Miles Davis never sought audience approval. He simply played what interested him and EITHER YOU WERE INTO IT OR YOU WEREN'T, but you never got the feeling he really cared that much either way.

The Stones are guilty of a certain amount of pandering in attempts to stay relevant and commercially powerful. As they near 70, I would advise them to simply stop giving a sh-t and do what they want, play whatever interests them, and either people will follow or they won't.

Here's what Miles got for his artistic over commercial sensibility:

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

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Send It To me

The Stones are guilty of a certain amount of pandering in attempts to stay relevant and commercially powerful. As they near 70, I would advise them to simply stop giving a sh-t and do what they want, play whatever interests them, and either people will follow or they won't.

Have you considered the possibility that what they want to do is play warhorses? Or that what interests them is doing nothing at all? Anyway, gotta love Miles. He was even cooler than Keith.






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-05-13 02:25 by tatters.

Fine with me if that's what they want. I'll show up every night just to hear the second disc of hot rocks over and over - AS LONG AS THEY PLAY WITH PASSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Being cooler than Keith is sayin' somethin'.

Didn't he record a session with Prince before he died?

Miles Davis' music reminds me of what I hear in Starbucks

Well, this idea should be easy for Daryl to adapt to.

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Edith Grove
Well, this idea should be easy for Daryl to adapt to.

Yeah, it's hard to imagine Darryl with Miles inasmuch as Darryl is such a laid-back dude and Miles...WASN'T.

Miles was a genius who reinvented Jazz several times over, and no, he didn't give a rats @ss what anyone thought. He's the ultimate.
T@3

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Silver Dagger
Didn't he record a session with Prince before he died?

I have a rather good CD of him recorded before he died, called Doo Bop...haven't listened to it since the '90s...mixed with someone rapping is all I can remember.

I think they called it 'Acid Jazz' or something.

Miles is the man. . .. But the Stones don't have his chops -- not by a long shot!

Charlie, Bill and MT could probably come close.

I had the honor of seeing Miles live. He always played with his back to the audience as if to say "I'm not the focus here". He was great.

I'm not a fan but I respect his talent.
He was once invited in a program on a French TV channel. He was paid for that and also demanded the production to pay for his teeth problems. yes you got that right, his teeth problems !
He promised he would play something with his trumpet during the program but he finally refused.
He was indeed a free man !!

I happened to board the same plane with Miles from Tokyo to Barbados.
I remember he had some trouble with the airport staff in Tokyo.
It was just one year before his death.
Some years later, My wife and I happened to meet Mick Jagger on the same day.
This is just our take, but Miles had real charisma than Mick. Miles was like a crystal ball.

It's certainly the the only credible way forward from this point.

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Toru A
I happened to board the same plane with Miles from Tokyo to Barbados.
I remember he had some trouble with the airport staff in Tokyo.
It was just one year before his death.
Some years later, My wife and I happened to meet Mick Jagger on the same day.
This is just our take, but Miles had real charisma than Mick. Miles was like a crystal ball.

Same day? You will know...synchronicity.

If you're on a plane from Tokyo to Barbados, and you're not actually from either of those places, your life is probably pretty good.

"Miles Davis never sought audience approval. He simply played what interested him and EITHER YOU WERE INTO IT OR YOU WEREN'T, but you never got the feeling he really cared that much either way."

Ahem... Truth is he got addicted to drugs BIG TIME in the late 60's and his entire 70-75 output is simply unbearable/unlistenable : noisy formless free-jazz that goes nowhere.

He went back clean in the 80's and he started churning out this easy-listening FM-friendly "jazz" that was targeted on the mainstream. MD covered Cindy Lauper's "Time After Time" (ahem) and he created the annoying "Jean-Pierre" out of the French nursery rythmn "Do do l'enfant do".
And of course he got what he wanted : he sold out arenas. He became as star when his music became mediocre.

So IMHO Davis is not a role model for the 2010's Stones.

well dcba, miles was, after all, a human being. however, i still find some validity in the mythos.

he reminds me of brando (after whom keith named his son)

Here's Brando on applause at 6:20...

I must admit I still "Tutu" is a very good and potent tune... I don't the 80's production values though... reminds me of "Tattoo You"

So, the material from 1970 - 1975 is "unbearable/unlistenable".

Bitches Brew was released in August 1970. The Jack Johnson album was released in 1971, as was Live Evil. These albums do show that jazz can go into rock, and create a series of great results.

I admit, post On The Corner, Miles was beginning to lose the plot. Dark Magus was a fairly strange album, so too Agharta and Pangea. By taking a 5 year break, Miles did the right thing.

The final albums, from 1981 - 1991, do show that Miles recorded some fairly hit or miss stuff. Aura and Tutu remain the best. However, I also have a liking for Siesta, which is Tutu meets Sketches of Spain. Furthermore, while I think Doo Bop isn't that great, I think the atmospheric Hot Spot Soundtrack is one of the best albums Miles ever appears on - Miles meets John Lee Hooker, Taj Mahal, and Jack Nitzsche, for an album of kind of blues.

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tomcasagranda
So, the material from 1970 - 1975 is "unbearable/unlistenable".

Bitches Brew was released in August 1970. The Jack Johnson album was released in 1971, as was Live Evil. These albums do show that jazz can go into rock, and create a series of great results.

I admit, post On The Corner, Miles was beginning to lose the plot. Dark Magus was a fairly strange album, so too Agharta and Pangea. By taking a 5 year break, Miles did the right thing.

The final albums, from 1981 - 1991, do show that Miles recorded some fairly hit or miss stuff. Aura and Tutu remain the best. However, I also have a liking for Siesta, which is Tutu meets Sketches of Spain. Furthermore, while I think Doo Bop isn't that great, I think the atmospheric Hot Spot Soundtrack is one of the best albums Miles ever appears on - Miles meets John Lee Hooker, Taj Mahal, and Jack Nitzsche, for an album of kind of blues.

Right on, tomcasagranda!
The Miles man played some kicking sets in the early seventies. Check out the recently released Bitches Brew Live and Black Beauty: Live at the Fillmore West. His bands cook on those two discs.

And for those who bash what Miles did in the 70s and 80s, he had already changed the rules at least two more times -- Birth of the Cool, and then Kind of Blue for modal jazz, then add to that the work of the second great quintet as they go beyond bop.

tomscasagranda, have you heard Marcus Miller's recent remake of Tutu? Is it any good?

T@3

T@3,

Marcus Miller's remake of Tutu is excellent; not only does he do Tutu album, he also does other tracks from that era. I also have M3, which has a wonderful version of Burning Down The House on it.

You are correct about Bitches Brew Live & Black Beauty. Have you seen a Different Kind of Blue, where you get the footage of the Isle of Wight concert, coupled with interviews of Joni Mitchell, Chick Corea, Pete Cosey, Carlos Santana et al ? There's also another live album, entitled It's About That Time, which was Wayne Shorter's last gig with Miles.

Without Bitches Brew, or In a Silent Way, there'd be no Weather Report, no Return to Forever, no Lifetime, no Mahavishnu Orchestra, no Herbie Hancock's Headhunters. Additionally, would Keith Jarrett still be releasing challenging albums, without having worked for Miles in 1970/71 ?. Granted, much fusion does journey into noodling, and Miles did misfire a few times.

You even get a various artists album called Miles From India, which shows just how far Miles' music has travelled, and that material such as On The Corner, Bitches Brew, etc influenced world music as it is now.