1. Miles Davis

Long before he affected shoulder-padded MC Hammer jackets and Jheri curls, Miles put it together with a poise and ease befitting the baddest mother in the business.

Hard to argue.

link.

1. The New York Times Reviews “Live in Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series Vol. 1,”

Miles Davis, Live at the Apogee: No jazz musician has been more diligently organized or effectively monetized in the afterlife than Miles Davis, who died in 1991 on the cusp of the compact-disc reissue boom. The current glut of repackaged music under his name might prompt any reasonable person to conclude that the vault has been plundered bare. Yet here comes “Live in Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series Vol. 1,” adapted from state-owned broadcast sources, on three CDs and a DVD. Due out on Columbia/Legacy on Sept. 20, it captures Davis’s finest working band at its apogee, straining at the limits of post-bop refinement. [nytimes.com]

2. Some Music Thinking on Branding and Miles Davis

It is legitimate to call Miles Davis a strong brand that managed to develop, innovate and co-create new musical styles and genres over several decades starting from the 40s to the 90s. When you listen to albums like Birth of the Cool, Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew or Tutu we encounter many different sounds, styles, genres and musicians but in all of the songs we hear and feel the ‘musical essence’ based on directions from the charismatic personality of Miles Davis. [creative companion]

3. “Miles Davis Was A Jazzman” by Craig S. O’Connell

Miles Davis was a jazzman
A razzamatazz man
Leader of the band
With a trumpet in his hand
Miles Davis
Miles Davis.

Miles Davis was
A looming lyrical man
Soft and sassy,
Bold and brassy,
A bebop hipster
Sharp as a tack
So clean,
So cool.

[Click here to read the complete poem.]

4. Bitches Brew – Miles Davis’ Ultimate Statement of Defiance

“Listening to the opening strands of chaos from album opener Pharaoh’s Dance, it’s clear that this is a revolution. 40 years later and the album’s carefully sculpted noise is still ahead of its’ time.” [afro-punk]

5. First Listen: Miles Davis, ‘Live In Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series Vol. 1′

“This is a live recording of the Miles Davis Quintet in 1967.

If you’re a seasoned jazz fan, you immediately understand: “Wait, isn’t that the band with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter? Ron Carter and Tony Williams? The one behind E.S.P., and Miles Smiles, and Nefertiti? The one with all those twisted, fourth-dimension harmonies? The rhythmically athletic swing? Those incredible tunes? And … whoa, wait, you mean they’re live, too?”

Let’s say you’ve heard some things by Miles Davis you can get behind, but you’re no aficionado. So when you hear some of these recordings, you might think, “This sounds kind of like that weird, aggressive stuff those kids were playing at the jam session the other Sunday. Except, you know, much better. What is this?” [npr.org]

6. Miles Davis Experience: 1949-1959 ‘Immersive Production’ to Tour

“CAMI Music has joined forces with Miles Davis Properties, LLC and Blue Note Records to present The Miles Davis Experience: 1949-1959. Described as “a new immersive musical and historical production,” The Miles Davis Experience: 1949-1959 will recapture this critical period of American history through a historical and cultural context.” [jazztimes.com]

Miles Davis is on that list.

“Miles was a person who epitomized what it meant to be a jazz artist.

“He was uncompromising. He was a person who didn’t look back and didn’t let his decisions be swayed by anything other than his drive for creation, and you have to truly respect that.”

Along with Miles, Blanchard also chats about Spike Lee, Clifford Brown and Alvin Alcorn.

If you love Miles Davis and you love cooking (or even reading and watching stuff about cooking) I highly recommend reading Dixon’s entertaining account of how he took one big step closer to understanding his musical hero, by making his chili.

Miles Davis’ recipe for chili:

Bacon grease

3 large cloves of garlic

1 green and 1 red pepper

2 pounds ground lean chuck

2 teaspoons cumin

½ a jar of mustard

½ a shot glass of vinegar

2 teaspoons chili powder

Salt and pepper

Pinto or kidney beans

1 can tomatoes

1 can beef broth

The finished product, Szwed notes, is to be served over linguini.

I’m a big fan of Uncut magazine. Their September 2011 issue is especially excellent because they feature Miles Davis in their always interesting Album By Album feature.

With great commentary from the likes of Jimmy Cobb, Jack Dejohnette and Bill Evans, Uncut spotlights the ‘jazz king of cool’s greatest works.’

So of course we get Kind of Blue (‘The Greatest Jazz Album, Ever), Sketches of Spain (‘The Genre-Defying Follow-up), Bitches Brew (‘The Trad-Confounding Fusion Hit’) and The Man With The Horn (‘Out Of Retirement’) among the nine albums highlighted in the Album by Album feature.

In Miles Davis Is Under Arrest, we posted a photo from the infamous night of August 25, 1959, when Miles Davis, while taking a break outside the legendary Birdland nightclub in New York City, was beaten by the police and arrested.

I just stumbled upon a photograph of that night I have not seen before.

Part of a New York Daily News feature, we get a powerful shot of Davis riding in an ambulance to St. Clare’s Hospital with a police officer.

Jazzman Miles Davis rides in an ambulance to St. Clare’s Hospital with Patrolman Gerald Kildduff. Davis was given ten stitches in his scalp at the hospital. He was standing outside the jazz club Birdland, where he was performing, when Kilduff told him to move along. A scuffle ensued, and a passing plainclothes detective hit Davis with his blackjack, dropping him to the ground. Davis was charged with disorderly conduct and assault.

His arrest was later ruled illegal and a “travesty of justice” by a three-judge panel.

Credits: Kinstler/News

So says The Guardian, which lists the Miles Davis performance on August 29, 1970 in front of 600,000 people at the Isle of Wight at #38 in their series of the 50 key events in the history of Jazz music.

Writes Richard Williams:

The coolest man on the planet took the stage at the Isle of Wight festival towards the end of the afternoon on Saturday 29 August 1970. He followed Joni Mitchell (who had been forced to deal with a one-man stage invasion by a stoned hippy before ending her set with a pointed version of Woodstock) and Tiny Tim (who had delighted the listeners by crooning There’ll Always Be an England while strumming his ukelele like George Formby’s American nephew).

The weather was balmy, a hot-air balloon hovered above Afton Down, the crowd numbered 600,000, the situationists agitating for free entry had quietened down, and Miles Davis was about to perform to the biggest audience ever faced by a jazz musician, before or since.

It should be noted that the Miles Davis release of Kind of Blue in 1959 was The Guardian’s #28 in their series of the ’50 key events in the history of jazz music. I would have slotted it higher, but oh well.

Link

Photograph: David Redfern/Redferns

Here’s a snippet:

The quintet—or, as many critics referred to it: The Quintet—recorded their first-to-be-released album on November 16, 1955 in Rudy Van Gelder’s Hackensack, New Jersey studio. The resulting album, simply titled Miles, is relaxed and swinging. Highlights include a lovely version of the Ellington chestnut “Just Squeeze Me” and Benny Golson’s “Stablemates.”

Speaking of stables, critics have remarked how Coltrane at this point in his development sounds like a young colt attempting to stand on wobbly legs. However, I hear an adventurous young artist, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath before launching into passionate solos. Combined with Davis’ spare, less-is-more style, the effect is perfect.

* The Miles Davis Movie: Filming the First Great Quintet

Miles Dewey Davis III
May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991

I know. It’s hard to believe. But now Google and their talented team of designers can make things right with a Doodle dedicated to the jazz legend for what would be his 85th birthday next week (May 26).

There are going to be plenty of parties and concerts next week, featuring some terrific jazz players, celebrating Miles’ 85th birthday. What better time for Google designers to unveil a cool doodle to honor the late great jazz legend?

Aside from a fine Dizzy Gillespie doodle from last year – to celebrate his 93rd birthday -, I haven’t been able to find any other jazz artists in the doodle collection. No Duke Ellington and no Louis Armstrong, no Coltrane, Monk, Charlie Parker, Count Basie or Billie Holiday. And so on…

I’m going to have to insist a Miles Davis Doodle be designed and scheduled for display on the Google homepage.

Any day is a fine day to debut a Miles Davis doodle, but I just figure his 85th birthday next week provides a terrific reason to slide the jazz icon onto the doodle schedule.

It will be very cool and people will enjoy it. Let’s go Google! The world needs a Miles Davis doodle!