Miles Davis

Jazz, like poetry, is something I think I should like more than I do, but I have trouble safecracking it. My tastes in the genre probably would be considered somewhat plebeian--I like the old Benny Goodman stuff, the big-band and swing music that middle-class white folks loved to listen to during World War II (what could be better than Sing Sing Sing?) but the more complicated music, the kind that the hipsters dug, eludes me.

But I keep trying. I watched much of Ken Burns' documentary and enjoyed it, learning a lot. Some of the experts he had on would discuss a Louis Armstrong record and I would get some of what they were talking about. Out of the TV program a series of CDs were released, featuring the giants of jazz, there work represented on one disc each. I have the discs by Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, John Coltrane, and Billy Holliday, and just picked up the one by Miles Davis.

I've been thinking about Davis recently because I'm reading a novel (which I hope to finish and review here next week) that features music prominently, in particular discussing Miles Davis. So I've been reading the book while listening to Davis' CD. Of course, a one-disc retrospective of Davis gives you everything from soup to nuts, because his style changed radically over the years. It begins with his "Birth of the Cool" days, and ends with the more experimental electronic stuff from records like "Sketches of Spain."

Davis was also quite an interesting character, having lived a turbulent life full of drug addiction and other mishaps. Although he had a comfortable economic background, he certainly suffered racial discrimination. I remember him being interviewed on TV, and reminded that he once said that he would like to spend the last hour of his life choking a white man. I remember thinking that was an entirely appropriate response.