Miles Davis

David E. Talbert's He Say She Say . . . But What Does God Say?

Miles Electric - A Different Kind of Blue

When he released "Bitches Brew" in 1970, Miles Davis opened up a new angle to jazz which stirred up emotions like no other record before. Some critics accused Davis of selling out, while the public bought it like crazy. It is one of the most examined albums of all time, even garnering a box set of the sessions. To date, "Bitches Brew" is one of the top selling jazz albums of all time. "Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue" examines the next step in the creative process...performing these songs live. The 1970 Isle of Wight featured an array of performers from The Who to Jethro Tull to Joni Mitchell. With improvisation playing a big role in the performance, the band (Jack DeJohnette, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Gary Bartz and Dave Holland) had to be "on", yet ready to change on the fly. Directed by award-winning producer Murray Lerner, "Miles Electric" sits down with several of the performers who played with Miles, interspersed with his 1970 Isle of Wight performance, as well as artists such as Carlos Santana and Joni Mitchell, who describe the impact Miles Davis had towards music.

The Miles Davis Story

Trumpeter-bandleader Miles Davis (1926-91) was a catalyst for the major innovations in post-bop, cool jazz, hard-bop, and jazz-fusion, and his wispy and emotional trumpet tones were some of the most evocative sounds ever heard. He was also one of the most identifiable and misunderstood pop icons of the 20th century. This engrossing British documentary shows the complex layers of this magnificent and mercurial artist. Through rare footage and interviews, we learn of Davis's middle-class upbringing and his early days with bop legends Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. The documentary bluntly deals with Davis's narcotic nadir and his rise from the depths to become a bona fide jazz icon in the mid-'50s to late '60s. But the most penetrating and poignant portraits of Davis come from musicians who played with and were influenced by him, including Shirley Horn, Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, and Keith Jarrett.

Outstanding musical selections include modal masterpieces "So What" and "Blue in Green," the haunting soundtrack to the 1957 French film Ascenseur pour l'échafaud, his romantic rendition of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time," and his collaborations with arranger Gil Evans. The most surprising aspects of Davis's personality that emerge from this film are his shyness, vulnerability, and, yes, humility. As he said himself, "Don't call me a legend. Call me Miles Davis." --Eugene Holley Jr.

Miles Davis - Cool Jazz Sound

Exemplary television program with the Miles Davis Quintet featuring John Coltrane Wynton Kelly Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb and including the Gil Evans Orchestra. The Sound of Miles Davis (New York April 2 1959): Miles Davis (tp); John Coltrane (ts); Wynton Kelly (p); Paul Chambers (b); Jimmy Cobb (d); Ernie Royal (tp); Clyde Reasinger (tp); Louis Mucci (tp); Johnny Coles (tp); Emmett Berry (tp); Frank Rehak (tbn); Jimmy Cleveland (tbn); Bill Elton (tbn); Rod Levitt (tbn); Julius Watkins (french horn); Bob Northern (french horn); Bill Barber (tuba); Danny Bank (bass clarinet); Romeo Penque (woodwinds); Eddie Caine (woodwinds). So What The Duke Blues for Pablo New Rhumba.System Requirements:Running Time: 30 minutesFormat: DVD AUDIO Genre: MUSIC DVD/LIVE PERFORMANCES UPC: 022891803393 Manufacturer No: DVD2869033

Miles Davis - Live in Munich

With over two hours of music, much of it brilliant, plus a lengthy conversation with one of music's more elusive characters, Miles Davis in Munich is a treasure. The music Miles Davis was making in 1988, three years before his death, was loose and funky, informed by James Brown as much or more than Charlie Parker, with covers of tunes by the likes of Cyndi Lauper ("Time After Time") and Michael Jackson ("Human Nature"). And if it wasn't the high point of Davis's glorious career, or if the musicians weren't giants on the level of Coltrane, Shorter, and Hancock (the best known player here is saxophonist Kenny Garrett), there is still some brilliant music being played, all under the guidance of a man who had arguably the richest recorded legacy of any jazz musician but who resolutely refused to look anywhere but forward. The 30-minute interview is interesting, but the music really does speak for itself. --Sam Graham

For more than 50 years, trumpeter/bandleader Miles Davis was a major innovator of cool, modal, avant-garde, and fusion jazz styles. This program captures Davis's band: alto saxophonist/flutist Kenny Garrett, Keyboardists Robert Irving III and Adam Holzmann, lead bassist Joseph "Foley" McCreary, and bassist Benjamin Rietveld, percussionist Marilyn Mazur, and drummer Ricky Wellman, live in Munich, Germany on July 10th, 1988. With these musicians' sympathetic and syncopated support, Davis's trademarked Harmon-muted trumpet tones dance and trance over the combo's supple electric swing. Throughout the concert, Davis glides across the stage with the elegance and power of a dancer and a fighter, huddling with his sidemen to play and share a phrase. Interview snippets with Davis feature the trumpeter frankly discussing his other passion, artwork. All told, Miles in Munich shows that the man called "Prince of Darkness" was full of artistic light near the end of his creative life.

Miles Davis - Live from the Montreal Jazz Festival

How bad were the 1980s in music? Not even jazz great Miles Davis could escape the black hole. The decade that saw synthesizers and slick approaches ruin pop music somehow caught the master trumpet player's ear and resulted in one of Davis's poorest periods. Of course, Davis was lucky to even be alive during the '80s, surviving sickness and drug abuse, and this hour-long performance, shot during the 1985 Montreal Jazz Festival, shows a performer looking happy just to be playing. Appearing thin and sickly, Davis and his six-piece fusion outfit run through six tunes, none coming close to the trumpet player's past experimental achievements. Songs like "One Phone Call" are long, metallic funk jams that nonetheless give Davis plenty of room to maneuver in spirited solos, when the rhythm section and keyboards aren't drowning him out. Davis also reinvents pop hits of the era--ballads like Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" (from Thriller) and Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time," but they come across more like soulless "smooth jazz." Still, on all of the numbers, if you can block out everything else and simply focus in on Davis's trumpet, the aging great possessed the ability to mesmerize, even in his down years. Despite the lack of terrific music material, this DVD is wonderfully packaged. The Milestones Biographical Time Line is a great source to introduce beginners to Davis's legacy, while the extensive liner notes on each individual song performed in Montreal are equally impressive. --Dave McCoy

This 1985 performance at the Montreal Jazz Festival captures Miles at one of his peaks in popularity. Throughout his long career, Miles utilized the best in contemporary pop music, and this time he had some uniquely suitable sources; Cyndi Lauper's hit "Time After Time" and Michael Jackson's "Human Nature." Combine funk, pop, and the founder of the Birth of the Cool, the result is an elegant restrained restatement of everything Miles Davis. Add in the virtuoso guitarist John Scofield - and the result is a musical treasure.

Play Your Own Thing - A Story of Jazz in Europe

The music documentary Play Your Own Thing provides a comprehensive history of European Jazz. It explores the origins of the US-influenced Jazz clubs after the Second World War, the first steps independent of American jazz and the various changes of direction that have repeatedly occurred in European jazz in the search for that "own voice" that European jazz musicians have helped to form. Featuring the great masters of European jazz such as Chris Barber, Jan Garbarek, Juliette Gréco, Stefano Bollani and Till Brönner, to name but a few, the film provides a wealth of styles in Jazz. For his third documentary on jazz, film-maker Julian Benedikt travelled to a wide variety of European countries in search of an all-embracing documentation of European jazz music. His story telling is neither too sophisticated nor does he simply reproduce the known clichés, rather the movie engages its audience with very personal impressions of European jazz, past and present. Accompanied by rarely seen archival footage featuring such influencing American jazz legends as Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, this unique document offers a collection of sparkling musical gems from both sides of the Atlantic. A great music film!

Elgar - The Dream of Gerontius / Philip Langridge, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Alastair Miles, Andrew Davis, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, St. Paul's Cathedral

Edward Elgar's great choral work, in the magnificent setting of St Paul's Cathedral in London, formed part of the BBC's 75th anniversary celebrations. It is a towering work, a setting of Cardinal Newman's poem about the death of an elderly sinner and his soul's progress towards the judgment of God. Andrew Davis, an inspired interpreter of Elgar, conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra with soloists Catherine Wyn Rogers as the Angel, Philip Langridge as Gerontius and Alastair Miles who combines the parts of the Priest and the Angel of the Agony. Subtitles: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish.

Miles Davis - Live in Paris

For over five decades, trumpeter/bandleader Miles Davis (1926-91) was a major innovator of cool, modal, avant-garde, and fusion jazz styles. This video captures Davis's last working band: alto saxophonist/flutist Kenny Garrett, drummer Ricky Wellman, percussionist John Bingham, keyboardist Kei Akagi, bassist Benjamin Rietveld, and lead bassist Foley McCreary, live at the 10th Annual Paris Jazz Festival on November 3, 1989. With these musicians' sympathetic and syncopated support, Davis's trademarked Harmon-muted trumpet tones dance and trance over the combo's supple electric swing. The Michael Jackson hit "Human Nature" is reworked by Davis and company into an up-tempo workout, capped by Garrett's stirring solo; Davis's slow and sexy "New Blues" harks back to the down-home music of his youth.

Bassist-arranger Marcus Miller was Davis's last great collaborator, and he composed the sophisticated funk numbers "Amandla," "Tutu" (named for South Africa's Bishop Desmond Tutu), and the elegy "Mr. Pastorius" (penned in honor of the great bassist Jaco Pastorius). Throughout the concert, the bespectacled Davis prances across the stage with the grace and energy of a dancer and a boxer, huddling with his sidemen to play and share a phrase. Interview snippets with Davis feature the trumpeter waxing philosophic on race and music making. All told, Miles in Paris shows that the man called "Prince of Darkness" was full of artistic light near the end of his creative life. --Eugene Holley Jr.

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