Buddy Gist, Longtime Friend Of Miles Davis, Has Died
Greensboro native Arthur “Buddy” Gist, the longtime friend of jazz great Miles Davis, died Sunday at the Golden Living Center.
Gist, 84, had been living there since July, when he suffered a stroke.
The jazz enthusiast grew up in the Magnolia House, the spot off Gorrell Street that his mother ran. It was the only place between Atlanta and Richmond, Va., where blacks could stay during the Jim Crow era. Musicians such as Louis Armstrong ate country ham cooked by Buddy ‘s mom and slathered with maple syrup.
Gist went to New York in 1949, after graduating from N.C. A&T in 1947 and spending two years in the Navy.
He started out waiting tables, then turned into a business entrepreneur, a sharp-minded Southerner who sold coffee and cars. He befriended some of the biggest names in jazz – Count Basie, John Coltrane and, of course, Miles Davis.
Click here from News-Record.com to read more.
Photo: Buddy Gist (left) with his friend Miles Davis. Davis gave Gist the trumpet he played on his classic album “Kind of Blue.” Gist gave the trumpet to UNCG.
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