 'spirit of the times', at least for the transatlantic middle classes – confidence, sophistication, affluence.
Thus his music reflects the high point of the post-war capitalist boom. Unlike the consciously 'black power' musicians of the early 1960s led by Archie Shepp, the nearest he got to politics was a concert for the conservative National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People in 1964 (recorded as My Funny Valentine).
Wealth and fame didn't save Miles from a period of heroin addiction, an epidemic amongst jazz musicians. Heroin led directly to Coltrane's death in his forties, and led to periodic bouts of ill-health for Miles.
In the late 'sixties he re-invented his music in a way that infuriated many critics, moving on to jazz-rock fusions and electronic backing groups with In a Silent Way (1969). He went on to play with a host of rock musicians, further infuriating jazz traditionalists.
The truth is many traditionalists, brought up in the era of Swing, never liked him. He was too 'introspective', and just relentlessly modern.
All worthwhile human effort, in music, art, science or whatever, is collective. Innovators can only innovate by reference to what has gone before; they stand on the shoulders of the previous generations.
But just occasionally someone turns up who can suddenly synthesise what has gone before and turn it into something truly new and revolutionary. Such a person was Miles Davis.
For those brought up on the Clash and Sex Pistols (or worse still new Kids on the Block) who never had the opportunity to listen to his music, try the album Kind of Blue for the classic Miles Davis, and Bitches Brew or Jack Johnson for the modern period. For a three-track sampler try So What? (on Kind of Blue), Blues for Pablo (Miles Ahead) and Human Nature (You're Under Arrest).